Disciplinary Literacy Research Articles

Students’ views of disciplinary literacies in internationalised English-medium higher education: Step-by-step survey development

In the last two decades, research on English-medium education (EME) has grown exponentially because of internationalisation and globalisation. Many early studies have examined university lecturers’ attitudes to the change in the language of instruction as well as on their linguistic and pedagogical needs. However, much less attention has been paid to students and, most specifically, to how they view disciplinary literacies (DLs) in EME. Our examination of DLs deviates from previous research in that it foregrounds two dimensions which have not received sufficient attention in the EME setting, namely internationalisation of higher education and students’ perceived use of bi/plurilingual repertoires. This article describes the step-by-step process of developing a psychometric survey that examines students’ views of internationalisation and bi/pluriliteracies in the development of DLs in EME contexts. The resulting survey shows the presence of four interrelated constructs: student L1/s in disciplinary practices, internationalisation, English in disciplinary practices, and international community of practice. This instrument demonstrates strong reliability after several piloting stages and adjustments. Implications for pedagogy and policy development are also provided in the conclusions.

DISCIPLINARY LITERACY IN
 THE GLOBAL SCHOLARLY COMMUNITY:
 CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

Russian university graduates and academics face significant challenges to become
 full-fledged participants of the global scholarly community. One of the most common, yet
 sometimes overlooked causes of this situation is the lack of disciplinary literacy. Disciplinary
 literacy is defined as the ability to appropriately participate in the communicative practices of a
 discipline. The paper investigates the factors that lead to the expansion of the requirements for
 disciplinary literacy in today’s globalised world. Based on the analysis of literature and their
 own experience of teaching ESAP (English for Specific Academic Purposes) in a pedagogical
 university, the authors put forward the idea that in many cases the best way to tackle the
 problems of disciplinary literacy may be to use elements of the constructivist approach to
 teaching this subject.

Exploring the connections between disciplinary and digital literacies in history

AbstractGiven the prevalence of digital tools and platforms as the primary pedagogical means through which to organize and deliver content in schools, this study examined how history teachers instructed students in digital literacies to develop their disciplinary knowledge through project‐based learning. Although several studies addressing new literacies tout digital mediums as a way to ignite adolescents' imagination and bring together conceptual and social learning, this research revealed students struggled with navigating numerous digital literacy tasks in the context of learning to read, write, and think like historians, which hindered their ability to curate knowledge utilizing disciplinary literacies. Thus, this study raises questions about the methods needed to converge disciplinary knowledge and digital literacies as well as the extent to which Information Communication Technologies can transform rather than replace disciplinary practices. Implications for student engagement are discussed.

Critical Thinking Strategies as an Influential Tool in Growing the Disciplinary Literacy

Critical Thinking Strategies as an Influential Tool in Growing the Disciplinary Literacy

Scaffolding Learning Via Multimodal STEM Text Sets for Students With Learning Disabilities

The importance of text complexity has gained recognition since the Common Core State Standards (CCSS-ELA) were developed. The Linking Science and Literacy for All Learners (LS&L4AL) program uses multimodal STEM text sets to link reading grade-band complex texts with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) sense-making. We define a multimodal STEM text set as a coherent collection of resources pertaining to an anchor phenomenon and line of inquiry that support learners’ acquiring the disciplinary literacy skills and sense-making called for by the NGSS and CCSS-ELA shared practices. The anchor phenomenon and line of inquiry are determined by the anchor text—a rich, complex grade-band level text about natural phenomena with research-generated data from recent STEM primary literature. In this study, we report on a qualitative analysis of how English language arts, special education, and science middle school teachers ( N=11) scaffolded instruction to support students, including students with learning disabilities, in reading complex STEM texts to develop sense-making of scientific phenomena.

Examining a Phased Planning Approach to Support Elementary Preservice Teachers in Disciplinary Literacy-Focused Instruction

This study reports qualitative findings related to elementary preservice teachers’ perceptions and use of a six-phased planning approach, titled Planning for Elementary Digitally-Supported Disciplinary Literacy, to integrate digitally supported disciplinary literacy into lesson planning. Preservice teachers in this study were seeking PK-6 licensure and were enrolled in a semester-long graduate-level course focused on disciplinary and content literacy, with an emphasis on the integration of digital tools to support disciplinary literacy. The phased approach considered Core Disciplinary Practices to scaffold preservice teachers’ planning. An inductive qualitative approach was used to collect and analyze data. Thematic results explore preservice teachers’ negotiations of knowledge of print and digital texts and tools to plan for disciplinary literacy, preservice teachers’ perceptions regarding complexities of disciplinary literacy in elementary grades, and the idea of core disciplinary practices as a gateway for a reconsideration of literacy. These results provide implications for how elementary teachers might be supported in integrating disciplinary literacy into their classrooms in a manner that aligns with the goals and constructs of elementary education.

Historical Reasoning among Middle School Students with Learning Differences: Exploring the Use of Multiple Sources in Writing

Historical reasoning, as a disciplinary literacy, aims to develop higher-order thinking in addition to depth of historical knowledge beyond the textbook and memorization of facts. It teaches students to use information across multiple sources to contextualize and corroborate historical accounts, constructing an informed yet critical interpretation of events. Studies on the use of multiple sources to develop historical reasoning among students with learning differences (ld) are scarce. This qualitative study seeks to explore and describe how twelve 7th grade students in a special education classroom used multiple historical sources when writing argumentative/expository essays. The 96 total essays that students wrote throughout the academic year are the primary data source for this paper. Data memos, lesson plans, and interview transcripts were used to triangulate the findings found in the essays. Based on a thematic analysis, three major themes emerged: (1) students with ld demonstrated discipline-specific cognitive processes (e.g., sourcing, corroboration, contextualization) when using multiple historical sources in their essays; (2) students with ld leveraged the use of multiple historical sources in writing essays, mediated by a range of interests toward multiple source use; and (3) high-quality instruction characterized by scaffolding (i.e., gradual release of responsibility) for reading and writing fostered students with ld’s understanding of historical events and historical reasoning using multiple sources. This paper offers implications for policy, research, and practice related to multiple source use among students with ld.

“We’re Not All Chemists in Here – We’re Just Trying to Get to the Next Level”: Examining Out-of-School Literacies, Identity, and Disciplinary Literacy

ABSTRACT College science courses pose complex challenges to students. Textbooks are dense and laden with textbook features that may be confusing to students unfamiliar with science texts. Courses are especially challenging because they presuppose a certain degree of disciplinary literacy, or understanding of the knowledge and practices possessed by those who create that knowledge within a specific discipline. This study explores how students’ disciplinary literacy in the sciences is negotiated by students’ prior experiences, background knowledge, and science identities. Analyses of interviews from four students enrolled in an introductory chemistry course in an urban community college reveal that neither knowledge nor identity presuppose one another, instead coexisting in the dynamic and complex process of disciplinary literacy development.

Preprint Peer Review Enhances Undergraduate Biology Students' Disciplinary Literacy and Sense of Belonging in STEM.

Education about scientific publishing and manuscript peer review is not universally provided in undergraduate science courses. Since peer review is integral to the scientific process and central to the identity of a scientist, we envision a paradigm shift where teaching peer review becomes integral to undergraduate science education. We hypothesize that teaching undergraduates how to peer review scientific manuscripts may facilitate their development of scientific literacy and identity formation. To this end, we developed a constructivist, service-learning curriculum for biology undergraduates to learn about the mechanisms of peer review using preprints and then to write and publish their own peer reviews of preprints as a way to authentically join the scientific community of practice. The curriculum was implemented as a semester-long intervention in one class and, in another class, as an embedded module intervention. Students' scientific literacy and peer review ability were assessed using quantitative methods. Student's perceptions of their scientific literacy and identity were assessed using thematic analysis of students' reflective writing. Here, we present data on the improvement in the peer review ability of undergraduates in both classes and data on the curriculum's interrelated impact on students' development of scientific literacy, identity, and belonging in peer and professional discourse spaces. These data suggest that undergraduates can and should be trained in peer review to foster the interrelated development of their scientific literacy, scientific identity, and sense of belonging in science.

Work descriptions written by third-graders: An aspect of disciplinary literacy in primary craft education education

This study focuses on disciplinary literacy in primary craft education. Disciplinary literacy refers to the specialised ways of reading, writing, and speaking in a particular discipline. In Finland, crafts is an obligatory school subject, and pupils are supposed to conceive and manage a complete crafts process, including documentation. However, disciplinary literacy in crafts has rarely been studied, let alone at the primary level. In this study, we explored the quality of a sample of work descriptions produced by third-graders. The data included digitally produced work descriptions (N=79) written by 42 third-grade pupils in a Finnish primary school. Based on a qualitative analysis, six main dimensions of work descriptions as a textual genre emerged: word count, crafts vocabulary, structure, spelling, multimodality, and self-assessment. The quality of work descriptions was analysed quantitatively according to scoring criteria based on these dimensions. A cluster analysis indicated that there were three groups of work descriptions with respect to their level of disciplinarity: limited, emerging, and advanced descriptions. The results show that the structure of the disciplinary texts develops first, and subject-specific vocabulary stabilises after that. The paper discusses the foundation for disciplinary literacy in primary craft education.

Advancing Civics-specific Disciplinary Writing in the Elementary Grades issue

Students need support through intentional writing instruction to develop their discipline-specific writing skills outside of Language Arts. Yet, we argue not all writing instruction provides the same opportunities for student learning. In this study, with the support of professional development, teachers engaged students in civic perspective-taking through writing, focusing on locally relevant public issues. Drawing from disciplinary literacy and genre pedagogy, our research team conducted a descriptive study where thematic analysis was applied to examine second and third graders’ civics writing samples. Our findings indicate that students’ engagement with key civic concepts became more complex and purposeful as they practiced argumentative writing. Development continued from second to third grade in both the sophistication of their civic perspective-taking as well as their writing. Additionally, we found that student motivation to engage in argumentative writing increased in all classrooms across both grade levels when engaging with locally relevant public issues. This article provides details about the elementary civics writing curriculum and the students’ writing outcomes as well as includes the two graphic organizers used in the curriculum.

Cross-disciplinary language changes in 4th graders as a predictor of the quality of written scientific explanation

Upper elementary students face conceptual and linguistic challenges when writing in science. One way to scaffold science writing is the explicit teaching of cross-disciplinary language. Limited research has explored the dynamics of these language changes in instructional contexts. This study examines the micro-developmental changes in cross-disciplinary language skills and their contributions to the quality of 191 science explanations written by 65 fourth graders that participated in language and literacy-based instruction. The instruction’s pedagogical design was focused on writing-to-learn and learning-to-write the scientific explanation genre. Each student wrote an initial, a scaffolded draft, and a final explanation that was scored for scientific quality and productive cross-disciplinary language skills. Students’ prior and final scientific knowledge was also measured. The results showed large instruction size effects on the scientific quality (0.71), productive cross-disciplinary language skills (0.46), and explanation length (0.64). Stepwise regression analysis showed that prior and final science knowledge and productive cross-disciplinary language skills significantly predict the quality of the final explanation (R2 = .704, F(11,38) = 9.03, p < .000). This research offers evidence of the dynamic relationships between language, literacy, and science in contexts of explicit cross-disciplinary language instruction for disciplinary literacy and learning.

Secondary Administrators’ Perspectives of Literacy Interventions Within a Multitiered System of Support

Response to intervention (RtI) is a multitiered system of support framework that focuses on best practices for intervention. Because many secondary students exhibit weak literacy skills, the focus of this study is reading interventions. This qualitative study examines administrators’ perspectives of implementing literacy interventions within a multitiered system of support, such as RTI, at secondary schools in Southeast Texas. Three primary themes emerged from the research. The first primary theme, time, represents difficulties administrators expressed with finding the time in the school day to schedule interventions that work with the constraints of secondary school requirements. The second primary theme, staffing, reflected the recognition that secondary schools, which typically include teachers with content specialties, do not necessarily have personnel trained to implement literacy interventions. The final primary theme, training, acknowledges the role of disciplinary literacy and ways professional development could support implementation of reading interventions to secondary students all while focusing on the campus vision.

Collaborative Translanguaging and Transmodal Literacies: Learning the Language of Science in a Dual-Language Classroom

Research has shown the benefits of peer interaction to scaffold learning of disciplinary literacies. We extend knowledge in this area to examine peer interaction and the affordances it creates when emergent bilinguals engage with multimodal texts in disciplines to make meaning. Using discourse analysis of the interactions of a small group of third graders carrying out a project in science class, we explored how four emergent bilinguals collaborated to design, produce, and distribute traditional and alternative texts. We found that translanguaging and transmodal collaborative structures support learning processes and comprehension to make sense of and contextualize disciplinary knowledge. A dynamic and recursive translanguaging pattern emerges in which the introduction and contextualization of knowledge happens in Spanish, the interaction occurs mainly in English, and the creation is in both English and Spanish. We discuss the affordances of these collaborative structures for supporting students in science and promoting Spanish and student bilingualism.

Physics and History Subject Viewed through Disciplinary Literacy

In this article, we would like to introduce a collaborative study that was a little special among the various collaborative studies we did. It is a collaboration with history education and Korean language education majors in the viewpoint of physics education major. The comparison of the two disciplines, ‘physics’ and ‘history’, which seem a little far from natural science and do not seem to have anything in common, becomes a suitable judgment for Korean language education majors as ‘disciplinary literacy’. It is possible because we bring disciplinary literacy that contrasts with content area literary, and it is the viewpoint that reading and writing education should be approached from the standpoint of each subject because the epistemology of subject interaction, vocabulary and major knowledge, and discourse interests are different among subjects. Although physics and history represent the humanities and natural sciences, respectively. They have many similarities and differences. The main body of this article is structured around content that is easy to access even if you are not an education-related expert, excluding the excessively academic part of the three studies that compared physics and history. The first is a comparison of reading physics and historical texts. It is natural that everyone reads the writings of their major the best, but this study started with the question of whether the characteristics of that major will appear when reading the writings of other majors. Second, the descriptors of the achievement standards of the physics and history curriculum are analyzed. In Korea, the national curriculum is revised about every 7 years, and this study is conducted to find an answer to the question of whether disciplinary characteristics will appear in this curriculum document. Lastly, it is judged that these disciplinary characteristics would be well revealed in textbooks. By comparing the description methods of physics and history textbooks, we discuss on the characteristics of the studies.

Rethinking Text Features in the Digital Age: Teaching Elementary Students to Navigate Digital Stories, Websites, and Videos

AbstractWhile reading digital texts requires many of the same foundational literacy skills as reading printed texts, it also requires skills that go beyond print‐based reading. In this article, we argue that the skills children need to read, understand, and communicate about digital texts is a Core Disciplinary Practice that should be addressed in the elementary grades. To do so, we explain the idea of reading digital texts as a disciplinary literacy practice, explore the features of digital texts that make them qualitatively different from printed texts, and offer approaches for explicitly teaching children how to read and interact with digital texts in ways that support their comprehension and prepare them for future disciplinary learning. In the final section, we provide teachers with three examples of digital texts they might integrate into a K‐2 science unit and offer strategies for teaching children to navigate the unique features of these texts.

Leveraging Lesson Study for Disciplinary Literacy: Studying and Planning for Scientific Modeling

ABSTRACTThis paper argues that the plan and study phases of lesson study are productive in helping educators with varied expertise and experience to explore scientific practices like modeling with ties to disciplinary literacy. Points are illustrated with data from a lesson‐study cycle in science that two university‐based teacher educators, one in literacy education and one in science education, conducted with colleagues from a nearby school district. The paper describes lesson study; outlines the role of scientific practices, including modeling, in the Next Generation Science Standards; and describes the context for the work, including the unit explored by the team. Recommendations about how to leverage the plan and study phases of lesson study for disciplinary literacy are offered, along with suggestions for getting started with such work.

Mixed Messages

Efforts to promote disciplinary literacy can help students integrate knowledge with ways of doing and being within disciplinary settings. Yet, effectively facilitating disciplinary literacy, even within an upper-level undergraduate physics course like the one studied here, is surprisingly hard. This article qualitatively analyzes an instructor’s responses to student lab reports and finds that his comments to students focused on issues of correctness, often at the expense of larger rhetorical concerns of the text. Analysis also suggests that the instructor was thinking about many rhetorical aspects beyond surface-level errors as he read. Together, these findings suggest that efforts to promote disciplinary literacy, especially related to writing instruction, benefit from recognizing the layered contexts of activity in which writing and responding to lab reports take place. These findings hold value for secondary and post-secondary literacy instruction; in broad terms, this study may serve as a cautionary tale by illuminating the overlapping and competing value systems involved in disciplinary literacy efforts

The Critical Journey to Develop Ideological Clarity and Redress the Hidden Curriculum

In this article, I examine the role that educators have in preparing students for the 21st-century knowledge economy. I argue that teachers and their curriculum are crucial for enacting equitable teaching practices that promote inquiry, problem-solving, and innovative thinking --skills essential for everyone to gain access to high-skill/high-pay jobs and participate meaningfully in this era. I begin by drawing attention to the work teachers must do to develop ideological clarity and gain the knowledge and skills to redress the negative impact of the hidden curriculum, particularly for minoritized students. This is necessary work because teachers need to know how to challenge hegemonic curricula and create and maintain just and equitable learning environments in an effort to disrupt the status quo. Using the context of disciplinary literacy, I explain pedagogical practices that apprentice students to the language and thinking processes of various disciplines and prepare them with the skill set to inquire, problem-solve, and engage in innovative thinking. Finally, I emphasize the importance of students' voices in maintaining a classroom learning culture. Throughout the article, I provide tools and resources for educators to use as they embark on this work. Keywords: ideological clarity, hidden curriculum, disciplinary literacy instruction, culturally relevant curriculum DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-10-05 Publication date: April 30 th 2023

Effective disciplinary literacy strategies for students with disabilities in middle and high school science classrooms

More students with disabilities (SWDs) are being educated in the general education classroom than ever before. This means that SWDs are spending more time in middle school science classrooms. SWDs may struggle to access information from science textbooks and lessons for multiple reasons, including reading difficulties. In this article, the authors review the literature and provide recommendation on how science teachers can implement these strategies into their classrooms. These strategies include vocabulary instruction, comprehension strategies, and graphic organizers.