Assessing Adaptive Transfer in Community-Based Writing

Abstract

This chapter discusses the implications of using Michael-John DePalma and Jeffrey M. Ringer's (2011) framework of adaptive transfer to assess students' learning in community-based writing projects. Drawing from a series of interview-based case studies of students enrolled in the Technical and Professional Writing courses at Baylor University, the chapter describes how students apply and reshape learned writing knowledge in order to negotiate new community-based writing tasks. By assessing the kinds of transfer that students describe as they move between the activity systems of the classroom, their community sites, and beyond, this project provides the kind of empirical data on student learning that is currently lacking in community-based writing research. It offers a rich framework for assessing how students adapt writing knowledge and experience to fit unfamiliar community-based writing tasks. By offering a framework this study contributes in significant ways to extant discussions of learning transfer in community-based writing scholarship. Keywords:theory of adaptive transfer; community-based writing; Baylor University; Jeffrey M. Ringer; Michael-John DePalma; Technical and Professional Writing course