Date of Award
Fall 2001
Project Type
Dissertation
Program or Major
English
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
First Advisor
Thomas Newkirk
Abstract
This dissertation examines the redesign of a basic writing course at a large, urban, majority-minority public university in Miami, Florida. In the redesigned course, there are no regular class meetings at all. Instead, small groups of five students meet with a teacher in "writing circles," where they workshop papers. The content of the course is provided by a third-party software program in a dedicated computer lab. The redesign project is examined in light of the particular institutional history of Florida International University, with special emphasis on the roles of space, time, and face-to-face interaction in the teaching of writing to a richly diverse student body.
Support for the course redesign is adduced from the work of other scholars in social linguistics, Teaching English as a Second or Other Language, classroom discourse analysis and composition theory. The study finds that the changes in the delivery methods of the course can benefit teachers, students, and the institution.
Recommended Citation
Bowe, Gregory John, "Taking a pedagogical turn: What happens when the student /teacher conference moves to the center of the basic writing course" (2001). Doctoral Dissertations. 34.
https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/34