The effects of creative,expressive, and reflective writing on career learning: An explorative study

This study investigates whether creative, expressive, and reflective writing contributes to the formation of a work-life narrative that offers both meaning and direction among students in higher education. The content of writing done by students who participated in a two-day writing course at the start (or in preparation) of their work placements and of a control group who did not take part in the course were compared. Writing samples were analysed using the Linguistic Index Word Count program (Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) and an instrument based on Dialogical Self Theory (Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010). Results show writing promotes the development of career narratives.     

Letter Writing: A Creative Tool for School Counselors Working with Adolescents

Letter writing is a therapeutic tool used in many helping professions with many populations. In school counseling, letter writing can be a useful way for school counselors to build relationships and assess student needs. Letter writing may appeal to students who are more introspective and prefer less direct forms of communication (France, Cadieax, & Allen, 1995). Evidence to support school counselors’ use of letter writing with students is underdeveloped. Citing conceptual, empirical, and theoretical support, the authors propose prompting students to write Letters About Themselves (LAT) at the beginning, middle, and end phases of the school year. Considerations for school counselors using letter writing with adolescents are explored.     

SELF-PERCEPTION IN WRITING: THE EFFECTS OF WRITING WORKSHOP AND TRADITIONAL INSTRUCTION ON INTERMEDIATE GRADE STUDENTS

This study compared the self-perception - specifically in terms of writing - of fourth- and fifth-grade students whose teachers used a writingworkshop approach with those whose teachers used a traditional approach. The measure used was the Writer Self-Perception Scale (Bottomley, Henk, & Melnick, 1997/1998). No significant differences were found between the scores of students who had been taught by the two teaching approaches. The findings of this study suggest that individual teachers are more important than strategies or approaches in affecting the writer self-perception of intermediate-grade children.     

Dyslexia,authorial identity,and approaches to learning and writing: A mixed methods study

Background. Dyslexia may lead to difficulties with academic writing as well as reading. The authorial identity approach aims to help students improve their academic writing and avoid unintentional plagiarism, and could help to understand dyslexic students’ approaches to writing. Aims. (1) To compare dyslexic and non‐dyslexic students’ authorial identity and approaches to learning and writing; (2) to compare correlations between approaches to writing and approaches to learning among dyslexic and non‐dyslexic students; (3) to explore dyslexic students’ understandings of authorship and beliefs about dyslexia, writing and plagiarism. Sample. Dyslexic (n= 31) and non‐dyslexic (n= 31) university students. Method. Questionnaire measures of self‐rated confidence in writing, understanding of authorship, knowledge to avoid plagiarism, and top‐down, bottom‐up and pragmatic approaches to writing (Student Authorship Questionnaire; SAQ), and deep, surface and strategic approaches to learning (Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students; ASSIST), plus qualitative interviews with dyslexic students with high and low SAQ scores. Results. Dyslexic students scored lower for confidence in writing, understanding authorship, and strategic approaches to learning, and higher for surface approaches to learning. Correlations among SAQ and ASSIST scores were larger and more frequently significant among non‐dyslexic students. Self‐rated knowledge to avoid plagiarism was associated with a top‐down approach to writing among dyslexic students and with a bottom‐up approach to writing among non‐dyslexic students. All the dyslexic students interviewed described how dyslexia made writing more difficult and reduced their confidence in academic writing, but they had varying views about whether dyslexia increased the risk of plagiarism. Conclusions. Dyslexic students have less strong authorial identities, and less congruent approaches to learning and writing. Knowledge to avoid plagiarism may be more salient for dyslexic students, who may benefit from specific interventions to increase confidence in writing and understanding of authorship. Further research could investigate how dyslexic students develop approaches to academic writing, and how that could be affected by perceived knowledge to avoid plagiarism.     

Evaluation of a Web-based introductory psychology course: II. Contingency management to increase use of on-line study aids

In a Web-based general psychology course, students were observed to postpone use of on-line study aids until 2 days prior to examinations, thus negating any influence of advance organizers (Taraban, Maki, & Rynearson, 1999). We attempted to modify this behavior by providing course credit in the form of short quizzes as rewards for using on-line study aids to preview each chapter. Some students received quizzes after previewing frequently asked questions (FAQ); other students received quizzes after previewing chapter outlines. Students who received quizzes for previewing FAQ pages accessed those pages more frequently than did students who received quizzes for previewing outline pages. Increased access to FAQs was associated with higher scores on FAQ-related midterm examination questions. However, the advantage on examination items was not apparent on a cumulative final examination. Navigational structures and reward values need to be considered when one is managing contingencies in Web courses.     

Evaluations of Self,Parents, and Family: Variations Caused by Family Structure and Personal Stress

Using the Personal Attribute Inventory (Parish, Bryant, & Shirazi, 1976), 164 undergraduate students voluntarily evaluated themselves, their parents, and their families. The students also completed the Holmes and Rahe (1967) Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Although these self-evaluations and evaluations of families did not vary significantly in relation to the students' level of personal stress and familial configuration, fathers received higher evaluations from students with intact families and families where the father had died as opposed to families where divorce had occurred. Students who were under stress gave their mothers evaluations that were significantly more negative than did students who under less stress. Overall, the evaluations of mothers by students with divorced parents who were from highly stressful backgrounds were much more negative than those given by any other comparative group.     

On the Derivation of Instructional Applications From Cognitive Theories: Commentary on Chandler and Sweller

In "Cognitive Load Theory and the Format of Instruction," Chandler and Sweller (1991) report a series of experiments that focus on presentation formats that optimize learning from diagrams accompanied by ancillary text. This series of studies continues a line of work in which Sweller and his colleagues (Cooper & Sweller, 1987; Sweller, 1988; Sweller & Cooper, 1985; Tarmizi & Sweller, 1988; Ward & Sweller, 1990) have shown that students who study worked examples perform better than students who actually work the problems. Sweller (1988) proposed cognitive load theory as an explanation of these results, indicating that the critical feature of worked examples is that they appropriately direct attention and impose a relatively light cognitive load. Similarly, other presentation formats that accomplish these goals should also facilitate learning.     

Effects of positive versus negative expressive writing exercises on adolescent academic achievement

A robust body of research has documented how expressive writing about difficult or traumatic experiences can be beneficial across a range of domains. Relatively little research, on the other hand, has documented the impact of expressive writing activities on positive events. In this randomized controlled trial, adolescents (N = 350) beginning ninth grade in three schools serving mostly low-income students of color participated in a 45-min writing workshop. They were prompted to write about either a negative or positive life event, then edit their writing to include themes thought to insulate them from the possible threats to identity that can come with the transition to high school. We find evidence that positive expressive writing activities are more academically beneficial than expressive writing about negative events. Compared with students who wrote about a failure and subsequent resilience, students who detailed how they attained an important success showed a more positive trajectory for absences (β = −.417; p = .008) and detentions (β = −.962; p = .034), and those who wrote about a generally happy life event showed a better trajectory for grade point average (β = .622; p = .043). Exploratory analyses also show that, regardless of condition, including themes of the “self as competent” and “savoring” good experiences was associated with improved academic outcomes. Including themes of “resilience” was not, across conditions, associated with improved outcomes unless students at the same time included “self as competent” themes.     

Perceptions of the Woman Who Breastfeeds: The Role of Erotophobia,Sexism, and Attitudinal Variables

Perceptions of breastfeeding women were studied in a sample of 201 predominately European American college students. Both men and women had very positive perceptions of breastfeeding women as compared to bottlefeeding women. As predicted, erotophobic women and men had less favorable impressions of the breastfeeding woman than did erotophilic individuals. Men, but not women, who scored high on Glick and Fiske's Benevolent Sexism or Hostile Sexism scales (Glick & Fiske, 1996) had more favorable impressions of the breastfeeding woman than did those with low scores. As predicted, this effect was larger for Benevolent Sexism than for Hostile Sexism. No relationships were found between impressions of breastfeeding women and the Hostility Toward Women Scale (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1995) or the Trait Guilt and Moral Standards scales (Jones, Schratter, & Kugler, 2000). The results supported hypotheses that sexualization of the breast, discomfort with sexual stimuli, and sexist attitudes are related to perceptions of the breastfeeding woman.     

The effectiveness of university counselling for improving academic outcomes and well-being

The work discusses the effectiveness of the counselling treatment to enhance student academic success. The participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (66 students who had completed counselling treatment) or a wait-list comparison group (44 students). The Adult Self Report (ASR) by Achenbach and Rescorla [2003. Manual for the ASEBA adult forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families, University of Vermont] and the Outcome Questionnaire 45 (OQ-45) by Lambert and Hill [1994. Assessing psychotherapy outcomes and processes. In A. E. Bergin & S. L. Garfield (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (pp. 72–113). New York: John Wiley] were applied before and after the counselling sessions. Data show statistically significant decrease in the ASR clinical scales for both internalising and externalising problems after counselling as well as in the OQ-45 scores for distress symptoms and relationship difficulties. Compared with the control group, the students who received counselling exhibited a significant recovery regarding their progress with their studies.     

Multiple goals, writing strategies, and written outcomes for college students learning English as a second language

This study examined relations of achievement goals of writers who are speakers of English as a foreign language (EFL), the frequency of their writing strategy use, and the quality of their writing from a multiple goals perspective. The goal profiles of 57 EFL college students with similar writing proficiency were based on rating items of an unpublished scale; Group 1 had strong mastery and strong performance-approach goals, and two groups included students with only one strong mastery (Group 2) or performance (Group 3) goal. Think-aloud protocols indicated that the participants adopted 21 strategies in an argumentative writing task, classified into five categories. Group 1 was found to use writing strategies of monitoring or evaluating, revising, and compensating significantly more often than the other two groups, and produced better essays. Strong mastery and performance-approach goals might be beneficial for EFL college writers.     

Experimental manipulations of perspective taking and perspective switching in expressive writing

Previous studies suggest that those who naturally vary their pronoun use over the course of expressive writing subsequently report the greatest improvements in physical and mental health. To explore possible perspective taking or perspective switching effects, two studies manipulated writing perspectives about emotional events from either a first-person, second-person, or third-person perspective. In Study 1, 55 students were randomly assigned to one of the three writing perspectives and were asked to write from the same perspective for three 5-minute writing sessions. In Study 2, 129 students wrote for three 5-minute sessions, one from each perspective in a counterbalanced order. The results showed that writing from a first-person perspective conferred more perceived benefits and was associated with using more cognitive mechanism words, whether engaged in perspective taking or perspective switching.     

Differential Daily Writing Contingencies and Performance on Major Multiple-Choice Exams

On 4 of 7 days in each unit of an undergraduate human development course, students responded in writing to specific questions related to instructor notes previously made available to them. The study compared the effects of three writing contingencies on the quality of student writing and performance on major multiple-choice exams in the course. The three contingencies were (1) receiving credit for all writing products each unit, (2) receiving credit for one randomly selected writing product each unit, and (3) receiving no credit for any writing product each unit. On all dimensions of exam performance, writing for daily credit produced higher scores than did writing for random credit and writing for no credit. The daily-writing contingency also produced the highest writing ratings across all units; the writing for random credit produced the next highest writing scores; and the writing for no credit yielded the lowest writing scores. Across all three contingencies, writing scores were highly correlated with performance on multiple-choice exams.     

The Effectiveness of an Explicit Instruction Writing Program for Second Graders

The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 25% of 4th, 8th, and 12th grade students were at grade-level writing proficiency (Greenwald et al. 1999). Insufficient writing skill is a major contributor to lack of school and college success. The current study evaluated a modification of Quickwrite (Maloney 1998), a strategic writing program that explicitly teaches students how to brainstorm, plan, draft, and revise within brief time periods. Teachers who did not have knowledge of the study or the participants rated the overall number of story elements included in second-grade students’ stories higher after the intervention. The rate of student writing did not improve. Results were maintained 4 weeks after the intervention.     

Experimental manipulations of perspective taking and perspective switching in expressive writing

Previous studies suggest that those who naturally vary their pronoun use over the course of expressive writing subsequently report the greatest improvements in physical and mental health. To explore possible perspective taking or perspective switching effects, two studies manipulated writing perspectives about emotional events from either a first-person, second-person, or third-person perspective. In Study 1, 55 students were randomly assigned to one of the three writing perspectives and were asked to write from the same perspective for three 5-minute writing sessions. In Study 2, 129 students wrote for three 5-minute sessions, one from each perspective in a counterbalanced order. The results showed that writing from a first-person perspective conferred more perceived benefits and was associated with using more cognitive mechanism words, whether engaged in perspective taking or perspective switching.     

Worry and Sleep Length Revisited: Worry,Sleep Length,and Sleep Disturbance Ascribed to Worry

The author administered university students (N = 222; 152 women, 70 men) the Worry Domains Questionnaire (F. Tallis, G. C. L. Davey, & A. Bond, 1994) and a newly constructed scale (the Sleep Disturbance Ascribed to Worry Scale) to measure sleep disturbance attributed to worry. To revisit previous studies (i.e., E. Hartmann, F. Baekeland, & G. R. Zwilling, 1972; S. J. H. McCann & L. L. Stewin, 1988) that suggested that sleep length was positively related to worry, the author also asked the students a question about habitual sleep length. The results indicated that worry and sleep disturbance attributed to worry were negatively related to sleep length. A regression analysis revealed that worry was significantly negatively related to habitual sleep length irrespective of sleep disturbance ascribed to worry.     

Cutting Deep: The Transformative Power of Art in the Anatomy Lab

On Tuesday evenings at New York University School of Medicine (NYUSoM), the anatomy lab is transformed into an art studio. Medical students gather with a spirit of creative enterprise and a unique goal: to turn anatomy into art. They are participants in Art & Anatomy, an innovative drawing course within the Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine (MSPHM)—a component of NYUSoM, which offers elective courses across a range of interdisciplinary topics in medical humanities. Art & Anatomy has had approximately four hundred fifty participants since its inception in 2009. The educational intention of the course is to use drawing as an active mode of learning that enhances visual-perceptual ability and three-dimensional (3D) spatial understanding of the body's interior; however, the course also opens a creative space for participants to process the emotional complexities of cadaver dissection and the anatomy lab experience. The anatomy lab can be the training ground for clinical detachment, but many U.S. medical schools are beginning to attend more closely to the emotional aspects of dissection. The authors maintain that the inherently expressive nature of drawing makes the Art & Anatomy course a novel and effective approach to this endeavor. Select student artwork and a curriculum overview are provided.     

The costs and benefits of writing, talking, and thinking about life's triumphs and defeats

Three studies considered the consequences of writing, talking, and thinking about significant events. In Studies 1 and 2, students wrote, talked into a tape recorder, or thought privately about their worst (N = 96) or happiest experience (N = 111) for 15 min each during 3 consecutive days. In Study 3 (N = 112), students wrote or thought about their happiest day; half systematically analyzed, and half repetitively replayed this day. Well-being and health measures were administered before each study's manipulation and 4 weeks after. As predicted, in Study 1, participants who processed a negative experience through writing or talking reported improved life satisfaction and enhanced mental and physical health relative to those who thought about it. The reverse effect for life satisfaction was observed in Study 2, which focused on positive experiences. Study 3 examined possible mechanisms underlying these effects. Students who wrote about their happiest moments--especially when analyzing them--experienced reduced well-being and physical health relative to those who replayed these moments. Results are discussed in light of current understanding of the effects of processing life events.     

SHORT- AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CONTINGENCY MANAGED INSTRUCTION ON LOW,MEDIUM, AND HIGH GPA STUDENTS1

Undergraduate students had been assigned to a contingency managed course or a conventional lecture course (Du Nann and Fernald, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1976, 9 , 373–374). Two years later, some 35% (N = 86) of the original classes responded to a letter offering them $2.00 to participate in a study of their educational experiences. These students completed a multiple-choice test on material from the course, and answered questions about activities and attitudes that might have been affected by the experience in Introductory Psychology. In the contingency management course 2 yr past, students were tested each week on a chapter of textbook material with 10-item multiple-choice quizzes. The course employed a modified “Doomsday Contingency”, requiring each student to achieve 80% mastery on one of the four weekly quizzes or drop the course. Quizzes were given in small groups and scored individually, while the student stood near, by an undergraduate proctor assigned to that group. The proctor was asked to show interest in the students' quiz performances, help clear up difficult areas, and develop a friendly working relationship with each student. While many students passed the quiz on the first attempt, others were given individual tutoring, so that no one was in fact forced to drop the course. In addition to the weekly quiz assignment, students in the contingency managed group were asked to attend one lecture each week. While the contingency management course procedures had much in common with PSI (Keller, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1968, 1 , 79–89), several departures made them unique. First, self-pacing was curtailed because students were required to master one unit per week or drop the course. Second, proctors met with students in small groups, usually giving individual tutoring only to those students who did not pass the quiz on the first attempt. Finally, students were asked to attend one lecture per week. Students in the conventional lecture group were not asked to pass weekly quizzes, but instead attended three 50-min lectures each week. Two of these lectures followed the textbook material closely, while the third, which was also attended by students from the contingency management course, covered material only indirectly related to the text. This partition of lecture content allowed material to be similar across the two instructional groups. Although students in the lecture condition were told they could obtain copies of the quizzes, few of them did so. Course grades were determined by scores on two 45-item multiple-choice hourly exams, each covering half the semester material (each worth 25%), and by a 90-item final exam, which served as a measure of short-term retention. Before analyzing the follow-up data, several characteristics of the returning students were compared to determine the comparability of the sample from the two original classes. Most important, both attrition and the current mean GPAs of students from the two classes were very similar. These considerations, and others, suggested there was no systematic sampling bias to confound comparisons of student performance. A 2 (contingency management versus traditional lecture) by 3 (high, medium, and low GPA) analysis of variance was computed on the course final-exam scores and the follow-up measures. Instructional procedure and GPA interacted on the final exam such that low and medium GPA students performed significantly better under contingency management, but there was no significant effect of instructional procedure with high GPA students. On the 2-yr retention measures, students from the contingency management course performed significantly (p < 0.01) better on items drawn from quizzes used in their original course, and marginally better (p < 0.10) on items drawn from the final exams, but no interactions with GPA appeared. Furthermore, instructional method produced no significant main effects or interaction with how many students became majors or minors in psychology, how many psychology courses were later taken, how many books in psychology were reported to have been read, or on students' evaluation of the interest and importance of psychology.     

Language Learners’ Writing Task Representation and Its Effect on Written Performance in an EFL Context

The present study attempts to give an account of how students represent writing task in an EAP course. Further, the study is intended to discover if learners’ mental representation of writing would contribute to their written performance. During a 16-week term, students were instructed to practice writing as a problem solving activity. At almost the end of the term, they were prompted to write on what they thought writing task was like and also an essay on an argumentative topic. The results revealed that students could conceptualize the instructed recursive model of writing as a process-based, multi-dimensional and integrated activity inducing self-direction and organization while holding in low regard the product view of writing. The findings also demonstrated that task representation was related to the students’ writing performance, with process oriented students significantly outperforming the product-oriented ones. Also, it was found that task representation components (ideational, linguistic, textual, interpersonal) had a significant relationship with the written performance (\(\upbeta =0.59\); Sig.: 0.006). The study can have both theoretical and practical implications with regard to the factors involving the students’ writing internal processes and their effects on written performance.