This is a presentation I gave at a conference at North West University, Mafikeng, on Academic Literacy as a Graduate Attribute, and the implications for curriculum, design and professional development.
Academic Literacy as a Graduate Attribute: Implications for Thinking about Curriculum and Professional Development
1. Academic Literacy as a Graduate
Attribute: Implications for Thinking
about Curriculum and Professional
Development
NWU Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning Conference
October 2014
Brenda Leibowitz
2. What is Academic Literacy?
• Information literacy
• Digital literacy
• Numeracy
• Visual literacy (etc)
• Literacy v. literacies
3. The role of language
Student: I think it [English] has been a block to my understanding,
depends also now on what it is, what type of thing it is that I am reading
or that I am writing about. If it is a factual thing, if you get something in
class that you have to read, then it usually takes me two or three times to
really read through it and understand what is going on. But if it is not a
factual thing but something interesting, then it doesn't take that long for
me to understand. ...
Researcher: And writing essays in English?
Student: Also depends on the type of topic. Factual things take quite a
long time really for me to understand and know what I am talking about,
unless it is something I have heard people spoke to me about in class or
something and then I can relate to what I have heard and what is in the
book. (Leibowitz 2010: 159).
The way I analyse things is different from the way my lecturers analyse
things. This is always the case, even in Xhosa, so I can’t say English is the
barrier (Leibowitz 2010:161).
4. How is AL a Graduate Attribute?
• An outcome
– Can write essays
– Can write journal articles/research pieces
• A foundational component (necessary to
learn)
• To be separated from: eg professional
communication
5. Implications for Curriculum Design
Literacies are practices rather than purely skills
Through the way in which we were brought up I did get a lot of … a lot of academic
debate, … you have to articulate your argument clearly … if things are different then you
have to show that they're different and not start muddling things … and that part of
being education [is typical] in this department. (Leibowitz 2009:269).
I had a Mikano set from when I was small which surely had an influence. You had an
electronic set that you could build things with and then pull apart and then build
something else and so on, and I played with the thing and I was absolutely fascinated
with the things and it took me a while before I could afford such a thing, but I got one
and then began to build it. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. And the other
thing that I remember well, my uncle was a Professor at Wits and he tells the story of
how as a child he had a crystal set that you could use to build a radio ... and he came to
visit us and he brought the crystal thing to show me but he could not remember how the
thing worked and then I tried build it.
6. Implications for Curriculum Design
• Language and academic literacy are
embedded in negotiating knowledge
• An integrated approach is the most desirable
• Pragmatism is however desirable
7. Implications for Design
• Practice based v. teaching about
• Ecological apprenticeship:
“apprenticeship in applied settings, access to
empowering modes of discourse, guided
instruction that leads to self-regulated learning,
and understanding learning in cultural-historical
contexts” (Gutierrez et al, 2009: 223)
8. • Academic literacy is NOT purely a first-year
concern
MBCHB
graduate
MBCHB
graduat
e
9. Academic literacy - transitions
I was very frustrated [at the new university]
and said to myself, ‘Well, I’ve been four
years at [the first university] but never, I
have never had someone who marked my
paper like this’ and to start all over again,
it’s very difficult.
(Leibowitz, 2010:96)
10. Academic Literacy is not 100%
Sequenced
For example it is often argued that an
extroverted person is well-suited to
language learning. However research does
not always support this conclusion. Mr
Kruger’s reader 1995 p. 37) I have a weighty
support with argument that an extroverted
person is well-suited to language learning.
After matric I went out to seek a job …
(Leibowitz 2010, p. 185)
11. Implications for Professional
Development
• Lecturers should be
trained/supported:
– To become more conscious
of the conventions of their
disciplines
– How to foster the academic
literacy of their students
– To themselves write
successfully
12. Resources
Barrie S. 2004. A research-based approach to generic graduate attributes policy. Higher Education Research and
Development, 23(3):261-275.
Gutierrez K., Morales P. & Martinez, D. 2009. Remediating literacy: Culture, difference, and learning for students from
nondominant communities. In: V. Gadsden, J. Davis & A. Artiles (eds) Review of Research in Education, 33. 212-245.
Halliday M. 1994. Language as social semiotic. In: J. Maybin (ed.) Language and literacy in social practices. Avon:
Multilingual Matters.
Heath, S. B. 1983. Ways with Words. Cambridge University Press.
Ivanič R., Edwards R., Barton D., Martin-Jones M., Fowler Z., Hughes B., Mannion G., Miller K., Satchwell C. & Smith J.
2009. Improving learning in college: Rethinking literacies across the curriculum. New York: Routledge.
Leibowitz B. 2013. Attention to Student Writing in Postgraduate Health Science Education: Whose Task is It – or Rather,
How? Journal of Academic Writing, 3 (1) 30 – 41
Leibowitz, B. (2011) Academic literacy as a graduate attribute: Implications for thinking about ‘curriculum’. In: E. Bitzer
and N. Botha (Eds) Curriculum inquiry in South African higher education: Scholarly affirmations and challenges. Sun
Media.213 – 228. ISBN: 978-1-920338-64-0
Leibowitz B. 2010. The significance of academic literacy in higher education. Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic
Publishers.
Leibowitz, B. (2009) What’s Inside the Suitcases? An investigation into the powerful resources students and lecturers
bring to teaching and learning. Higher Education Research and Development, 25 (3) 261 – 274.
Leibowitz, B. (2005) Learning in an additional language in a multilingual society: A South African case study on
university-level writing. TESOL Quarterly, 39 (4) 661-681.
Lillis T. & Scott M. 2008. Defining academic literacies research: Issues of epistemology, ideology and strategy. Journal of
Applied Linguistics, 4(1): 5-32.
Mehlenbacher B. 2010. Instruction and technology: Designs for everyday learning. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Hinweis der Redaktion
Ivanic et al describe academic literacy as “the particular ways of reading and writing which helps students in their learning” (2009:49)
Mehlenbacher cites Warshauer (2002) to distinguish between four kinds of literacy: computer, domain (relating to content and the disciplines); textual and visual literacy.
Lillis and ivanic et al refer to academic ‘literacies’ to suggest that there is more than one kind, depending on the context
What is most important, is that when a student sits down to undertake a task, these elements are NOT separate. They are part of one practice. We should only separate them out for analytic, and perhaps pedagogic purposes.
It is evident that language as in English, Afrikaans or IsiXhosa is a necessary component of academic literacy, but not sufficient (Leibowitz, 2005). Thus learning in the mother tongue is not a full solution to the issue of academic literacy acquisition. The matter is more complex, involving mainly academic discourse, as these quotes illustrate.
Simon Barry (2004) talks of the four conceptions of graduate attributes of lecturers: precursor, complimentary, translational and enabling. One could argue that AL is all four?
You could argue that there is something about AL that is a SKILL in the sense of “SKILLFULL”, a craft but:
The word ‘practice’ implies context, function, interaction with others and with materials. It helps to explain how people acquire literacy in different contexts.
Heath talks about literacy events and literacy practices, which are situated in contexts; Halliday explains why context and function are so important in language use, thus that we learn how to use language in practice
The previous presentation spoke about the importance of knowledge v. skills – with regard to AL this is a non-issue, because it does not make sense to separate the two. And to teach ABOUT is not the same. Some students like learning about, learning rules and forms, but I do not think they are in the majority. In addition, even if you learn about, you still need opportunities to practise what you learn
My research with Mphil students (2013 and in preparation) shows that lecturers can play a huge role with regard to writing and language, and do so more often than the writing and academic literacy experts may credit. In this research, I suggest that rather than expertise regarding language, it is issues of time, availability and interaction style, that differs, with respect to the lecturer, the peer and the writing centre tutor, when it comes to feedback to writing texts.
Despite the fact that the ideal is for all lecturers to be responsible for their students’ academic literacy, the truth is there are occasions where this does not occur because of capacity of one sort or another. On these occasions an academic literacy module might be a temporary solution. Even then, a partnership between a lecturer and a language/academic literacy practitioner might be better.
This example is of MPHil students – highly qualified in other words, graduates in various aspects of the health science and now doing masters, and how even here, language or written assignments intimidate them.
This is an example of someone for whom academic literacy became an issue when she changed universities to do an Honours. This was the point at which a transition was most poignant.
Not all students acquire academic literacy in the same way. This is a first-year student who has ‘gotten’ the idea and purpose of academic literacy (many others in his class did not) but his surface features eg. langauge and spelling, are in need of attention. So the aspects of literacy are acquired in an unstable or ‘wobbly’ manner.
Writing successfully, would make them able to role model academic literacy for their students