Education Commons^™

Correlates Among Teachers’ Anxieties, Demographics, And Telecomputing Activity, Judith B. Harris, Neal Grandgenett

Judith Harris

Are educators' anxiety levels or demographics related to their voluntary use of networked resources? In this study, one year of logins and online time for 189 randomly selected educators with accounts on Tenet (Texas Education Network) were correlated with six interval-level subject attribute variables: (a) writing apprehension, (b) oral communication apprehension, (c) computer anxiety, (d) age, (e) teaching experience, and (f) telecomputing experience. The usage data were also correlated with three nominal-level subject attribute variables: (a) gender, (b) professional specialty, and (c) teaching level. Results indicated that writing apprehension was significantly and negatively correlated with network use, and that telecomputing …

Writing To Learn: Benefits And Limitations, Sara Winstead Fry, Amanda Villagomez

Sara Winstead Fry

Writing to learn (WTL) is the act of making a subject or topic clear to oneself by reasoning through it in writing; it is a pedagogical approach that uses writing to facilitate learning (Zinsser 1988). Some researchers have reported favorable results associated with the approach (Balgopal and Wallace 2009; Bullock 2006; Hand, Hand, Gunel, and Ulu 2009). However, others have indicated that studies supporting WTL pedagogy tend to lack comparison groups, pre/posttest data, or the rich description that contributes to a rigorous qualitative study (Hübner, Nückles, and Renkl 2010; Kieft, Rijlaarsdam, and van den Bergh 2006; Klein 1999). Thus, existing …

The Faculty Writing Place: A Room Of Our Own, Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Peter Elbow

Mary Deane Sorcinelli

The article presents information about the program called "Professors as Writers" at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts. The objective of the program is to provide a quiet and comfortable working place for faculty to write. This program was started 15 year back to help the faculty members to write more productively. The organizers of the program invite all college teachers to sign up for the dates and times that suit them at the beginning of the semester. The program sets aside structured time and space for the faculty to write.

Ranking, Evaluating, Liking: Sorting Out Three Forms Of Judgment., Peter Elbow

Peter Elbow

Ranking: a one dimensional quantitative judgment--as with grading. A one dimensional quantitative score can never be an accurate reflection of the quality of a multidimensional product (like writing and many other human products).

Evaluation: a multidimensional judgment--using words or providing a multidimensional grid. Judging allows for more trustworthy assessment of writing and many other products.

Liking. This section explores the benefits that come when teachers actually learn to *like* student work--and indeed to like students--and how one can learn to like work even if one judges it to be not very good.