Interdisciplinarity and Education

Building a Critical Self-Reflexive Authorial Voice

NUS CDTL Paper Presentations , , ,

Yurni Said-Sirhan and Nina VENKATARAMAN
Centre for English Language Communication (CELC)
yurni.s@nus.edu.sg; nina-v@nus.edu.sg 

 

Said-Sirhan, Y., & Venkataraman, N. (2023). Building a critical self-reflexive authorial voice [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/building-a-critical-self-reflexive-authorial-voice/

 

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education 

 

KEYWORDS

Authorial voice, critical self-reflection, literature review 

 

CATEGORY

Paper Presentation 

 

ABSTRACT

Given that different Ideas and Exposition courses in the NUS University Town College Programme (UTCP) encourage students to develop nuanced arguments, it is crucial that students identify and develop their own authorial voice in relation to the literature they read on the specified subject. We adopt a Bakhtinian (1986) orientation towards authorial voice, which is located in the text-mediated interaction between the writer and the reader that not only projects confidence, but also shows ownership over one’s arguments. In doing so, it prevents students from merely reproducing ideas from their reading of academic sources. 

 

Here, we suggest that students incorporate a critical self-reflexive survey of academic literature. We define critical self-reflexivity as the awareness of how students can situate themselves in relation to the texts they read. This is demonstrated through the stances they adopt in reviewing literature and then using it to rationalise their arguments. 

 

According to our proposed framework, students first define their topics, in order to identify the relevant domains and disciplines for conducting a library research review. This enables students to narrow their research focus, as well as identify the goals, purpose, and scope of the review. Next, students identify the relationships or patterns between the works. These patterns reveal the outliers or counterarguments which help them establish the gaps in timeline, scale, methodology, context, or perspective. Subsequently students choose to focus on gaps and patterns that address their research questions feasibly. They then spend time understanding how these patterns and gaps warrant their arguments and counterarguments. Finally, in the critical self-reflexive stage, students develop a set of questions that help them establish new contexts and connections with their core arguments. These questions help students develop their authorial voice by identifying their own contribution to the academic conversation. Following this, students synthesise with intent using relevant discourse markers to put forth their position. These discourse markers are ways by which we understand that students have acquired the ability to read critically and write with a strong authorial stance.   

 

The literature review section in an academic paper can be a challenging task for most first-year students; yet it is “the genre of paper that every researcher looks for when starting a research study” (Rowe, 2014, p. 242). The difficulty that some students face when reading academic literature is not knowing how to use the literature purposefully to develop contexts and connections in their own arguments. To help students transit from critical reading of literature to critical construction of arguments, our framework includes a critical self-reflexive component through key questions. This helps students move away from a simple survey of academic literature to knowledge transformation. 

 

REFERENCES

Bakhtin, M. M. (2010). Speech genres and other late essays. University of Texas Press. 

Rowe, F. (2012). Toward a richer diversity of genres in information systems research: New categorization and guidelines. European Journal of Information Systems, 21(5), 469-78. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2012.38  

Saeed, M., & Ahmed. I (2021). An analytical review on rethinking service-learning as critical transformative paradigm in higher education. Journal of Humanities, Social and Management Sciences (JHSMS), 2(2), 318-34. https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.jhsms/2.2.23  

Developing a Card Game to Promote Interest and Awareness of Microbiomes Among Diverse Undergraduate Students

NUS CDTL Lighting Talks , , , , ,

CH’NG Jun-Hong1*, CHAN Chuu Ling1, GOH Lih Ing1, CHONG Hao Kai Nathanael1,
LEE Russell2, and LEE Li Neng2
1Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
*micchn@nus.edu.sg

 

Ch’ng, J. H., Chan, C. L., Goh, L. I., Chong, N. H. K., Lee, R., Lee, L. N. (2023). Developing a card game to promote interest and awareness of microbiomes among diverse undergraduate students [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/developing-a-card-game-to-promote-interest-and-awareness-of-microbionmes-among-diverse-undergraduate-students/

 

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Microbiology, microbiome, card game, interdisciplinary, general education

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks

 

ABSTRACT

Microbes are linked to infections, sickness, and death. Yet, this view is hardly complete: microbes are everywhere, part of everyday life and prerequisites for our own good health and that of our planet’s. Microbes are also recognised as crucial and versatile tools to address the UN Sustainability Development Goals; a microbial Swiss Army knife that ought to be at everyone’s disposal as we tackle some of the world’s most complex problems from pandemics to climate change, food sustainability to environmental pollution.

 

To appreciate the impact of microbes and maximise their utility, learners need make connections with other disciplines, interests, and experiences in everyday life. This needs to happen at both the research and education fronts, with the latter involving the promotion of microbiology beyond the schools of medicine and sciences, to better engage students from all disciplines. This presents many challenges as students may neither have the interest nor confidence to even begin the journey. Consequently, tools that inspire curiosity while empowering self-directed learning are critical to engage learners coming from disparate disciplines.

 

We are in the process of developing a card game that looks commercially produced, is easy to pick up and fun to play, while not requiring any domain knowledge to enjoy and get good at. In this pilot study, 40 undergraduate students, primarily from medicine, life sciences and psychology, were asked to read through the game instructions before giving feedback on the instructions. They then played two rounds of the game, without supervision, before providing feedback on their experience. Feedback, both quantitative and qualitative, was collected using Qualtrics and observations by session facilitators were also recorded. Quantitative feedback was analysed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data was coded for semi-quantitative analysis or to look for specific constructive suggestions to improve game play/design.

 

The game was well-received across disciplinary backgrounds with positive feedback (5-point scale) on game mechanics being fun (4.17±0.63), attractive artwork (3.83±1.00) and scientific snippets (3.79±1.04), positive re-playability (3.46±0.84), player engagement for non-microbiologists (3.63±1.04), and usefulness of knowledge taught (3.54±1.10). Areas for improvement evidenced from feedback included unclear instructions (2.74±0.98), limited content taught (2.76±0.93), not generating interest to attend formal microbiome classes (2.88±1.17) and not prompting lifestyle changes (1.98±1.11).

 

Data from this pilot study enabled us to further refine the microbiome card game (mechanics, instruction, artwork) and to identify the self-reported learning gains arising from unsupervised gameplay. The latter further led us to develop assessment tools for downstream work to quantify learning gains using pre- and post-play testing.

 

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