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Cornell College—Center for Teaching and Learning
The Consultant
A Newsletter for Faculty
Authentic Inquiry—Beyond the
Conventional Senior Paper
by Jean Donham
MERLOT
www.merlot.org
If you are looking for colleagues willing to share online
learning materials, take a look at MERLOT—Multimedia
Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching.
The site is easy to search and brose and it offers an advanced search option where, for example, one can limit by
technical format (blogs, podcasts, wikis, Flash). Records for
learning materials contain a brief annotation and other key
information such as author, primary audience, copyright
and technical information. The site includes RSS feeds to
alert users to newly added materials.
Capstone courses often require a summative research paper and/or seminar presentation. Gordon (1999) describes the typical
research assignment as an ―external exercise,‖ and goes on to suggest that too many research projects engage students in information gathering rather than opportunities for creativity or authentic inquiry. Dispositions of learners play a major role as students
undertake writing a ―research paper.‖ In his analysis of dispositions of learners, Ritchhart (2001) posits that in order for students
to engage in authentic learning and extend beyond reporting what has been stated by others, we must help them develop the
following dispositions: be open-minded; be curious; be metacognitive; be strategic; be investigative; reason; and use evidence. In
re-designing the Education Senior seminar paper assignment, we set the following goals for students:
•To see research as an opportunity to pose authentic questions generated by their own classroom observations and interactions with students
•To construct new meaning and insights by integrating their personal first-hand observations and experiences with findings in the professional literature
•To personalize research by focusing their inquiry on questions arising from close observation of and interaction with
individual students whom they came to know during their student teaching experiences
Papers generated in response to the new approach indicate authentic interest, show original insight, and extend beyond reporting. Students generate their research questions based on field notes they have taken during their student teaching experience.
These may be observations of an individual student, a classroom, teacher behaviors, school culture—whatever piques their curiosity. These papers cause students to investigate the literature to see what research has to say about the aspects of teaching and
learning about which they have become curious. They examine their observations and write their papers to integrate theory and
practice. Titles of papers evidence the variety of questions that arise and the insight that students discover in their work. For example:
―She Looks Like English Only‖
―Socio-Political Dimensions and Classroom Life: Is There Need for Both Student – and Teacher-Centered Learning?‖
―The Impact of Immigration, Living in a Single-Parent Household, and Unmet Basic Needs on a Child’s Education‖
―Childhood Innocence: The Newest War Casualty‖
One particular outcome is students developing their scholarly voice and seeing themselves become participants in the scholarly
community—a transition for which the seminar was designed.
Gordon, Carol (1999). Students as authentic researchers: A new prescription for the high school research assignment,‖ School
Library Media Research Online. Volume 2, pp. 1-21.
Ritchhart, R. (2001, April). From IQ to IC: A dispositional view of intelligence. Roeper Review, 23(3), p.143-50.
C o r n e l l C o l l e g e — C e n t e r f o r Te a c h i n g a n d L e a r n i n g
The Consultant
A Newsletter for Faculty
One Book, One Campus, One Community
by Jennifer Rouse
Instilling in our students a love of reading and a love of learning are, of
course, the ultimate goals of a liberal arts education. This fall Cole Library
will sponsor a One Book, One Campus, One Community project focusing
on these goals and creating opportunities for life-long learners to come together to talk about a fantastic book.
This year our book selection is The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in
the Middle of Nowhere by Debra Marquart. Debra Marquart is a professor of
English at Iowa State University. She teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment at Iowa State University and the Stonecoast
Low-Residency MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. A performance poet, Marquart is the author of two poetry collections: Everything's
a Verb and From Sweetness. Her memoir, The Horizontal World: Growing Up
Wild in the Middle of Nowhere, was published by Counterpoint Books in
2006. It received the "Elle Lettres" award from Elle Magazine and the 2007
PEN USA Creative Nonfiction Award.*
The Horizontal World is what Marquart calls "a biomythography about an
agricultural childhood in the rural Midwest." We chose this book as our
inaugural read because of its potential to appeal to students and its potential for campus and community connection. Marquart’s story focuses
on ―the impulse toward rebellion and flight that comes with being born to
a harsh, beautiful, and isolated place." As students are often grappling with
issues surrounding home, identity, and sense of place, we feel this book will
offer opportunity for all of us to enter into conversation about what it
means to come to terms with our personal and political choices.
With material drawing from mythology, botany, geology, history, and literary criticsm, this poetic narrative also offers the perfect framework for
discussions across disciplines about complex and nuanced ideas as
well. The library will host a wide variety of events for campus and community, including book discussions, lectures, and a film festival. We are excited to have Marquart scheduled to come to campus for a lecture and reading on September 18th. She will also be visiting with students and performing with her jazz and blues band during her time here. Stay tuned for announcements of further events!
*www.debramarquart.com
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Consulting with
Students in
Upper-level Courses
People may think of the Quantitative Reasoning Studio as the place for students who
are struggling with math to get help. In addition to that, however, many students come
here for help on more advanced projects.
For example, I often assist students in upperlevel courses, such as methods and seminar
courses, with understanding the results section of journal articles and analyzing data
from a class research project. Also, I get to
work with students doing independent research or working on symposium projects.
Together with the supervising professor, we
think about the research question, analyze
the data, and interpret the results. Like the
other Studios in the Center for Teaching
and Learning, we at the QRS strive to maintain a consulting relationship with students
throughout their time at Cornell, from their
first introductory course to senior seminar.
by Jessica Johanningmeier
Traditionally, writing centers and studios
have been seen primarily as places where
students get help in responding to academic
writing assignments. Although this is certainly a primary focus in Cornell College’s
Writing Studio, we want to emphasize that
our mission is to help students become better writers. To that end, we have a wide
scope in the types of writing we are willing to
discuss with students.
For example, this year, we have worked
with students writing personal statements,
filling out graduate school applications, and
preparing materials for submission to internship programs. Our aim is to help these students in all aspects of writing, from organizing ideas intentionally to evaluating clarity of
expression. In many cases, students working
on such materials set up multiple appointments as they move through the writing process.
If you have a student or advisee who is
applying for an internship or other type of
program, please consider suggesting that he/
she stop by the Writing Studio, as we’d be
happy to help that student articulate ideas
and work toward preparing a polished submission.
by Nicole Jackson