University students can become overwhelmed and hopeless as they pursue their final capstone writing projects. They are also navigating trying times of overlapping crises such as poverty, environmental decay, and war. To address these challenges, our Capstone Writing Groups (CWG) are designed to develop students' writerly competence and enhance…

Promoting critical thinking (CT) skills has largely attracted the concern of numerous relevant stakeholders, including teachers, students, and policymakers, with the assumption that CT is a vitally learned skill needed by graduates. This study explores the extent of classroom-based assessment strategies used to promote the CT ability of…

Research on writing pedagogy education (WPE) emphasizes the importance of engaging graduate student instructors (GSIs) in mindful reflection about their own practices and about composition theory. Little research, however, has explored what we learn from a systematic, empirical investigation of GSIs' reflective writing. In this article, we…

This study examines the experience of beginning teachers in their first year of teaching using reflection that reveals successes, challenges, musings, and deliberations. The study was conducted in the qualitative approach using analysis of categories and themes during an academic course at Beit Berl College in Israel. Analysis of the reflections…

In this article, we argue that using students' reflective writing to understand specific aspects of their classroom experience requires that researchers systematically integrate into the curriculum reflections that responsibly attend to both students' learning and the focus of classroom research. Informed by recently published articles on…

In some fields, written reflection is commonplace whereas in others it is uncommon. While athletic therapy education aims to produce reflective practitioners, written reflection is not a typical pedagogy employed. In 2014, the athletic therapy program at our institution began the implementation of a clinical presentation (CP) approach to…

Science writing, such as lab reports, allows students to form a meaningful understanding of scientific concepts. However, students often view scientific writing as unimportant and utilize surface level approaches when completing writing assignments. The current study implemented three experimental interventions (directly-communicated,…

Due to limited exposure to the reflective genre, students experience cognitive, psychological and linguistic issues that prevent them from producing proficient reflective pieces. This study investigated how these issues could be addressed through modelling, the 6 + 1 traits writing rubric and blended learning. The study reports on the experiences…

Research in sociolinguistics offers important understandings of the social dynamics impacting how language is acquired, used, perceived, and treated in the U.S. and beyond. It provides opportunities to critically examine societal structures and attitudes surrounding language (including personal beliefs) that create and uphold social and racial…

Although the age of the planet, the theory of biological evolution, and climate change are not "scientifically" controversial, students' familial and religious teachings can be perceived to be diametrically opposed to the science curriculum. However, there is a way for teachers to acknowledge alternative views and let students voice them…

The purpose of this study was to examine how students used the elements of a historical argument to interpret how equality and opportunity affected marginalized groups in a given historical era. To do this, 150 eighth grade students wrote thirteen historical arguments, and submitted a written portfolio of their work at the end of the school year.…

Reflective practice supports critical thinking and assessment skills through analyzing one's own life experiences, and the role of reflection in learning has been long recognized. However, drawbacks of many reflective practice assignments are their broad scope and lengthy written requirements. I propose that the reflection process is robust enough…

Scholarship on metacognition in the composition classroom shows how asking students to create reflective texts can help cue, analyze, and assess transfer. By following the composition processes of 13 students doing a remixing assignment, this project examines how genre mediates reflection. I use Rhetorical Genre Studies' conception of…

Hosting guest speakers is a common practice among instructors because it can yield new insights for students. However, the experience is often disappointing. This article refers to guest experts to signal a break from the conventional approach, in which guest speakers deliver information primarily in a one-directional manner without any engagement…

This conceptual article focuses on teaching and learning strategies aimed at helping students in higher education develop cross-crossing skills such as communication, critical thinking, teamwork, problem-solving, and working with diverse others. Within the framework of high impact practices and their elements, the article shares practical ideas…