Reflective writing is a genre that students often grapple to master, in turn producing challenges for how Learning Developers provide effective support. This session will present and justify a practical, hands-on approach to its teaching. Using the metaphor of ‘semantic waves’ (Maton, 2013), the approach scaffolds students to cycle between theory and practice when reflecting, thus reducing the risk that they miss either important element.
The session will primarily be a practical demonstration of how the approach works. It will show, through examples, the positive impacts that using the framework has had on both students’ reflective writing and on staff’s beliefs about academic literacies. I will provide copies of resources for Learning Developers to adapt and use in their own practice if wished.
Through demonstrating this approach, I hope to add to the wider debates about the benefits of applying ideas from English for Academic Purposes (EAP) to Learning Development work. The ‘semantic waves’ approach in question has previously been popularised in EAP (e.g. Kirk, 2017). Despite its currently lower take-up in Learning Development circles, it would appear to be very compatible with LD’s values and democratising agenda (ALDinHE, 2018). For example, the underpinning ideas from Maton focus heavily on concepts such as ‘the legitimate knower’ (Maton, 2013) and the impact of subject disciplines on academic writing. The session aims to operationalise such concepts in a practical format for usage by learning developers.
References
- Kirk, S. (2017). ‘Waves of Reflection: seeing knowledges in academic writing’. Proceedings of the 2015 BALEAP conference. Reading: Garnet Publishing. Online draft version available at: http://legitimationcodetheory.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2017Kirk.pdf
- Maton, K. (2013). Making semantic waves: A key to cumulative knowledge-building. Linguistics and Education, 24(1), 8-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2012.005
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