Mary Goldschmidt, director of the Writing Program at TCNJ, was recently selected as one of 40 scholars nationwide to participate in a three-year multi-institutional study of writing, sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at Elon University.
The institute, “Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer,” seeks to advance higher education’s understanding of how students transfer their learning about writing from one context to another, such as writing in general education to writing in the major. The findings will provide concrete ideas for how colleges can increase student writing proficiency throughout the college years. Other participating institutions include Purdue University, Dartmouth College, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Florida State University. After attending the first institute seminar in June, 2011 at Elon University, Goldschmidt will be working with the departments of Computer Science and Psychology here on campus to conduct a qualitative study of writing transfer in these majors as part of their departmental assessments.