Hidden expectations: scaffolding subject specialists’ genre knowledge of the assignments they set

Abstract

Subject specialists' knowledge of academic and disciplinary literacy is often tacit. We tackle the issue of how to elicit subject specialists' tacit knowledge in order to develop their pedagogical practices and enable them to communicate this knowledge to students. Drawing on theories of genre and metacognition, a professional development activity was designed and delivered. Our aims were to (1) build participants' genre knowledge and (2) scaffold metacognitive awareness of how genre knowledge can enhance their pedagogical practices. The findings reveal that participants built a genre-based understanding of academic literacy and that the tasks provided them with an accessible framework to articulate and reflect upon their knowledge of disciplinary literacy. Participants gained metacognitive awareness of misalignments between what they teach and what they expect from students, their assumptions about students' prior learning and genrebased strategies to adapt their practice to students' needs. Our approach provides a theoretically grounded professional development tool for the HE sector.

Searching for Metacognitive Generalities: Areas of Convergence in Learning to Write for Publication Across Doctoral Students in Science and Engineering

“…Doctoral writers thus face tough cognitive and metacognitive challenges. Learning to write in academic disciplines is a process of enculturation, where novice researchers, through relevant social interaction, are expected to acquire disciplinary practices for knowledge construction that are somewhat tacitly recognized by experts (Dysthe, 2002, McGrath et al 2019). Students often do not have a clear understanding of what is required to successfully produce academic texts (Lillis & Turner, 2001), or lack access to the complexity of disciplinary-relevant criteria, expectations, and text-producing strategies that experts in the field possess (McGrath et al, 2019; Wingate, 2016).…”

“…Learning to write in academic disciplines is a process of enculturation, where novice researchers, through relevant social interaction, are expected to acquire disciplinary practices for knowledge construction that are somewhat tacitly recognized by experts (Dysthe, 2002, McGrath et al 2019). Students often do not have a clear understanding of what is required to successfully produce academic texts (Lillis & Turner, 2001), or lack access to the complexity of disciplinary-relevant criteria, expectations, and text-producing strategies that experts in the field possess (McGrath et al, 2019; Wingate, 2016). Furthermore, doctoral writers need to develop creativity to devise original, novel contributions to their field and negotiate language and argumentative strategies to meet the readers’ expectations and their own communicative goals (Casanave, 2019).…”

Different profiles for the assessment of student theses in teacher education

“…Academic and disciplinary knowledge are often hidden or tacit (McGrath et al, 2019;Polanyi, 1966). McGrath et al (2019) argue that there is a problem that teachers' knowledge of academic literacy is tacit.…”

“…Academic and disciplinary knowledge are often hidden or tacit (McGrath et al, 2019;Polanyi, 1966). McGrath et al (2019) argue that there is a problem that teachers' knowledge of academic literacy is tacit. McGrath et al (2019) wanted to increase the teachers' awareness and their metacognition to make them reflect on their knowledge and on how the academic literacy informs their teaching.…”

“…McGrath et al (2019) argue that there is a problem that teachers' knowledge of academic literacy is tacit. McGrath et al (2019) wanted to increase the teachers' awareness and their metacognition to make them reflect on their knowledge and on how the academic literacy informs their teaching. Here, we assume that grading of complex tasks, for example student theses, is, at least to some extent, based on tacit knowledge.…”