Instructor presents at academic conference
M. Whitney Olsen, a lecturer in the department of English at USU, presented at an academic conference hosted by TYCA West, the Two-Year College Association for English, Oct 19-20. The presentation took place at the Taylorsville campus of Salt Lake Community College.
Olsen’s co-presenters were Duane Roen, the president of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, and Angela Clark-Oates, the course manager for Arizona State University’s online Writers Studio.
Olsen’s presentation was entitled “Using the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing to Foster Learning.” The document presented in the presentation was the Eight Habits of Mind, which is a framework for success to help students in their academic experience. It was published by three different major English organizations.
“The focus of our presentation was on the Eight Habits of Mind, and those eight help students not only in the writing process but on focusing on different ways to make these happen in the classroom,” Olsen said.
The habits are also designed to help students develop advanced thinking patterns and methods they would use throughout their entire college experience and future careers, he said.
In the presentation, Roen covered the birth of the habits. The lifelong English scholars and researchers who analyzed these learning techniques gathered together and created the document on their own based on the common core standards.
The document focuses on undergraduate writing classes and was designed for those writing programs.
“The council for writing program administrators is comprised of those people who administrate over those writing programs,” Olsen said. “It didn’t become its own discipline until recently more recently, in the last 100-200 years, and the requirements for everyone to take a writing class didn’t arise until more recently.”
The Habits of Mind document consists of eight practices of psychological activity. These habits are curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, flexibility, responsibility and metacognition.
“Every student in the U.S., for the most part, if they’re going to go through college, is going to have to take some writing class,” Olsen said.
It is in these writing classes that Olsen institutes the Eight Habits of Mind.
In order to help students implement these habits, Olsen asks students in her English 1010 and 2010 classes to consider how they are using the habits of mind. In the middle of the semester, she urges students to consider three they are strong in and weak in. She encourages them to consider the details of why they value particular habits and what they can do to develop skills in their classes and future professions. She said she does this multiple times throughout the semester to help students see the changes.
“Obviously we’re trying to prepare students for every major they’re going into,” Olsen said. “I’ve already had students this semester notice changes in their thinking and their learning based on just doing it toward the beginning, middle of the semester and then looking at it in the very end.”
Roen and Clark-Oates said they use the habits of mind more in depth because they are teaching mainly freshmen. Their goal is to help students learn how to be efficient college students for their future classes. Olsen mostly teaches sophomores in English 2010 who come with their own ideas that Olsen uses to build on.
Academic conferences and teaching conferences like the TYCA West conference are gatherings used to share ideas with other people on themes and approaches in the classroom.
“Not necessarily to standardize our courses but give us a common language, give us a common goal and give our students a common way of understanding,” Olsen said.
In the conference, Olsen and her colleagues split their presentation into sections.
“Roen presented on the history of the document, I presented on the first four habits of mind and Clark-Oates presented on the last four,” Olsen said. They then held a discussion for how to study the document and how to use it in classes.
It was Olsen’s first time attending a regional TYCA conference. She usually attends the national and international conferences.
“I really like that kind of multifaceted vibe to them,” Olsen said. “In the regional conferences you have the advantages of being able to share with a lot of instructors who are like you and whose students are like yours.”
“The Eight Habits of Mind” document has illustrated the ability for students to enhance their critical thinking skills and strategies in their classes and eventually in their careers, Olsen said. She believes these habits effectively connect students and teachers on a higher level of thinking.
“I believe it’s very important to be actively involved in my field and know what’s current, what the best practices are, and get good ideas,” she said. “So I’m constantly serving my students as best as possible.”
TYCA West is an organization underneath National TYCA, which is associated with National Council of Teachers of English. NCTE spans from English in kindergarten to the Ph.D. English levels in college. NCTE incorporates the three Cs into its strategy: college, composition and communication.
The purpose of TYCA West is to advance English teaching and learning practices on the two-year college level. During the October conference, there were a number of other information presentations, called sessions.
“TYC
A itself doesn’t put out best practices or research,” Olsen said. “It’s up to the professors and instructors who attend to share their insights.”
– janemiche13@gmail.com