Learning about writing: A consideration of the recently revised asTTle: Writing

Occupational health and safety (OHS) issues might be considered one of the main considerations among European countries as many employees encounter dangerous workplace conditions during work. Therefore, decision makers in these countries have initiated related projects to reduce the number of occupational accidents. Turkey is one of those countries that training activities have become mandatory due to a current OHS legislation amendment. In every workplace there are some OHS risks. It is well known that taking required precautions prior to occupational accidents is much more efficient and effective than doing it subsequently. In fact, only 2 percent of these OHS risks are unpreventable, whereas the remaining risks can be prevented easily (Kilkis & Demir, 2012). In Turkey, every year approximately 77.000 occupational accidents occur. More than 1000 employees lose their lives, while more than 5.000 employees become permanently disabled due to these occupational accidents (Korkmaz & Avsalli, 2012). In the institution, where this study was conducted, approximately 30.000 employees work. OHS training in the institution consists of theoretical and practical parts. In the practical part, when the necessity of gathering thousands of employees in various training centers and duration of those trainings are considered, it is obvious that OHS training activities would cost much and could cause administrative problems for the institution. Hence, the institution has decided to deliver theoretical part of the OHS training online in order to cope with this issue. Purpose: In this study, an online learning module on OHS, which had been previously developed by one of the biggest public institutions in Turkey, was improved. As the process of implementing improved learning materials takes much time, only preliminary findings were shared. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to share the results of the impact of previous learning materials and staff’s thoughts about them; and secondly, to discuss features of new learning materials and process of improving them. Theoretical Framework: As the theoretical framework, Ricketts’s (2015) nine suggestions pertaining how to write safety stories were chosen so as to help designers write digital stories related to OHS. Besides, Cinar’s (2012) experience-based e-course design model was used to facilitate the process of improving the learning materials. Method Formative research method of Reigeluth and Frick (1999) was adopted as the study’s methodology. Approximately 9070 employees currently working at the institution filled in the online survey on the LMS. Staff were asked to answer nine survey questions related to their experience, attitude and thoughts about OHS module delivered via online learning. It should be noted that this survey was developed and administered by the institution at the end of the training without proving its reliability and validity. Since the number of the participants were quite high, this scale was used just to give some idea about staff’s experience, thoughts and attitudes towards OHS training. In addition to nine close-ended questions in the survey, there was also one open-ended question at the end to obtain staff’s detailed suggestions regarding how to deliver online learning more effectively. In line with Cinar’s (2012) suggestions, design team visited the institution to gain the broader sense of organizational culture. Then, OHS legislations and previous learning materials were examined carefully by each member of the design team. In order to analyze current situation of OHS training in the institution, survey results and staff’s posts on the LMS discussion board were also examined. After the analysis, it was agreed to write safety stories and use formative evaluation activities. An LMS, which had been previously used by the institution, was decided to be used in order to deliver the learning materials developed with an e-learning software. Safety stories and learning materials were shown to a line manager of the institution and a field expert to obtain their feedbacks. Following this, the design team checked the learning materials and gave feedback to each other. In this way, bugs and spelling errors were fixed. Finally, two short tutorial videos were recorded with the purpose of aiding staff to get used to new learning materials. Expected Outcomes As for findings, in a nutshell, previous learning materials lacked engagement, interaction, visuality, authenticity, and formative evaluation. Some staff of the institution demanded face-to-face OHS training claiming it was such an important training activity that it could not be risked by delivering via online learning. Possibly due to lack of visuality, many of the staff reported learning materials as quite boring. Another finding from the analysis indicates that institution’s staff request the learning materials to be customized to their workplace to better understand authentic implementation of the legislation. That is to say, rather than being generic to all institutional staff, they want it to encompass specific examples for each job title. Another one of the most prevalent complaints about the training was about the legislation’s applicability in workplaces. Personnel do not believe managers know regulations and are eager to implement those in the institution. In addition, some personnel expressed that an evaluation is necessary to be able to monitor to what extent the staff have learnt from the learning materials. As it is aimed to improve previous learning materials, it is expected to raise the awareness of OHS to reduce the number of occupational accidents in the institution. In addition, the new learning materials consist of different activities to enrich learning process, which can also be expected to contribute to interaction and engagement. By doing this, the legislations could be learnt easier and more effectively. Not only do improved learning materials contribute to learning process in a way of taking courses such as drag and drop activities, they might also promote transformative learning with safety stories to adapt the legislations to the staff’s workplaces. Finally, we expect to make contribution to the OHS field in order to improve training activities in different workplaces.

This study sought to identify the nature of metacognition in writing in Hebrew as a second language. Participants included five students studying for the Victorian Certificate in Education (VCE) examination. They were in their final year of secondary schooling at an independent school in Melbourne. This is a practitioner inquiry study, in which I have been acting both as the main researcher and as the participating teacher of the class under investigation. <br> During 2014 data was collected, including: video recordings of lessons, two cycles of semi-structured interviews with students, a teacher’s journal, an hour-long group debrief and selected samples from students’ writing. The analysis focused on students’ reflections on their thinking, with specific relevance to their thoughts and beliefs about learning to write in Hebrew. The focus on students’ perceptions and beliefs called for qualitative methodology and analysis and interpretation using a naturalistic approach. <br> Several important and new findings emerged from the analysis: (a) subtle yet distinct boundaries were revealed between metacognition, self-regulated learning and metalearning; (b) second language writing pedagogies associated with metacognition were found to include features of conceptual change, characterised by a recognition in and an engagement with students’ beliefs about writing, themselves as writers, the VCE study, their skill level and their beliefs about self-efficacy; (c) students engaged in internal-dialogues about the ease in which they regulated the language of their thoughts, pointing to a heightened metacognitive awareness and evaluation of their language switching abilities; (d) a strong correlation was found between learners’ metacognitive awareness and their coping abilities, pointing to the importance of students’ perception of their learning experience; (e) a connection was found between metacognition and improvements in students’ writing abilities as well as improvements in their learning behaviours. <br> The study shows that issues of student-identity, motivation and self-agency are critical factors in metacognition and in learning and teaching second language Hebrew writing. This research potentially provides a basis for developing pedagogies that currently are not widely used, taking into greater account the influence of individual factors and promoting steps for a more positive learning experience. <br> The research also sheds important light on the high-risk environment of studying second languages at the VCE level within a small-cohort. The requirement that native speakers, background language learners and non-native speakers sit the same examination and assessed against the same criteria, was revealed to be a more powerful negative stress factor than had previously been realised. Results from this research may provide key information to relevant language communities currently experiencing this diversity in a languages VCE classroom, to explore and potentially instigate policy review. <br> Lastly, the re-positioning of metacognition as a more independent concept, and particularly its separation from self-regulated learning, sets up the foundation for future investigations of metacognition. The value and importance of the model offered in this thesis, is in its immediate application to second language education contexts; however, the potential for generic application to different studies and different leaning domains is a possibility that should be further explored.

This chapter examines the contribution of Vivian Gussin Paley’s (1990; 1992) storytelling and story acting pedagogy to young children’s growing word and print awareness and their agency in early story authoring. Whilst many scholars have asserted and documented the value of Paley’s approach for children’s oral development and narrative comprehension (e.g. Cooper, 2009; Nicolopoulou, McDowell and Brockmeyer, 2006; Nicolopoulou, Cates, de Sa and Ilgaz, 2014), considerably less attention has been paid to its potential contribution to children’s early writing and their development as authors. In telling their tales to an adult, children watch as the adult scribes their spoken words and later they participate in bringing their own and others’ written tales to life through enactment. This close observation of adults’ writing, coupled with their active participation in the acting out of their peers’ stories were salient features of children’s participation in a recent UK based study of the approach upon which this chapter draws. In half the settings, children (aged 3-6 years old) initiated their own writing activities, authoring and co-authoring their own tales with friends and scribing their peers’ stories for later dramatisation (Cremin, Swann, Flewitt, Faulkner & Kucirkova, 2013). The agency and intentionality shown by these young authors was marked; they seized opportunities to write their own narratives and to scribe others’ tales and in the process learnt about writing through their authorial engagement. Anchoring the work within a sociocultural approach to learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978) and literacy (Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic, 2000) the chapter begins by discussing children’s early authoring and the concepts of intentionality and agency from different ontological perspectives. It argues that children’s early authoring needs to be viewed as a socially situated act of meaning making, and recognizes that reading, writing and oral language develop simultaneously, not as discrete entities (Bloome, Carter Christian, Otto and Shuart-Faris, 2005; Rowe, 2003). Related research on the writing practices associated with Paley’s (1990) storytelling and story acting approach is also considered. The chapter then details the ethnographic data collection tools which enabled close documentation of the writing experiences of the children who participated in the UK instantiation of this approach (see Chapter 2 for more detail on the methodological approach). Data are drawn predominantly from two of the six settings involved in the study: a primary school and one of its feeder pre-schools, located within half a mile of each other in a semi-rural, suburban context in southern England. One class in each setting was involved, with children aged three-four, and four-five years old respectively. Specific, local enactments of learning-to-write practices that were evidenced during the use of the Helicopter Stories in these settings are examined. The chapter explores the ways in which storytelling and story acting enabled children to learn about writing and prompted some to scribe others’ tales spontaneously as well as author their own. Importantly, it argues that this playful pedagogic approach creates a possibility space for young apprentice writers, one which not only draws attention to the written word enabling children to observe its use in a meaningful context, but which may, in some settings, also serve to motivate their engagement in self-initiated and purposeful writing activities and become authors.

The purpose of the study was to explore the effects of self-regulated strategy development（SRSD）plus peer-mediated instruction on the writing performances of the fourth-grade students with learning disabilities and their peers with writing difficulties. Further comparison of the effects of instruction between all participants was conducted. The research method of this study was alternating subjects design adapted from alternating treatment design. Three students with learning disabilities and three peers with writing difficulties were selected for participating this study. The assessment was conducted immediately after instruction for obtaining the data of length of articles and the scores at narrative elements analysis scale. Overall, the major findings were summarized as follows: 1.The results of the study indicated that the SRSD plus peer-mediated instruction could improve participants’ writing performance. All participants wrote longer and more narrative elements after instruction. The length of writing products in the three peers was greater than the students with learning disabilities. 2.Students with learning disabilities needed more practice and guidance to effectively use the strategy. The students who learned how to use the strategy fastest evidenced more progress. 3.Peers with writing difficulties also evidenced progress in total words and narrative elements after writing intervention. The students wrote worst in baseline was most progress. Finally, some recommendations based on the results were provided for future teachings and researches.

In this study discusses learning to write explanatory texts. This research the author wants to try to apply a project-based learning model in learning to write explanatory texts that are expected to improve the ability of students in writing explanatory texts. This study aims to determine the comparison of student learning outcomes between those who use project-based learning models with those who use conventional learning. The research subject is class XI. The method used in this study uses quasi-experimental and nonequivalent control group design. The instrument in this study used test questions. The sample consisted of the experimental class (using project-based learning) and the control class (using conventional learning), then the sample was classified according to its achievement in three categories: students with high (T), medium (S), and low (R) explanatory text ). The research subjects consisted of 30 students each who had the same initial ability. The results of this study showed the average posttest of students in the experimental class was 71.38, while in the control class the average posettest of students was 66.61. It can be concluded that a significant increase in the ability to write explanatory texts can be done by applying a project-based learning model.

To day National curriculum submit to the basic oppinion that the knowlege can’t translet just at the momment from the teacher to the stuent. It’s because the students are the subject who have ability to active loding for, processing, constructing and using the knowledge, so that learning that have facilities of the teacher, the teacher need to giving opportunity to the students for constructing the knowledgein kognitive process. The ones that influential in learning process is act of determining from learning models by the teacher . Learning models that can be using is discovery learning. The purpose of this riset to know the characteristic learning models discovery learning, to know the comunicative skills that develop and to know the efectively learning models discovery learning to increase science concept capability. Design of study is research and development are described in step follows: 1) preliminary studies, 2) initial product development, 3) product trial to a small group, 4) field product trials, 5) product revision, 6) Final product have been revision. Results from the research show that: 1) The characteristic Discovery Learning Model can looked of learning syntax which of ; stimulation, problem statement, data collecting, data processing, verification, and generalization. 2) Discovery Learning Model emphasizes the discovery of a concepts whose problems are engineered by the teacher. 3) Result obtained using t – test on pre-test and post – test is significant visible from the calculation t is on 8.889 while t table 2.028. This shows t count is greater than t table. 4) The development of communication skills of students has increased this is indicated from discovery I 33% and discovery II 75%. Written communication skills of the highest on the indicator of translation of goals and the lowest on the indicator material mastery. Based on the results can be concluded that: development of Discovery Learning Model should be based sintax of discovery learning, development of Discovery Learning Model using scienstific can be increase student’s comprehension and communication skills.

The purpose of this study was (1) to describe a class XI student skills in writing descriptions SMAKPA using a contextual approach, (2) describe a class XI student skills in writing a description SMAKPA using quantum learning, (3) describe differences in students' skills in writing SMAKPA XI description of the approach and methods of quantum contextual learning. Sampling in this study was done by using a sample aims (purposive sample) of class XI SMAKPA, which is registered in the academic year 2011/2012. The instruments used in the form of written descriptions of performance tests. The study's findings that there are significant differences between the classes and the class contextual approach that uses quantum learning method to learning to write a description of 4.56.

This study compared medical texts written by journal authors with texts written by student authors in order to see what could be learned that would be useful for EMP (English for medical purposes) pedagogy. Using corpus linguistics, the researchers undertook a micro-level comparison of verb choices. The current study began with the corpora compilation of two collections of medical texts-one containing 50 admission notes composed by Taiwanese medical students and the other containing 50 medical case reports written by journal authors. Despite differences in purposes and audience, both collections contain similar contents: medical histories, diagnoses, and information on testing and treatment. For the micro-level verb usage comparison, tools such as WordSmith and TreeTagger were utilized to determine frequency and concordance in order to identify verbs commonly used by students and those frequently employed by experts. Of the WordSmith Tools, specific functions such as wordlist, keywords, and concord functions were employed. The results highlight implications for EAP pedagogy in general and EMP pedagogy in particular. Students can learn from journal writers by expanding their use of verb choices, by making their writing style more objective, and by documenting more details to make their writing more informative.

According to Hsu (2005), it was suggested that journalistic English writing could be a method leading students to be efficient in learning how to write English business correspondence. Aiming to verify Hsu's claim, the current paper explored the relationship between journalistic and business English writing through an empirical study on the effects of attending journalistic English courses on English majors' performances in business English writing. In the hopes of providing curricular suggestions, we also carried out a large-scale survey to investigate the current situation of curriculum design regarding journalism as well as business English writing in English department of universities and colleges in Taiwan. The research design employed a single independent variable, i.e. whether students attending the business English writing course took the journalistic English course, and a single dependent variable, i.e. students' performances in business English writing. In addition, the educational system (so-called vocational universities/colleges of technology and traditional universities/colleges) was utilized as an independent variable, whereas the order of offering journalistic English courses and business English writing was regarded as a dependent variable. A t-test was used to assess the influences of taking part in journalistic English courses on business English writing; moreover, a Pearson Chi-square was adopted to evaluate the differences of the curriculum design between two educational systems. The results indicate no significant difference between performances of students with journalistic English training and of those without it. Furthermore, no significant difference on curriculum design was found between two educational systems. Different collocated orders of journalistic and business English courses exist in the curriculum design of both educational systems. The current findings do not show that Hsu's idea is problematic but may point out the pedagogical problems in these courses instead. The study thus suggests the necessity of establishing a link between teaching journalistic English and business English; likewise, the curriculum design of the two courses needs to be reconsidered carefully and precisely.

Dysgraphia is one of the groups of children with education special needs. Dysgraphia patients are children who have difficulty in writing or expressing thoughts and feelings into written form. Dysgraphia children can not construct words well and can not coordinate their fine motor (hand) to write. The most common cause is a neurological disorder, the disorder in the front left part of the brain that is associated with the ability to read and write. Children experience an imbalance between the ability to remember and muscle motion in writing letters and numbers. Teachers who do not understand the disorder dysgraphia, often blaspheme child as a child stupid, lazy boy and bad boy. Dysgraphia children simply are not skilled writing has nothing to do with cognitive abilities. Perhaps he was a clever child. Therefore, teachers need to understand the symptoms of dysgraphia aspects, characteristics, and type of disgrafianya, then find the right strategy to help children dysgraphia in writing. Strategies that can be used by teachers is a pre-write strategy starters, tracing letters, write in block letters and cursive writing. With the right strategy, it is expected that children dysgraphia can write normally. Keywords: dysgraphia, learning to write, elementary school

As national attention is focused on students' abilities to read and write effectively, instructional time allotted for science and other content-area disciplines is often decreased. Many teachers have discovered, however, that involving students in meaningful scientific inquiry provides them with authentic and motivating reasons to read, research, and write."Taking Inquiry Outdoors" is written by a group of educators who have used the natural world as a setting for purposeful student learning and critical teacher reflection. Their stories are about more than just stepping out the door, more than offering students a breath of fresh air. For these teachers, the outdoors provides an authentic laboratory that promotes questions, investigations, reading, writing, listening, and sharing. Notes are kept, data collected, questions recorded, and observations documented. Children critically review their own experiences, place these experiences within the larger context of group findings, evaluate and compare data, generalize concepts, and, best of all, come up with new questions to explore.Contributors to "Taking Inquiry Outdoors" reflect on children and learning, on teaching, on science made understandable through reading, hands-on investigations, and writing. Their work will appeal to all elementary and middle school teachers who want to integrate reading, writing, and research across the elementary and middle school curriculum.

Writing is one of the most important skills of teaching and learning a particular language, in this case, English. Teaching writing is a hard task which can often be frustrating. Therefore, the teacher must use different writing strategies and techniques in order to create a stress-free and motivated writing classroom. In fact, by writing students improve their way of thinking day-after-day by practice; their writing will seem more successful as Bean (2000:17) claims: “good thinking provides good writing”.

In our writing group, the facilitator and four PhD students from disparate research fields collaborated together to write an academic publication. This learning activity was developed to give students an experiential learning environment to deepen their understanding about the scholarly publication process. This presentation will discuss how this learning activity was developed, highlight students’ reflections about the teaching strategy, and describe the overall outcomes of the activity.

Objective To improve the effect of standardized residency training in radiology department by establishing WeChat learning platform, image teaching system and RIS-based report scoring and reporting feedback system, and adopting the process-based evaluation model, making multiple assessments at different time points and giving feedback. To explore whether the daily reports writing and doctor's scores can be used to evaluate the learning effect by analyzing the correlation between report score, the relearning time and the examination results. Methods The experimental control method was adopted. Twenty-seven trainees who participated in standardized training in Peking University Third Hospital were selected, including 12 trainees in 2017 as the experimental group and 15 trainees in 2016 as the control group. Two groups of trainees were similar in composition. In training, the experimental group was adopted the network learning platform teaching model, while the control group was adopted the traditional teaching model. After the training, results of X ray and CT were compared between the experimental group and control group. Results of different trainees in the experimental group were compared. Correlations between scores, relearn time and exams, one-stage mock examination were analyzed. Results The average scores of X ray: (85.7±6.9) in the experimental group and (80.0±7.7) in the control group, there was statistically significant difference in X ray scores (t=-1.988, P>0.05). The average scores of CT were (86.8±5.7) in the experimental group and were (81.1±7.5) in the control group, there was statistically significant difference in CT scores (t=-2.198, P<0.05). The experimental group was divided into two groups according to the source of trainees. There were differences of X ray examination, CT examination and one-stage mock examination between two groups (all P<0.05). Correlation analysis was made between the proportion of median score, superior doctor's score, median report relearning time and X ray and CT examination. The scores of X ray and CT examination were negatively correlated to the proportion of median scores, and relearning time, and were positively correlated to the scores of superior doctors. The relearning time after examination was negatively correlated to the results of one-stage mock examination. Conclusions The process evaluation model based on network learning platform improves the effect of standardized resident training and the ability to master professional knowledge. The correlations between scores, relearning time and examination results indicate that the daily report writing and the doctor's scores can be used to evaluate the learning effect. At the same time, the role of rating should be strengthened and the quality of report writing should be improved in the further. Key words: Networking; WeChat; Residents' standardized training; Process evaluation

E-mail Dialogue Journal Writing as a form of post-process approach provides students with the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with a native speaker, thus, receive authentic language input which develops their literacy skills. Despite its remarkable potentials, E-DJW practices have been rare in Asian contexts at school-level. In an attempt to bridge this gap, the present study was set out to address the impact of E-DJW on the quality and quantity of students' writing development. The findings of the study revealed that there was a lot of topic extension between the parties in the dialogue journal writing activity and the content of the writings was principally improved. A progress was also observed in the length of the entries, though not steadily. This study hopes to raise both students' and teachers' awareness of E-DJW as a writing activity which provides students with a non-threatening environment which fosters learning and makes them aware of the purpose of writing. Keywords: E-mail Dialogue Journal Writing (E-DJW), writing quality, writing quantity, post-process approach