Faculty have asked for assessment research; the following list provides some studies at various institutions in particular disciplines. The first two essays are available on pdf below; one offers an overview of WAC assessment in the late 1990s and the other an assessment on peer review.
The others provide a sampling of assessments performed in specific disciplines. These are available through inter-library loan OR in the DUS office, 447A, Admin Building.
We will update this list over the coming academic year.
(1) David E. Harris and Robert Schaible, "Writing across the Curriculum Can Work," The NEA Higher Education Journal. A readable and concise overview of research on WAC programs.
(2) Kwangsu Cho, Christian Schunn and Roy Wilson. "Validity and Reliability of Scaffolded Peer Assessment of Writing from Student and Instructor Perspectives." Journal of Educational Psychology. 98 (2006): 891-901.
(3) Ken Peak and Mark Waldo, "On Assigning and Assessing Students' Prose," Journal of Criminal Justice Education. Study of how criminal justice faculty at U of Nevada-Reno assessed writing in their criminal justice courses. High scores were correlated with well-defined as opposed to open-ended assignments.
(4) Michael Carter, Miriam Ferzli, and Eric Wiebe. "Teaching Genre to English First-Language Adults: A Study of the Laboratory Report." Research in the Teaching of English 38 (2004): 395-419. A study of the positive effect the WAC program had on the quality of students' writing in biology courses at North Carolina State University. Students who drafted their reports using specially designed software produced consistently better final products.
(5) E. Flynn, G. McGulley, and R. Gratz. "Effects of Peer Critiquing and Analysis of Models in the Quality of Biology Laboratory Reports." In Writing across the Disciplines. Eds. Art Young and Toby Fulwiler. Boynton-Cook, 1984.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| WAC Can Work.pdf | 71.53 KB |
| Cho_peerassessment.pdf | 300.57 KB |
