Crossing the Threshold by Supporting Writing Transfer as Engaged Learning in Introductory Engineering Laboratories

这个改善本科STEM教育（IUSE）项目在温哥华华盛顿州立大学进行，将有助于提高工程专业学生的写作能力。该项目将侧重于促进将一年级英语作文课中培养的写作技能转移到工程课程中。写作是工程师需要的一项关键技能，也是业界经常提到的毕业生需要提高的一项能力。这个探索性项目的目的是研究写作迁移的方法如何提高学生在技术课上的写作能力。该项目将调查工科学生从一年级作文（FYC）课程转入工程实验入门课程时的写作实践。该项目将利用一种写作方法，强调体裁意识，而不是传统的模式方法。还将包括对教师和助教的培训，介绍修辞方法的写作和教学转移。分析将包括定量和定性数据，以告知教学模块作为支持学生学习的有效干预措施的影响。关键问题包括识别工程专业学生的修辞写作知识从一年级作文转移到入门工程实验课程的证据；以及迁移机制的知识如何为提高写作的教学方法和策略提供信息。该项目基于初步结果，该结果表明，相当一部分工科学生在修辞方面（发明、修辞意识、排列和风格）没有任何提高，除了惯例，这更多地与学科知识而不是修辞知识有关。这表明熟悉类型的修辞特征可能比工程写作教学中经常使用的传统案例研究方法更有效。鉴于大一英语作文课无处不在，这项工作的结果有可能广泛适用于本科STEM教育。

This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) project conducted at Washington State University Vancouver will help to improve the writing ability of engineering students. The project will focus on facilitating transfer of writing skills developed in first-year English composition classes into engineering courses. Writing is a critical skill needed by engineers and an ability frequently cited by industry as area in which graduates need improvement. The goal of this exploratory project is to investigate how an approach focusing on writing transfer enhances students' writing in technical courses. The project will investigate the writing practices of engineering students as they move from first-year composition (FYC) courses into introductory engineering laboratory courses. The project will utilize a writing approach that emphasizes genre awareness rather than a traditional modes approach. Also included will be training for faculty and teaching assistants that introduces rhetorical approaches to writing and teaching for transfer. Analysis will include quantitative and qualitative data to inform the impact of the instructional modules as an effective intervention to support student learning. Key questions include identification of evidence of transfer of engineering students' rhetorical writing knowledge from first year composition into introductory engineering laboratory courses; and how knowledge of transfer mechanisms can inform pedagogical approaches and strategies to improve writing. The project is based on preliminary results which indicate a substantial percentage of engineering students do not improve in any rhetorical aspects (invention, rhetoric awareness, arrangement, and style) except convention, which is more related to disciplinary knowledge rather than rhetorical knowledge. This suggests that familiarity with the rhetorical characteristics of genre may be more productive than the traditional case study approach often employed in engineering writing instruction. Given the ubiquity of first-year English composition classes, the results of this work have the potential to be broadly applicable across undergraduate STEM education.