Collaboratively creating and analyzing written descriptions of procedures
Key words:
Peer-writing, Scaffolding, Collaborative reflective writing
Learning objective | Time | Modality | Audience | Technologies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Perform a professional procedure correctly | 2-3 lesson units | Individual | Office clerks | Word processing software (MS Word) |
Overview
In this scenario, students first describe a workplace experience they’ve had with “managing a purchase order” and highlight the main steps of this procedure. Students then read and analyze the procedure using a detailed list of criterias. In the end, students read the comments made about their own procedure and use these comments to revise and improve their text.
Description of the teaching approach
This scenario is a peer-learning, more specifically a peer-writing, activity. This means that students have to collaborate and interact with each other to co-construct their knowledge. Here, with the peer-writing activity, each student has to analyze a description of a procedure written by a peer and comment on it. This creates a collaborative experience which allows each student to describe the procedure more accurately.
This scenario pushes students to reflect on their actions which is an important skill for professionals to develop in order to learn from their experiences.
During the review task the student reflection is guided by a detailed list of criteria taken from professional association documents. It is important to detail those criterias so that the student understands them and learns how to apply them.
Recipe
DIY
Google Doc
This collaborative word processing website also has comments and revisions (“suggestion”) functionalities. It also allows users to easily share and access the workpage by sharing the link to the webpage.
Framapad
This collaborative word processing website allows multiple users to write simultaneously and to differentiate users by highlighting them using colors.
Microsoft Word
This was the original software used in the scenario. The office clerks should be used to using this software. However, they might not be aware of the comment and revisions functionalities which highlight revisions and allow commenting on the text.
Microsoft Teams
You can share the files using Microsoft Teams, or simply use the oneNote app or Wiki app for your students to write.
Tips and tricks
The final text can be added to the students' learning journals.
Choose a procedure relevant to your students' vocational field.
You can also use a workplace trace or a critical experience as a base for the peer-writing reflective activity (see the other peer-writing scenarios).
Be sure to provide guiding criteria for the revision task to ensure the activity’s efficiency.
Source
Boldrini, E., & Cattaneo, A. (2014). Scaffolding Collaborative Reflective Writing in a VET Curriculum. Vocations and Learning, 7(2), 145‑165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-014-9110-3