This action research study aimed to improve teaching and learning of argumentative writing through a process-genre approach. Learners were carefully guided through the processes of writing the argumentative genre, with the focus being on teaching of the genre and on the structural conventions of writing arguments. Participants were a class of grade nine learners who speak English as a first language. They were chosen for this study as Grade Nine is a crucial year for writing development before learners enter the senior phase and are met with heightened expectations in the curriculum, that often they struggle to meet, as their writing has not been sufficiently developed to an academic level. The focus of writing in Grade Nine is on narrative and prose, so this writing intervention, in which a teaching module was developed in collaboration with the 1eamers, aimed to broaden their writing skills and provide them with a head start in leaming the fine art of argumentation, as this is a useful skill to acquire for purposes even beyond the classroom. Genre theorists advocate the importance of teaching genres to leamers at a young age, as it allows them access into different communities of discourse, as they become aware and understand the conventions held by a patiicular community, and realize the purpose of different styles of writing for effectively communicating, which prepares them to meet the expectations of their audience. Teaching the structures of different genres therefore allows the writer, and the audience, a framework for understanding the text. The process approach has been widely used by educators as it focuses on explicit teaching of writing processes that are fundamental to leamers' development in writing. Learners need to be carefully guided from the initial stages, to the more complex stages (especially in argumentative writing which has been deemed the most complex genre for learners to master) in order to understand the complexities of constructing an essay in a cohesive way, as they need to consider multiple aspects of writing, such as the linguistic features, rhetorical features and structural features of the genre and unify them into a sound argument. This takes time, practice and revision, and extensive feedback is required. The process-genre approach proved to be successful in this study, as leamers showed remarkable improvements in their writing from the initial stages of writing to the final drafts of their essays. The findings revealed that explicit teaching of genres and structural elements of writing is vital for ensuring learners' development. Learners require modelling of the genre, scaffolding and careful guidance through step-by-step processes in order to build confidence and express their ideas effectively in written text. The findings indicate the relevance of using the process-genre approach for teaching and learning and that teaching and learning writing is indeed a process that needs more time and practice that is cUiTently allocated in the curriculum.

Thesis (MTech (Faculty of Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2008. / The impact of globalisation on the workplace demands that individuals must be prepared to respond to rapid technological and knowledge changes. While the courses offered by the various Universities of Technology take into account the role of the workplace, very little research exists on the impact of career-focussed programmes and how these meet or do not meet workplace requirements. This thesis discusses a research project conducted with Office Management and Technology students and compares the writing practices of higher education with those of related workplaces. The research problem that is investigated is this thesis is how students transfer knowledge, skills and attitudes learned in higher education to workplaces. In order to address this problem, the research was guided by the questions: 1) what are the business writing practices of 1st and 2nd year Communication students? 2) What are the business writing practices of office managers? 3) What are the ‘gaps’ in the business writing practices between higher education Office Management and Technology programmes and related workplaces? and 4) How can these gaps be addressed to ensure the adequate preparation of Office Management and Technology students for the workplaces of the future? This comparative study used both quantitative and qualitative methods and collected and produced documentary data, questionnaires, observations and interviews at both higher education and workplace sites. The findings show patterns of alignment and non-alignment across the writing practices of higher education and workplaces. Recommendations are made about the alignment of writing practices, for the mutual benefit of students and workplaces. The contribution of this research comprises a theoretical contribution to communication knowledge as well as a number of practical contributions to improve the way in which business writing is taught. A theoretical framework for the analysis and comparison of higher education and workplace communication data has been developed and a comparative study has shown the differences between higher education and workplace communication. Higher education and workplaces are different and their communication practices need to embody these significant differences. This study has shown where there can be constructive alignment between higher education and workplace communication practices to the benefit of both student learning and workplaces. The implementation of the recommendations should result in Office Management and Technology students being better prepared to face the demands and challenges of the different and complex world of the workplace into which they will enter on completion of their studies.

Freshman composition instructors at Christian institutions face a disturbing predicament: competing pedagogies, administrative pressure to prove freshman composition’s merit, public clamoring for greater return on the college investment, technology redefining what “writing” is, a postmodern audience, and most concerning, the challenge to find an instructional model in a sea of pedagogies void of Christian ideology. The field of composition and rhetoric, unlike literature and other disciplines, does not have a pedagogy that successfully reconciles faith and scholarship. The purpose of this Doctor of Education thesis is to ignite a conversation among Christian composition faculty by introducing a prototype Christian freshman composition pedagogy built on a Christian theological, philosophical, and educational foundation rather than maintaining the common practice of overlaying Christian ideas on secular pedagogies. The proposed writing pedagogy is beyond a perfunctory skills and service course because communication through writing is not only divinely modeled, it is essential for human flourishing. The structure of this Trinitarian writing theory is dually aimed at both the writing pedagogue, by providing the resources from which the teacher can develop an instructional pathway, and the student writer, by providing the resources from which the learner develops functional writing strategies encased within a biblically-grounded motivation for writing. Rooted in Kevin Vanhoozer’s Trinitarian Theology of Communication, this Christian writing pedagogical theory unfolds through a series of similarly-shaped triune-based structures that move from theological formation to methodological practice. Chapter 1 argues that composition pedagogy is in crisis, not only at Christian colleges and universities, but secular institutions as well. Providing a context for the aforementioned crisis, chapter 2 historically traces composition instruction trends in America. While Christian scholars have proposed ways to apply faith and learning in other academic fields, no thoroughly Christian writing pedagogy has yet been created. Chapter 3 overviews secular strategies developed in response to the composition instruction crisis and those strategies’ lack of effectiveness. Chapter 4 serves to build the theological and philosophical foundation of a new instructional design theory. Chapters 5-9 provide a detailed progression of the new writing theory from its theological inception to the methodological and practical culmination as an act of worship for the student writer. Craig Bartholomew’s Tree of Knowledge provides the systematic method this project uses to rebuild composition theory; Kevin Vanhoozer's Trinitarian Theology of Communication model is the theological base that provides the key theoretical categories of the new writing pedagogy. Chapters 10-12 examine how the theory’s biblically-based distinctives translate to the classroom.

This study is a deliberation on students who advance from high school to a higher education institution, without demonstrating the attributes required on admission. They are granted formal access, despite being underprepared for tertiary studies. One of the qualities that they noticible lack is academic literacy. In the course of this investigation, academics had to relate what their perceptions were of the academic literacy of their students at higher education level. Initially, being literate meant the ability to read and write, but the term literacy has assumed a more varied form. The term multi-literacies is employed now, as there are several forms of literacy. These include, Information Technology, Technology, pictorial and numerical literacies, to name a few. Academic literacy constitutes more than one literacy, namely, operational or functional literacy, cultural literacy and critical literacy. These literacies are elaborated on and the role of language proficiency, together with the inter-relatedness between students' linguistic competence and their cognitive ability are discussed in depth. Alternatives are examined to assess how this problem of the lack of academic literacy can be circumvented and what mechanisms can be put in place in order that students can be assisted in their pursuit of academic literacy.

What might becoming a poet have to do with becoming a teacher? What might becoming a teacher have to do with becoming a poet? Is it possible to invite someone to become a teacher or a poet? What might such an invitation look like? What kinds of conditions are involved in "making poetry"? What might these conditions have to do with "making pedagogy"? Further, what might these conditions — of making poetry or pedagogy — have to do with "making research"? Based on a study of a six-week intensive language across the curriculum course involving a group of prospective Secondary School teachers, this dissertation explores the kinds of conditions that might create an interpretive location in which to entertain and address the above kinds of questions — of the making of poetry and pedagogy and research — i n all their relations. Moving backward and forward — between the lived particulars of a group of preservice teachers' writing practices in a workshop-styled setting, and the writing practice of a researcher/teacher educator/poet curious about the acts of learning and teaching, writing and researching — this work attempts to live well with the necessarily tangled relationships among literacy, aesthetic practice, and the ongoing production of subjectivity in teacher education and our educational researchings of teacher education. The value of writing practice, as this dissertation attempts to enact it, is not only in its offer of further practice — of writing to learn (about writing and teaching and researching) — but also in its offer of a location where we might become curious about the performative nature of learning itself. The dissertation seeks to show the ways that my own writing life, shaped as it is by the work of those who have brought hermeneutics, postmodernism, psychoanalytic theory, and the literary imagination to bear on teacher education, is deeply implicated with other writing lives, others who are always and already writing lives. The invitation to imagine the curious time of researching pedagogy, then, is part of an invitation to think differently about preservice teachers thinking differently about their time together in classrooms, engaged in acts of learning and teaching, writing and researching. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

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