Writing to learn: A Collaborative Endeavour

Abstract

An interrelated problem in teaching and learning development in higher education is that staff development may be divorced from the disciplines in which teaching and learning occurs, at least this is the case in the New Zealand context. For example, while staff developers may engage with discipline‐specific tasks alongside staff, developmental units on university campuses exist independently of academic departments. A corollary of this is that the development of students’ learning skills such as essay writing, is perceived as the responsibility of learning developers on campus rather than academic staff. This can create an artificial division between teaching and learning. This paper outlines a process which has successfully been used to address these concerns. The focus on ‘writing to learn’ with undergraduate students was a collaborative endeavour which included staff developers working alongside academic staff and students within subject tutorials. This placed the developer at the nexus of both student and staff development and facilitated an ongoing collaborative dynamic with benefits for all parties.