WRITING BELIEFS AND WRITING APPROACHES OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: AN INTERVIEW STUDY AMONG MASTER

Writing Beliefs and Writing Approaches

WRITING BELIEFS AND WRITING APPROACHES OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: AN INTERVIEW STUDY AMONG MASTER THESIS WRITERS AND THEIR SUPERVISORS

Kees de Glopper

University of Groningen, Netherlands

University students’ beliefs about knowing, learning, and communicating and their approaches to academic tasks have been studied extensively. The existing body of research indicates that students’ beliefs and approaches are related to academic success and that they may change over time as a function of students’ learning experiences. Academic success and full membership of academic communities seem to require and promote (i) conceptions of knowledge as a tentative and constructed entity, and (ii) approaches to learning that are deep rather than shallow. Beliefs and approaches have also been studied in the context of academic writing, primarily by means of questionnaires (e.g. Baaijen, Galbraith & De Glopper, 2014; Lavelle & Bushrow, 2007; Lavelle & Zuercher, 2001; Sanders­Reio et al., 2014; White & Bruning, 2005). The outcomes of these studies correspond with those in other academic domains, but the number of studies is small, their outcomes vary, and there is limited evidence for the validity of the questionnaires used. This paper presents a study into the validity of some of the existing questionnaires. It reports on an interview study among 10 struggling or successful master thesis students and their supervisors. The interviews address (i) their interpretation of the items and constructs of existing questionnaires, (ii) their perception of the fit between these instruments and the beliefs and approaches they see as relevant, (iii) their perceptions of change, and (iv) their view on experiences and circumstances that have an impact on development. The interviews are subjected to qualitative analyses, both of their content and of the way students and supervisors talk about writing beliefs. The results and the practical implications of this ongoing study will be presented and discussed.

References

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