2022 International WEC Institute
The Writing Across the Curriculum Program at the University of Minnesota hosted its second International WEC Institute on May 5-6, 2022. This two-day virtual event provided an opportunity for WAC/WID professionals, faculty members, researchers, and educational administrators inside and outside of the University of Minnesota to discuss Writing-Enriched Curriculum (WEC) approaches and models. Individuals and teams from 87 different colleges and universities worldwide participated in sessions that considered designing and scaling WEC programs, supporting writing and writing instruction within academic departments, managing WEC operations, and assessing faculty-led curricular writing initiatives. Although COVID 19 delayed the offering of the institute, attendance more than doubled over the previous WEC Institute. An in-person institute is in the works for 2024. Many thanks to the University of Minnesota faculty and staff who helped make this event a success!
For more information about the event, see our event overview and agenda.
2022 STEMwrite Institute for Writing to Learn in STEM Disciplines
After a two-year COVID 19-necessitated delay, the University of Minnesota Writing Across the Curriculum Program hosted its third NSF-funded STEMwrite Institute for faculty teams in biological sciences on June 22,24, 2022. Participating teams were selected from a field of nearly 30 institutional applicants and included faculty members from the University of Georgia, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Northeastern University, and the University of Miami. Teams include faculty in biology and one member charged with improving undergraduate STEM education and/or writing in the disciplines (from campus-wide centers for teaching and learning or writing centers). Teams participated in a sequenced workshop to develop brief, high-impact writing prompts and assessment protocols appropriate for their large-enrollment introductory biology courses. Sequenced assessment indicates positive impacts that assigned writing can have on conceptual learning and supports the highly interactive and generative design of the institute model.
Description of research and approach
The 2022 STEMwrite Institute will draw substantially on an ongoing program of research developed in conjunction with the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities (formerly the Reinvention Collaborative) and funded by the National Science Foundation. Addressing the Boyer Commission’s (1998) call for an increase in research-based pedagogy, and Rivard’s (1994) call to understand better the metacognitive processes by which writing activities support conceptual learning, the three-institution research team (University of Michigan, Duke University, and the University of Minnesota) is investigating the use of writing activities to help students learn key scientific concepts. This research aims to reveal both the effects of writing-to-learn interventions on students’ conceptual learning gains and the mechanisms by which these learning gains are achieved, including metacognitive awareness and regulation of learning.
Previous institute participants (including Auburn University, University of California Santa Barbara, Syracuse University, and Stony Brook University) have developed writing assignments that produce measurable improvements in students' mastery of complex concepts in biology.
Previous institute participants (including Auburn University, University of California Santa Barbara, Syracuse University, and Stony Brook University) have developed writing assignments that produce measurable improvements in students' mastery of complex concepts in biology.