Enhancing Written Communication in Social Work

Grant recipients: Alice Schmidt Hanbidge, Renison School of Social Work, and Judi Jewinski, Provost's Office

(Completed. Project timeline: January 2014 - August 2016)

Project Summary  

To address the uneven quality in the writing of Bachelor of Social Work students, this project sought to provide a learning initiative (LI) for students and a teaching enhancement (TE) for faculty by integrating strategies into the curriculum, linking students with resources, helping faculty devise assessments, and providing formative feedback for focused areas of improvement. The project objectives were (a) to promote writing as a core professional skill, (b) to assess ways of providing students with consistent and constructive feedback, and (c) to help faculty encourage students to work to become competent writers. We developed strategies for implementing best practices across the curriculum, including courses taught by sessional instructors, so that all courses might contribute to improving writing skills and enhancing deep student learning.

Picture of Alice Schmidt HanbidgePicture of Judi Jewinski
      
           Alice Schmidt Hanbidge                     Judi Jewinski

Questions Investigated

We considered three components: 1) student writing skills, 2) student writing confidence, 3) faculty experience.  In Year 1 surveys recorded students’ writing confidence before and after six assignments were assessed for general readability (manually and electronically). In Year 2, we asked faculty what workshops could help them revisit their learning outcomes and develop assessment tools. A concomitant objective was to provide faculty with resources (i.e. rubrics) to help everyone focus on making communication simpler and clearer.

Findings/Insights

Both students and faculty benefited from the analysis and sharing of results. Students who were not engaged with their assignments produced longer, convoluted sentences; all students acknowledged that their writing would be leaner and more specific had they taken the time to edit. Project findings also indicated a striking discrepancy between results across two sections. Faculty noted only one of them had a template. Lack of direction for the second class revealed itself in vague , wordy sentences, motivation for faculty to introduce rubrics and to develop stronger assignments with clearer directives.

The electronic assessment tool (Tran, 2014) we developed to systematize readability assessments helps faculty members apply our results to their situations. This tool quantifies readability ( average sentence length, word count, percentage of “hard” words, passives, and vague references) to help students plan revisions.

We reported these results regularly to faculty, whom we surveyed to determine workshops best suited to their needs: predominant were assignment design, redesign, and rubrics, also effective feedback and grading.

CTE helped us offer two workshops, one in July 2015, the other in January 2016. Altogether 13 full- and part-time faculty attended. Feedback was positive. Renison’s Social Work school has added a mentoring faculty model for courses.

Dissemination

  • At the individual level:
    • Following presentations on the value of assignments that support student learning in stages, the School is including scaffolded assignments in courses.
    • Students reported improved skills following a 15-minute one-to-one consultation with a writing tutor.
    • Faculty are receptive to writing centre recommendations to offer formative feedback.
  • At the Department and/or Faculty levels:
    • The School is undertaking a curriculum mapping exercise to ensure that courses scaffold student learning and support writing skill development. Faculty are committed to engaging students in assignment topics relevant to their interests but within a structured framework.
    • Clare Bermingham of the Writing Centre is coordinating the delivery of writing skills workshops to incoming MSW students. The value of such support is clear, and the school is considering maintaining it.
    • Online Writing Centre support was piloted at the graduate level, forming the impetus for an ongoing online student service.
    • The School adopted a mentorship model, pairing full-time faculty with new instructors to maintain consistency and continuity across course sections.
  • At the institutional level:
  • At the national and/or international levels:

Impact of the Project

  • Teaching: 
    • Alice developed four new assignments for social work courses incorporating scaffolding and supports (resources, links) to enhance writing skills.
    • Writing support is now available for all students Alice teaches (both BSW/MSW). Library support embedded in LEARN allows direct access to the Librarian. 
    • Our study raises questions that the School will continue to address:
      • Students welcome one-on-one writing support. Can the school develop and fund such a resource?
      • Can the College provide marking support that allows formative feedback on first drafts 
  • Involvement in other activities or projects: 
    • A new LITE grant supports Alice and Renison colleagues, who are developing a mobile information literacy project focused on enhancing BSW students’ research skills.
    • Judi and Alice are now members of the Renison-wide Teaching Committee established to emphasize best practices in teaching and learning across Renison.
    • Alice’s interest in teaching and learning is now a focus of her academic research program.
  • Connections with people from different departments, faculties, and/or disciplines about teaching and learning:
    • Following her secondment to the Provost’s Office, Judi, returning to her role as Administrative Dean, is committed to ensuring that the campus-wide focus on teaching and writing continues to flourish at Renison.
    • Alice is currently involved in a SoTL Collaborative Writing Project with the goal of publishing a joint publication on SoTL Leadership (Sept 2017).

References

Reference list (pdf)

Additional Information
Category: Faculty: