Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
University of Northern Iowa--Writing Center; English language--Rhetoric--Evaluation; English language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching; Writing centers;
Abstract
College writing centers are individualized places, which often causes miscommunication of the ideas and purposes centers uphold. However, if centers articulate the use of formative assessment strategies in tutoring writing, they would help alleviate miscommunications and strengthen the way writing centers explain their work in literature and practice; centers can also use formative assessment tools to evaluate their practices. This study identifies formative assessment strategies by means of observing writer/tutor roles, interactions, and outcomes in University of Northern Iowa (UNI) Writing Center practices in one-on-one tutorials for Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST) writers and in the Spring 2000 PPST Workshop. The purpose of the study was to identify formative assessment strategies in UNI Writing Center practices and use those data to revise the Center's mission statement and improve practices. This qualitative field study involved a group of participants who are clients at the UNI center, PPST writers. The Center provides outreach for these teacher education students working to fulfill requirements for the College of Education. Other participants were the Center's writing assistants and the director. The field study required collection of primary data-"observer as participant" and "participant as observer" observations-and secondary data: interviews, questionnaires, archival documents, and videotapes from the workshop. The one-on-one tutorial observations were supplemented with data from questionnaires and file folders. "Thick descriptions" of the workshop and observational analyses were obtained from videotapes and were supplemented with data compiled from questionnaires. The study demonstrates that formative assessment strategies, as defined in the literature and in this study, were identifiable in UNI Center PPST tutorials, making them practices that, if explicated in the mission statement and in tutor training, would help articulate the UNI Center's practices, especially in regard to PPST writers. This study could be generalizable for other centers to identify and articulate the concept of formative assessment in their own philosophies and practices. Further research and development in this area would contribute to writing center literature in explaining the ideas and purposes of writing centers.
Year of Submission
2001
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of English Language and Literature
First Advisor
Karen K. Tracey
Second Advisor
G. Scott Cawelti
Third Advisor
John W. Swope
Date Original
2001
Object Description
1 PDF file (177 leaves)
Copyright
©2001 Caran Amber Crawford
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Crawford, Caran Amber, "Formative Assessment in University of Northern Iowa Specialized Writing Center Outreach: Articulating Practices and Speaking a Common Language" (2001). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2433.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2433
Comments
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