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ABSTRACT
This article presents an experimental pedagogical framework for providing technical professionals with practice on writing skills focusing on the development of their metacognitive rhetorical awareness. The article outlines the theoretical foundation that led to the development of the framework, followed by a report of a pilot study involving information technology professionals in a global setting using an online learning environment that was designed based on the framework.
Funding
This study was made possible by a generous grant from Qatar Foundation (NPRP 4-1538-6-048).
Notes
1. Ten professionals participated initially, but two of them were removed from the study because they could not participate in the entire process. One participant withdrew from the study.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Andreas Karatsolis
Andreas Karatsolis is the associate director of Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication (WRAP) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its affiliated research group, ArchiMedia. He holds a Ph.D. in communication and rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with an emphasis on human-computer interaction and technologies of writing. Formerly the associate director of the Eberly Center for Teaching and Learning at Carnegie Mellon University Qatar, he specializes in pedagogical design and assessment, and has led numerous grant-funded projects developing digital instruction platforms.
Suguru Ishizaki
Suguru Ishizaki is an interaction/visual designer, and an associate professor of rhetoric and communication design in the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon. Before this appointment, he worked at QUALCOMM on the design of mobile user interface. Prior to that, he was on the faculty in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon. His professional experience ranges from user interface design to information visualization to traditional print design. His current research revolves around the development of computational tools and methods for describing and analyzing communicative artifacts, including written text, dynamic visualization, and print. He is the author of Improvisational Design: Continuous Responsive Digital Communication (MIT Press, 2003), and a coauthor of The Power of Words: Unveiling the Speaker and Writer’s Hidden Craft (Erlbaum, 2004).
Marsha Lovett
Marsha Lovett is director of the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, and a teaching professor in the Department of Psychology, both at Carnegie Mellon. At the Eberly Center, she applies theoretical and empirical principles from cognitive psychology to help instructors improve their teaching. In her research, Dr. Lovett studies learning, memory, and problem solving. She has published more than fifty articles on learning and instruction, coauthored the book How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, and developed several innovative, educational technologies, including StatTutor and the Learning Dashboard.
Stacie Rohrbach
Stacie Rohrbach is an associate professor in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University with more than 15 years of experience as a visual/interaction designer. She is responsible for teaching upper-level information design courses that focus on the presentation of content to aid teaching and learning efforts. Her research focuses on the pedagogy of communication design, especially on the design of methods and tools for classroom assessment and feedback.
Mollie Kaufer
Mollie Kaufer is a professional-track faculty member and an English Language Specialist in the Graduate Studies in Interpreting and Translation Program (GSIT), part of the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. Her research interests include the teaching of professional and cross-cultural writing, as well as principles of applied second language acquisition.