Improving the Academic Writing of Preservice Teachers Through Multimodal Interventions: A Two-Year Design-Based Study

Abstract

Funded by a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grant from a large researchintensive university in western Canada, this paper reports on findings from a design-based research (DBR) study (McKenney & Reeves, 2012). The researchers investigated the ways, and the extent to which, particular technological supports and pedagogical techniques impacted the acquisition of academic writing skills for Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) students working within a blended learning environment. Situated within the context of a large mandatory firstyear education course, the impetus to undertake this study was based on the observation by the researchers [course instructor and teaching assistant (TA)] that many of the students struggled with academic writing. Notably, however, there are no stand-alone academic writing courses in the University's B.Ed. program. The study was designed to assist the 190 students taking the course in 2016 and the 182 students enrolled in 2017.The need to develop greater competencies in this area is supported by research that suggests undergraduate students' level of academic writing proficiency greatly impacts their academic achievement (Calhoun & Haley, 2003;Saidy, 2015). Several studies have concluded that university instructors in disciplines outside of English have great difficulty helping students improve their writing. Research suggests this is due to insufficient training in writing instruction, and concerns about the need to focus on course content (C. Fallahi, Wood, Austad, & H. Fallahi, 2006;Goddard, 2002). Increasingly instructors are seeking to overcome these challenges by leveraging the opportunities of blended learning environments, which contain a mix of in-class instruction and online activities where technological supports can be embedded to aid students in developing writing skills. Presently, there is no clear agreement within the research literature on how academic writing supports can be best integrated into blended learning environments. This study seeks to respond to the need for more empirical research by creating, implementing, and assessing a series of writing interventions that were specifically tailored to the assignments and unique writing needs of over 372 first-year B.Ed. students taking this course. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework:This study was informed by insights from both composition studies (Babcock & Thonus, 2012;Graham, Gillespie, & McKeown, 2012) and the literature on blended learning environments and educational technology (Birch, 2016;Tuomainen, 2016). Composition theorists assert that writing is a social act and that notions of the solitary writer are anachronistic at best. Accordingly, to help students gain writing competencies and a greater sense of selfefficacy, they need opportunities to learn through trial and error. Rather than offering corrections, the instructor engages in a "collaborative dialogue" involving a process of "asking questions and making suggestions for discussion and consideration" (Babcock & Thonus, 2012, p. 112).A systema...