Writing is a fundamental aspect of scientific practice through which scientific findings are communicated and understood. In the STEM classroom, students learn to use writing for discipline-specific communication. Writing is also known to effectively promote knowledge construction, but this mode of classroom writing is not widely used in STEM. To better understand how and why STEM faculty choose to use writing we investigated their conceptions of writing. Thirty-three STEM faculty from multiple disciplines and positions were interviewed about writing and its role in their teaching. Interviews were thematically analyzed to produce four faculty types organized by their classroom practice and conceptions of writing. Profiles were built that describe unique conceptions, desired outcomes, and challenges for each type. These results provide a framework for addressing faculty considerations when disseminating and designing writing-based pedagogies in STEM.

Writing in STEM: Faculty conceptions of writing and its role in the undergraduate classroom

2019 Spring National Meeting

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