Writing practices in Spanish universities / Las prácticas escritas en la universidad española

Abstract

This article examines the different writing practices carried out in Spanish universities and the methodology used to promote and teach the development of writing competences. The data in this study pertain to nine Spanish universities, 280 teachers and 1,044 undergraduate students from these universities. The data also refer to student and faculty perceptions of the importance attached to the writing process, the amount of time spent on it and the dimensions or aspects of the competence they consider the most important. Furthermore, the article examines the writing practices proposed by the teachers as well as the ones identified by and assigned to the students. On some of the variables, the results suggest opposing perceptions between the two groups and at the same time highlight differences depending on the fields of knowledge. This sheds light on different ways to include the writing process in university education.

Academic writing practices in a psychology degree in the distance learning modality (Prácticas de escritura académica en el pregrado de psicología en modalidad a distancia)

“…This reveals that the instructors intervene in classes only at either extreme: at the start to provide instructions or at the end to assess contents. Álvarez and Yániz (2015) call this phenomenon 'feedback on the extremes', and Carlino (2017a) names it 'peripheral intervention', and it is associated with a conception of writing as an elementary skill instead of as a specialized discursive practice (Álvarez & Yániz, 2015). The faculty assume that their students already have this skill, which they should then transfer to the specific context of their class, and therefore a large number of students responded that they totally disagreed with and were unsure of the expression 'I receive sufficient feedback for my texts/ papers'.…”

“…By regarding reading and writing as skills that can be transferred to any text and context, faculty assume that students have already mastered them (Carlino, 2017b). Therefore, they provide little support before, during and after reading and writing texts (Rincón & Gil, 2010), focus their assessment on the written product more than on its composition process (Cárdenas, 2014) or pay more attention to the final product (Álvarez & Yániz, 2015).…”

Uma rubrica para avaliação de textos expositivos

“…En la formación universitaria, la adquisición de competencias comunicativas es transcendental, por lo cual resulta prioritaria la atención de las dificultades escritoras del estudiantado (Álvarez y Yániz, 2015). Diferentes estudios han percibido la escritura en el contexto de la educación superior como una herramienta clave para el estudiantado, por cuanto le permite acceder a nueva información y elaborar nuevos saberes, en un proceso de transformación del conocimiento académico (Concha et al, 2010;Marinkovich y Córdova, 2014).…”

Evaluación de las estrategias de comprensión lectora de la formación inicial de maestros: Influencia del momento formativo y del formato textual sobre el producto-resumen

“…No se trata, por tanto, de un estudio sobre autopercepción de los participantes, como ocurre en otras investigaciones realizadas a una escala mayor (Álvarez & Yáñiz, 2015), sino que se analizan producciones escritas bajo diversas circunstancias experimentales que exponemos seguidamente.…”