Wicked Writing: Overcoming Formulaic Writing With Complexity and Design

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual Poster Session: SIG-Complexity Theories in Education Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

Writing instruction has become a wicked problem. Although writing and writing instruction are complex, creative, and adaptive processes, common writing instruction focuses more simplistically on either the process or the product. In this exploratory case study, four middle-grades students completed five written composition tasks as part of an extracurricular club using digital and multimodal means. Researchers used content analysis of the data within a frame of complex adaptive systems and human system dynamics to determine the findings. Analysis of the data set reveals that patterns within composition follow common design expectations akin to print norms, and participants often approached their own process as an adaptive action by constantly reviewing what they have done and considering what they will do now.

Authors

• Brett Stamm, University of Southern Mississippi
  Presenting Author

• Tiffany R Larson, University of Central Oklahoma
  Presenting Author