Is Providing College Students Choice in Writing Always the Best Choice?

• In Event: Poster Session 4: Reading and Reasoning Across Sources

Abstract

Teachers assume allowing students to choose their writing topics is beneficial despite a paucity of research supporting this belief. In the present study, I conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with undergraduates after they completed two in-class argumentative writing assignments, one where they chose their writing position and one where they did not. The interview protocol was designed to understand their shifting perspectives on the underlying motivational construct of choice related to their writing assignments. Findings indicated that mostly college students believed having choice in writing was important. Despite college students generally preferring choice, a majority of the students also identified benefits of not choosing, including opportunities to increase their perseverance, improve their writing skills, and achieve new perspectives about writing topics.

Author

• Angelique Aitken, University of Nebraska - Lincoln