Brock, C., Sanchez, N., & Sharpe, D. L. (2020). Pen as a bridge: Instructor perspectives on incorporating diversity and inclusion in writing-intensive courses. Teaching in Higher Education, 25(8), 992-1009. Web.
Focus
The focus of the study is discovering how Writing Intensive (WI) instructors across various disciplines handle difficult and sensitive topics, especially in larger classes. It discusses how writing tasks can enhance diversity and inclusion in the context of a student-centered teaching model.
Conclusions
The research has concluded that writing assignments and careful revision processes help students see complicated issues from multiple angles, thus encouraging critical thinking, self-awareness, and understanding of different perspectives.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The strengths of this study include its examination of different fields as well as its attention to bigger class sizes that provide insights into both challenges and benefits. However, there is an interesting focus on the role played by revisions for having a silent conversation between the instructor and the learner. Nevertheless, it may be limited by a predominantly social sciences/humanities orientation. The study is relevant to the ongoing discourse about diversity and inclusion as it pertains to writing courses. This work highlights effective approaches like learner-centered methodologies or revising.
Ten Cate, C. (2017). Assessing the uniqueness of language: Animal grammatical abilities take center stage. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24(1), 91-96. Web.
Claim
According to the author, languages are all about merging concepts such as nouns, verbs, articles, and pronouns.
Strengths
The student says the main strength of this study is questioning the conventional focus on the speech apparatus when discussing language evolution.
Conclusions
Thus, the author concludes that language uniqueness is not due to the general ability of brains to process concepts and produce behavior because this can be observed even in other animals. Instead, she stresses that its key aspect is being able to “merge” ideas and indicates that this might have happened very quickly without leaving any fossilized remains.
Limitations
In addition to being bewildered by Ten Cate’s failure to link his concept of “merge” with other notions like hierarchical structures, a weakness has been spotted by a student in this study. Furthermore, students have reported difficulty understanding and following some sections of these works, as there could exist some disorganization or confusion in their writing.
Usefullness
The source does not provide much relevance for most students since it does not address how the “merge” concept relates to other ideas about language. It will also fail students who go for it since they notice that it confuses them, and they do not see how it will contribute positively to their work.