Teaching Writing in College

May 10 2024 21 ep. 24 mins 5

Teaching Writing in College Podcast artwork

Teaching Writing in College explores the connections between writing pedagogy and learning transfer. Episodes emphasize praxis--the relationship between the theoretical and practical--in an effort to understand how people learn to write and how educators might make the most of the time they have with their learners. The driving question is: How can instructors in higher education leverage theory, science, pedagogy, and craft most effectively to help their learners with writing?

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1. Welcome to the Teaching Writing in College podcast!

Jan 25 2023 9 mins

In this episode, Tom introduces himself, the podcast, and the direction he hopes it will take over time.

2. My reaction to ChatGPT: Change grading to emphasize participation

Jan 27 2023 16 mins

Tom offers one path forward in the face of new developments in artificial intelligence: they can prompt us to hone our teaching practices, which could benefit all our students.

3. "Desirable Difficulties" and ChatGPT

Feb 14 2023 20 mins

Tom discusses "desirable difficulties," their benefits for students, and how ChatGPT responded to an assignment with desirable difficulties factored in. Desirable difficulties, as scholar Robert Bjork calls them, are forms of interference that teachers build into their teaching as a way to enhance student performance. They can be as simple as scrambling an outline or withholding f

4. A Transfer Inventory

Mar 08 2023 19 mins

In this episode on praxis, Tom shares a classroom activity that he calls a "Transfer Inventory": Students rehearse what they have learned in a writing course and then where they might apply it in their other classes. Watch Teaching Writing in College on YouTube: https://youtu.be/C8erj-r8BTk

5. The Elon Statement on Writing Transfer in the classroom

Mar 30 2023 30 mins

This episode covers one of the field's most important guiding documents: the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer. Tom provides a brief overview, along with brief thoughts about the Statement's main points. Additional episodes will break down parts of the Elon Statement, and Tom will likely refer to it often when sharing lesson plans in future episodes. The Elon Statement on Writing

6. The Elon Statement on Writing Transfer: Enabling Practice #1

Apr 12 2023 16 mins

In this episode, I review "Enabling Practice #1" in the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer. Enabling Practice 1 emphasizes conceptual knowledge about writing, as well as practice with that conceptual knowledge. This episode covers conceptual knowledge and how it can help learners gain expertise in writing. Enabling Practice #1 from the Elon Statement reads: "Constructing writing c

7. Lesson plan: PARC

Apr 19 2023 26 mins

In this episode, I share a lesson plan that helps students to use all three "dimensions" I see in the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer: Conceptual knowledge, practice, and metacognitive reflection. The lesson plan is about using PARC--proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast from The Non-designer's Design Book by Robin Williams. PARC is a very useful tool for helping learne

8 What I did at the end of the semester conceptual knowledge, review, and self reflection

May 16 2023 30 mins

9. How Learning Transfer Works for Me: Anecdotes from 30 Years Ago!

Jun 08 2023 31 mins

10. AI and Learning about Writing (Part I)

Jul 12 2023 16 mins

In this first of two episodes about artificial intelligence and teaching writing, I explore an important concept in cognitive psychology about learning. This episode provides some brief implications that could manifest as we consider encouraging students to use AI as a tool for learning or studying. The Teaching Writing in College podcast is available on Google or Apple