The Missouri Reader Vol. 42, Issue 2 | Page 43

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Faculty Journal Impressions

Throughout the action research process, faculty recorded reflections based on the implementation of each strategy. When reviewing faculty impressions at the end of the study, themes emerged. First, all faculty found benefits to using quick write strategies in their university instruction. Second, faculty discovered challenges throughout implementation of isolated quick write strategies. Last, each of the faculty members in the study described a need to support thinking beyond course content, but extending the learning to future careers and the value of using quick writes.

Faculty included in the study were open to trying strategies not previously incorporated in instruction. The process took different turns for each of the faculty, unfolding in unexpected directions. For example, when allowing students to brainstorm about a specific topic, one instructor described, “Looking at the papers, I found it interesting to see how students organize their thoughts when able to use a preference. Some drew lines to separate the paper into sections, others drew sections to include thoughts regarding different aspects of a topic, where other papers just showed a list of random thoughts and ideas.” A second faculty member shared how she was able to use the strategy for assessment. “This was used a formative assessment and was additionally used for class discussion before beginning their writing units. This type of activity allowed me to determine if students could apply what they learned about teaching writing and activate their prior knowledge before beginning the lesson.” Even with the strategy supporting instruction in different ways, all faculty included in the study shared benefits to its use in the university classroom regardless of content area focus. This is reflected by one faculty member’s comment, “I found this to be surprisingly beneficial to my teaching and my TCs experience with lesson planning.”

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