4. Developing Assignment Instructions
Activity
Activity 1
In this activity, you will examine elements of a research assignment instruction sheet that encourage students towards problem-exploring, rather than answer-getting.
- Read How do Assignments Dispose Students Toward Research?[1] by Madsen Hardy, Gwen Kordonowy, and Ken Liss.
- Examine your own assignment instruction sheets. How does your assignment lead students towards problem-exploring? Where have you inserted problem-exploring phrases in your instructions?
Activity 2
In this activity, you will examine a research assignment instruction sheet and consider how you might improve the assignment.
- Read the Research Paper Assignment[2] by Virginia Montecino.
- Compare with the Revised Research Assignment Instructions[3].
Complete the questions below
Part A: Scan the Research Paper Assignment. Answer the questions below.
- Does this assignment meet its stated purpose? How so?
- What do these assignment instructions teach students about research? What impression does the tone and level of detail leave with students?
- How would you modify these instructions?
Part B: Scan the Revised Research Paper Assignment. Answer the questions below.
- How does the revised research paper assignment instructions compare with the original instructions? What is similar? What has changed?
- What do these assignment instructions teach students about research? What impression does the tone and level of detail leave with students?
- How would you further improve the revised research paper instructions?
- How do Assignments Dispose Students Toward Research? [Article]: https://hdl.handle.net/2144/46091 ↵
- Research Paper Assignment: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/researchpap.htm ↵
- Revised Research Assignment Instructions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14J5zjLvPcnxOQ4VQu82ATnO83s_sVWtyUSx43EsprDk/edit?usp=sharing ↵
