More Like this

1. Undergraduates’ Perspectives on Readiness, Writing Transfer, and Effectiveness of Writing Instructions in Engineering Lab Report Writing

   St.Clair, Sean; Kim, Dave; Riley, Charles (June 2021, 2021 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings)

   Engineering undergraduates’ academic writing experiences prior to entry-level engineering lab courses can be classified into three different groups: a group with both rhetorically-focused writing (e.g., first-year-composition) and technical writing courses; a group with only rhetorically-focused writing courses; and a group with no rhetorically-focused writing or technical writing courses. Using a lens of transfer theories that explain how much knowledge from one context is used or adapted in new contexts, these three groups can be called concurrent, vertical, and absent transfer groups respectively. This study, which is part of a larger project developing and implementing writing-focused modules in engineering labs, aims to investigate undergraduates’ perspectives on readiness, writing transfer, and effectiveness of writing instructions in engineering lab report writing through a student survey. End-of-term online surveys (n = 40) of undergraduates in entry-level engineering lab courses were collected from three distinctive universities: an urban, commuter, public research university; an urban, private, teaching-focused university; and a rural, public, teaching-focused university. The survey questions have three parts: 1) student perspectives in writing in engineering disciplines; 2) how students use prior writing knowledge when writing lab reports in engineering lab courses; and 3) how engineering lab course writing instructions impact students’ engineering lab report writing. Findings suggest that the three transfer groups present statistical distinctions on the readiness of writing engineering lab reports (concurrent group as the highest and absent group as the lowest). The three groups also show different perspectives on how their freshmen writing courses contributed their engineering lab report writing. The concurrent transfer group believed freshmen writing instruction regarding “focus on purpose” contributed most when they write lab reports, while the greatest number of vertical transfer group students mentioned “knowledge about format and structure” was most helpful. Many absent transfer students valued “identifying problems or questions” instructed from their freshmen writing-intensive philosophy course as the content they used most when writing lab reports. Ultimately, the analysis of the data suggested that despite their perceived preparedness for writing lab reports, most of the students felt their skills improved as a result of engaging in lab report writing activities. 

   more » « less
2. Undergraduates’ Perspectives on Readiness, Writing Transfer, and Effectiveness of Writing Instructions in Engineering Lab Report Writing

   St. Clair, Sean; Kim, Dave; Riley, Charles (July 2021, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Engineering undergraduates’ academic writing experiences prior to entry-level engineering lab courses can be classified into three different groups: a group with both rhetorically-focused writing (e.g., first-year-composition) and technical writing courses; a group with only rhetorically-focused writing courses; and a group with no rhetorically-focused writing or technical writing courses. Using a lens of transfer theories that explain how much knowledge from one context is used or adapted in new contexts, these three groups can be called concurrent, vertical, and absent transfer groups respectively. This study, which is part of a larger project developing and implementing writing-focused modules in engineering labs, aims to investigate undergraduates’ perspectives on readiness, writing transfer, and effectiveness of writing instructions in engineering lab report writing through a student survey. End-of-term online surveys (n = 40) of undergraduates in entry-level engineering lab courses were collected from three distinctive universities: an urban, commuter, public research university; an urban, private, teaching-focused university; and a rural, public, teaching-focused university. The survey questions have three parts: 1) student perspectives in writing in engineering disciplines; 2) how students use prior writing knowledge when writing lab reports in engineering lab courses; and 3) how engineering lab course writing instructions impact students’ engineering lab report writing. Findings suggest that the three transfer groups present statistical distinctions on the readiness of writing engineering lab reports (concurrent group as the highest and absent group as the lowest). The three groups also show different perspectives on how their freshmen writing courses contributed their engineering lab report writing. The concurrent transfer group believed freshmen writing instruction regarding “focus on purpose” contributed most when they write lab reports, while the greatest number of vertical transfer group students mentioned “knowledge about format and structure” was most helpful. Many absent transfer students valued “identifying problems or questions” instructed from their freshmen writing-intensive philosophy course as the content they used most when writing lab reports. Ultimately, the analysis of the data suggested that despite their perceived preparedness for writing lab reports, most of the students felt their skills improved as a result of engaging in lab report writing activities. 

   more » « less
3. Investigating Engineering Undergraduates’ Writing Transfer from Two First-Year Writing-Intensive Sites to Introductory Engineering Labs

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--46903  

   Howes, Franny; Olson, Wendy; Kim, Dave (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   Transfer of learning theory explains how learners can apply their previously acquired knowledge and skills in a new situation or context. In the context of writing transfer and lab report writing, first-year writing courses can act as one kind of previous learning experience or as a transfer source, and lower-division engineering labs can be the new situation or the transfer target. This preliminary study investigates how engineering students’ prior writing experience affects their lab report writing in lower-division introductory engineering labs. This study uses two distinct sites of first-year writing-intensive courses: one rhetorically-focused and one literature/philosophy-focused. We collected student samples (n = 9) from three universities offering these two distinct sites and approaches. We compared the content, outcomes, and writing expectations of the first-year writing-intensive courses offered by the three schools. Next, we conducted a rhetorical analysis of research papers collected from the writing-intensive course samples to identify each site's writing knowledge and skills. The same analysis was applied to the student’s first lab reports collected from the introductory engineering lab courses. We then compared the writing knowledge and skills between the first-year writing-intensive course samples and the engineering lab report samples to investigate how learning transfer occurred in the student writing at these three different sites. The criteria used to conduct the rhetorical analysis of writing samples focuses on writing outcomes most relevant to engineering lab report writing (relating to audience awareness, organizational structures, presentation/analysis/interpretation of lab data, use of primary and secondary sources, and document style design). We identify the prior writing knowledge and skills of the two distinct first-year writing-intensive course sites by investigating obvious points of productive transfer. This study provides a better understanding of how undergraduates use writing knowledge and skills earned from varying first-year writing-intensive contexts when writing their engineering labs. 

   more » « less
4. Investigating Engineering Undergraduates’ Writing Transfer from Two First-Year Writing-Intensive Sites to Introductory Engineering Labs

   Howes, F; Olson, W; Kim, D (June 2024, ASEE)
5. Impact of Learning Transfer-focused Lab Writing Modules to the Writing Instructional Materials by Engineering Lab Instructors

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--47559  

   Kim, Dave; Riley, Charles; Lynch, John; Lulay, Ken; St_Clair, Sean (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)