“Developing Curriculum for a Multi-Course Interdepartmental Learning Community to Promote Retention and Learning for Underprepared Engineering Students”
by Rachel A. Milloy, Matthew Moberly, and Rebecca Powell | Xchanges 9.1
Self-Directed Learners Take on Complex Tasks
Unit 4: The Documented Argument Essay
As the final learning unit in the fifteen-week semester, Unit 4 aims to help students create an argument about a current engineering issue; enhance knowledge and practice of writing effective arguments; practice effective critical thinking and writing processes; and understand conventions of academic writing and citations. At this point, instructors present students with a challenge — the Documented Argument Essay — that requires students to employ the skills learned previously and to construct an argument about an engineering issue. Students are well equipped to take on this challenge.
In this final learning unit, the instructor “acts as a consultant, reviewing criteria students have developed, time lines, lists of potential resources, and possible productive collaboration” (Weimer, 170), but the student chooses his or her own topic, constructs his or her own argument, and works independently to compose an original argument related to the engineering challenge selected in Unit 1. As one student explained, “I got independence from projects that let you pick what you wanted to do such as picking out what you wanted to write about for the documented argument and so on.”
When asked to reflect on their experiences in the ILC by pointing to an assignment that taught them important habits and values, one student wrote:
Well, there are several projects which come to mind, in particular the Documented Argument assignment from English, which is the culmination of the entire semester of learning, distilled to one paper addressing a single topic in a rhetorical argument declaring my position. This forced me to become a more knowledgeable and confident writer, while also developing self-reliance on a time-limited project, and making sound decisions based on the research I acquired, as well as the reflection and analysis of that research to produce a final product. After many revisions and corrections, both self- and other directed, I feel reasonably confident in my ability as a writer to be able to successfully complete the remainder of my college education, knowing that my skill beyond this base will continue to develop.
The four learning units described are designed purposefully so that our students achieve success in English 111 and future writing courses. In English 111, students work within a supportive learning community of peers and their instructor. Because the ILC class size is smaller than other English 111 courses at NMSU, students receive extra individualized attention from their instructors, and they become more comfortable sharing ideas with each other. Our learning community is a learner-centered space where learner-centered instructors “are careful and deliberate instructional designers, able to identify specifically what each activity, assignment, and course event contributes individually and what the group accomplishes collectively” (Weimer, 175).