Case of a Problem in Practice
Contributed by James Pacello
Rutgers University, Ed.D. Student
James Pacello has just completed his first semester as a doctoral student. James is the reading and
writing coordinator in his college’s Academic Support Center (ASC). He wrote parts of this case for a
course on adult learning and training for which his assignment was to design a 3 hour workshop/
training. He chose to focus on the non-writing faculty of his college as the target audience.
Context
The context for this problem is an urban, four-year, private business college. The college has day
students who are generally traditional age college students, and evening students who tend to be older
and employed.
Statement of the problem of practice
Many faculty members at Berkeley College have expressed frustration with the written work of their
students. Very often students fail to produce writing that is considered college level work. Sometimes
students, particularly those in their first year of college, struggle with writing assignments because they
are uncertain about how to proceed and about what the expectations and goals are of particular
assignments. Subject matter faculty often do not design assignments that help guide students through
the writing process. They do not necessarily see it as their job, or have the skills, to help students with
writing.
As part of Berkeley College’s ongoing faculty development, James planned a workshop which is
designed to help general education and business faculty members working with students in first-year
courses develop writing assignments that will help guide students through the writing process.
Statement of subsequent problems and implications
One of the problems subsequent to the training might be a certain level of reluctance to focus on
supporting their students’ writing development from faculty members who are not accustomed to teach
writing. They might not feel that explicit teaching of the writing process is or should be a part of their
jobs. They may also be hesitant about their skills in this area. Thus, asking them to incorporate
elements of writing instruction in non-writing courses might prove to be problematic. One implication
of this potential problem will be the need for a discussion about why writing is integral in all fields, not
just English and writing courses, and why students need to work on writing in every class that has
writing assignments.
Another subsequent problem could be that a 3 hour workshop is not enough to help faculty effectively
adopt new practices, and change on the students’ part might be slow. For both of these reasons faculty
may revert to their old practices (or never try new ones). An implication here is that faculty will need
ongoing support to improve their practices.
Identification of important players with in the organization (stakeholders)
Faculty members who do not teach English, students; ASC staff, administrators
Identification of other target groups in organization
The academic administration must be on board with the process. Resources such as release time for
the Reading and Writing Coordinator and other writing instructors must be granted to provide ongoing
support to faculty who are trying to incorporate writing process approaches into their courses.
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Identification of the role of the educational leader
The Coordinator will oversee the workshops for faculty, assess the needs of faculty participants, and
establish a plan for ongoing assessment, evaluation, and improvement of the collaboration between the
Academic Support Center and the faculty.
Identification of strategic issues
Because addressing this problem would mean a shift in some responsibilities for The Coordinator to
work more with non-developmental skills faculty and somewhat less with students, his role would
need some redefinition.
Another strategic issue is how to continue the collaboration between the ASC and the faculty beyond
the workshop. If the faculty is not convinced that they need to support the writing development of
students, they will not be willing to reflect on and revise their own writing assignments, and it will be
difficult for the ASC to collaborate with them. For collaboration to be successful, faculty and ASC
staff will need time to work together. Additional time is particularly problematic for part-time staff
that is at the college only during teaching time, with the exception of two, paid faculty development
days per year. This may require additional buy-in on the part of faculty as well as administration as it
will require shifting resources around.
Identification of decisions needed to be made
What writing pedagogy to emphasize, and how best to scaffold writing development through written
assignments in general education courses. Other, more logistical, decisions include which faculty in
which departments would benefit most from participating in this faculty development effort, and how
much collaboration of what kind would occur between faculty and ASC staff.
Identification of rick factors
Lack of faculty buy-in, nothing changes, students don’t improve their writing, turf issues emerge as
ASC staff cross “boundaries” with faculty. ASC staff have generally focused their work on helping
students not faculty, so supporting faculty development on an ongoing basis is a shift in emphasis.
Identification of historical precedents
Collaboration between the ASC and faculty has occurred previously in fits and starts and has been hard
to sustain, mostly due to lack of time.
The ASC has been working on improving writing, but the focus has been on students. It has created
and offered in-class workshops which general education faculty then request if they want it offered for
their students. There is a core group of faculty who request this workshop every semester, but others
do request it. Participation varies from one quarter to another. Feedback from students and faculty on
the workshop has been positive. Word of mouth has been helpful in increasing requests for the
workshop.
There is a lot of variation in how much interest there is among faculty in getting help on writing
support.
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