BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR STUDY
1.10 Framing the Role of SCOM in the BSc4 (Foundation) Programme
Describing SCOM first is relevant in this study because it places it in perspective within the field of science. This study in no way seeks to mirror the way in which the teaching of the foundation modules in science (offered in the foundation programme) should occur against how SCOM is taught. However, the acquisition of the conventions associated with academic discourse is crucial for academic success and students studying science face the
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academic demands of reading, writing and speaking in the sciences, in other words, the language of science, the acquisition of which is facilitated by SCOM. (The language of science is thoroughly outlined in Chapter 4 in this dissertation).
As stated earlier, SCOM is used as a vehicle in the BSc4 (Foundation) to promote literacies in and for science. In the SCOM classes, academic content is extracted from science journals and textbooks, and where necessary, are rewritten, revised and adapted to suit the needs of students for whom English is not their native language, as is the case of FP students (See Appendix 1 for an example of an original and revised text used in SCOM).
In the SCOM class, reading and comprehension of the content of texts in science are taught through the approaches of “scaffolding” (Vygotsky, 1978a; 1978b) (Appendix 2 has a scaffolded text used in SCOM). Rose et al. (2003) define ‘scaffolding’ as the support that a teacher can give learners so that they can work at a much higher level than is possible on their own. Scaffolding support enables learners to successfully practise complex skills, and as they become independently competent, the scaffolding is gradually withdrawn.
Scaffolding strategies for reading and writing are designed to focus learners’ attention on patterns of language and to recognise the meanings they express. (The concept of scaffolding is further explored in Chapter 3 in this dissertation). The process of engaging students in the texts and consolidating their understanding of the reading texts so that they are aptly able to construct writing assignments using the texts, is facilitated by the inclusion of various reading comprehension questions at various stages of the teaching and learning process. The compilation of questions is guided by Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom et al.
1956)25 (which is discussed in Chapter 3) and is inclusive of tasks such as summary writing, paraphrasing and conceptual mapping, which is also referred to as cognitive mapping. (Appendix 2 has the types of comprehension questions, summary, paraphrasing and conceptual mapping tasks used in SCOM). Angélil-Carter (1994) describes cognitive mapping as:
a meaningful learning strategy for those whose learning takes place in a medium that is not their mother tongue (125) as it allows the teacher to see
25 Benjamin S. Bloom and a team of researchers classified learning into three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. These domains were then further divided into subcategories which represented a hierarchy of the simplest types of learning to the most complex types of learning. The categories of the cognitive domain are referred to as Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning and range from the simplest to the most complex.
These are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Each successive level in this hierarchy requires mastery of all lower-level categories (Bloom et al. 1956). This is further discussed in Chapter 3.
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what kind of conceptual categories and links the learner is generating, and thus helps [her] to ascertain the actual level of development so that [she]
can work within the ZDP26 to push that development: the map can act as a kind of ‘window’ into the learner’s thinking (132).
SCOM uses authentic scientific texts to teach the scientific genres27 of laboratory report writing, academic essays, scientific posters and oral presentations. One of the strategies used to teach students to write academically in science in SCOM is the process approach advocated by theorists such as Pica (1986) and Dixon (1986). The process approach emphasizes writing as a process rather than a written product. White and Arndt (1991) point out an important factor that differentiates a process-focused approach from a product- centred one: the outcome of writing – the product – is not pre-conceived. In process writing, “writing is not a linear process of gathering information, outlining, and writing, but that it involves many different stages – generating ideas, planning, writing, evaluating, and rewriting – which are not necessarily independent, clear-cut entities” (Johnstone, 1996:
348). With process writing, students are taken through a cycle of writing, rewriting (drafting), revising and editing with regard to their assignments. With this type of approach, the academic staff who teach SCOM, who, in this study are referred to as Academic Literacy Specialists (which has been abbreviated to ALSs in this study)28 offer students extensive feedback on their writing tasks. This feedback enables them to achieve acceptable levels of competence in the mechanics of composition. The nature of feedback is corrective, instructive, developmental and critical. Process writing involves both task complexity and topic knowledge. On this point, Hyland’s (2003) view of the nature of process writing is pertinent. He states that process approaches have had a major impact on the ways in which writing is both understood and taught, transforming narrowly-conceived product models and raising awareness of how complex writing actually is. Hyland (2003) proposes genre-based pedagogies (which are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 3) used
26 Vygotsky’s (1978b) Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is commonly referred to as the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of scaffolding as a teaching and learning strategy. ZPD is defined as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (86). This concept is further elaborated on in Chapter 3.
27“Genre refers to abstract, socially recognised ways of using language. It is based on the assumptions that the features of a similar group of texts depend on the social context of their creation and use, and that those features can be described in a way that relates a text to others like it and to the choices and constraints acting on text producers” (Hyland, 2003: 19). This concept is expanded on in Chapter 3.
28 The tutors/senior tutors/lecturers who teach the Academic Literacy (AL) module are described as Academic Literacy Specialists in this study and are referred to as ALSs.
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in conjunction with process writing as a means of offering students explicit and systematic explanations of the ways language functions in social contexts (18). From a genre perspective, people do not just write, they write to accomplish different purposes in different contexts and this involves variation in the ways they use language, not universal rules (Halliday, 1994).
I have been teaching SCOM since 2005 and have contributed to its content development;
teaching methodology; and the assessment and evaluation practices since 2006. I view myself as an academic literacy facilitator whose role is to facilitate the understanding, acquisition and development of literacies required ‘in’ science and ‘for’ science, both within the boundaries of the university and beyond. Being able to fulfil this role has been eased by my experiences as a former educator and the teaching pedagogy acquired from my post-graduate studies in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) both of which assisted in the way/s in which literacies were taught to individuals for whom English is not their native language. Being fully aware of the philosophy of the foundation programme and the rationale of including an academic literacy course in a university science programme and knowing what happens ‘with’ literacies for science ‘inside’
SCOM, I was particularly interested in exploring the issue of discipline-specific literacies
‘outside’ SCOM, i.e. in the foundation science disciplines that were part of the compulsory modules in BSc4 (Foundation).