Blog 8

After reviewing this data it is clear that the program accomplished many of its objectives. The knowledge of the students definite improved as they became graduate students. Although their was improvement, there was also some lacking as well. 

2. The students were still unsure of what what wanted to do after receiving their degrees. The graduating students on the other hand are more clear and sure of what they want do after graduating.

3.Both of these answers for the graduating students and the new students remained somewhat the same. This is because as a  new student you are given information before beginning your classes so you are aware of the ones you must take. As a graduate student you know what classes were most useful because you took them.

4.The new students were very unsure of other courses they wanted to take. On the other hand, the graduate students were very sure of some courses they were interested in. 

5.In the survey you can see that the new students are not as confident in the writing, compared to the graduate students who are very comfortable with their writing. The new students feel as if they have some ideas for how to write in teaching and learning, and the graduate students feel the same except for one person who disagreed. From the two examples in this survey you can see the new students were confident that they could do anything and everything when starting the program. As graduates they realized that was not the case and became more realistic about the program.

6.You can see that the new students new very little about theorists and it seems as if they guess on knowing a few. As for the graduates they knew a little more then the new students but they should probably know more. For example none of the new students knew Linda Flower and then about 80 % of the graduate students knew her.

7.The new students did not really go into detail because they didn’t know what to say, while the graduate students gave specific answers. For example, under social constuctivist and pragmatic there were detailed answers. 

8.The new students were not very informative when describing this answer. On the other hand the graduate students were very informative, stating things like survey, case study, focus groups, etc.

9.The new students didn’t even give answere. The graduate students gave very descriptive well thought out answers. 

What can be improved?

1.This program needs to improve the teaching of specific writing theorists. Even after completing specific courses the graduate students still did not know many of the theorists listed on the survey. Students went from knowing Peter Elbow 100% to 33%. 

2. Writing networks with colleagues should be improved. Due to the survey showing that 4 out of 5 graduate students do not have strong writing networks with their colleagues.