Composition Classroom Narratives of Teaching and Learning

TLDR: This paper conducted an action research study examining narratives community college writing students had about themselves as writers in a college-level writing course and the connection between those narratives and student experience of collaborative learning activities.

Abstract: This was an action research study examining 1) narratives community college writing students had about themselves as writers in a college-level writing course and 2) the connection between those narratives and student experience of collaborative learning activities The study of narrative is particularly useful in determining how people make meaning of experiences in their lives The class utilized three types of teaching and learning to explore the writing process, including lecture, discussion groups and collaborative learning activities Students and teacher used a social-constructionist approach to conversation that implemented a process of reflective dialogue about writing and writers‟ strategies At the end of the course, which began with thirty students, nineteen students out of twenty anonymously volunteered to participate in the study A neutral third party randomly selected twelve names for final participation The researcher conducted a phenomenological analysis of audio taped entrance and exit interviews of the twelve students The study also utilized relevant examples from student journals and researcher field notes Data analysis yielded themes that the researcher subjected to metaphorical analysis Findings revealed what narratives students had about themselves as writers upon entering and exiting the course Results showed that using collaborative learning activities in the writing classroom influenced student narratives of themselves as writers Students experienced interpersonal and technical gains from participation in social-constructionist-oriented classroom