Experiential Learning in Writing and Speech at Dartmouth

The Institute: An Overview

• All incoming students take a first-year writing sequence (Writing 2/3 or Writing 5 + FYS OR Humanities 1 & 2)
• 8 writing electives (including Writing in the Workplace, the Written Judicial Opinion, and Writing with Media)
• 13 speech elective (including Public Speaking, Rhetoric of Social Justice, Intercultural Rhetoric, and Speechwriting)

Writing and speech programs founded on attention to knowledge transfer and adaptation

"Transfer depends heavily, although not exclusively, on our teaching: when we teach with analogies, encourage metacognition, scaffold student learning, motivate our students effectively, and provide sufficient time for the learning to 'take,' our teaching potentially enables transfer" (Boone, et al. 2012).

"In practice, experience-based, project-based, and task-based learning become experiential when elements of reflection, support, and transfer are added to the basic experience, transforming a simple activity into an opportunity for learning." (Knutson 2003).

Experiential and Adaptable Learning

• Encouraged by shared course outcomes
• Supported by frequent and ongoing professional development
• Implemented through intentional learning opportunities and reflection
• Founded in research and assessment by faculty

Learning Outcomes Include...

• Understand writing and speaking as a process of inquiry and discovery
• Participate in an academic conversation
• Speak and debate with an appreciation for complex social/cultural sensibilities
• Design, compose, reflect upon, and revise a variety of new media objects and content using professional tools and practices

Professional Development

Intentional Learning Experiences

• Goal setting
• Proposal drafts
• Outcomes-based assignments
• Revision
• Peer review

Opportunities for Reflection

• Project reflections/postmortems
• Conferences
• Revision Plans
• Course portfolios
• Programmatic Portfolios

Research and Assessment

• 3 year portfolio pilot
• 3 year Davis-funded study of student writing at Dartmouth
• Current assessment plans include student self-efficacy inventories, expanded portfolio collection, interviews and focus groups with previous portfolio participants, and a review of collected documents and reflections