Feb 17th
Gentle Colleagues:
As we have so little time to discuss pedagogy face-to-face, I’m taking this opportunity to present you with a situation and ask for your advice via the only means available--our UPH listserv.
Background
I’ve been involved with Capstone for the past three or four years. Actually, one way or the other, each of us with responsibility for graduate students is involved with Capstone; I just happen to be one of the five capstone faculty members (along w/ Bea, Frank, Lorna and HPM-DPH student Linda McDowell) who helps shepherd upper level students through the capstone essay writing process so that by the time you receives one or two essays to evaluate, those essays represent the best possible products each of our capstone students can produce in the limited time we have with them.
Capstone has explicit exit requirements (below are some of them), which in many ways are the degree programs’ implicit competencies all students are expected to meet.
1 Read and understand what’s published in English-language textbooks and journal articles, and newspapers and magazines
2 Write persuasively in a mature voice, using grammatically correct English
3 Locate appropriate sources of information
4 Evaluate the professional literature and claims made in the lay press
5 Use an electronic referencing system (such as but not limited to EndNote or RefWorks)
Every curriculum must answer six questions: What is taught? When? Where? To whom? How? And with what effect? My question is: when and where in each program’s curriculum are students required to demonstrate their ability to perform each of the activities listed above? I’m sure we all agree that items #1 and #2 are among our entrance requirements. Being able to read & write English is an expectation we have of all of our entering students because it's required to succeed in our programs, from the first course to the last.
Problem
When a student enters our programs and succeeds despite not having the skills listed above, where does the buck stop and who stops it?
There’s a foreign-born student in my capstone cohort who cannot write persuasively in a mature voice, using grammatically correct English. She cannot write grammatically correct English, period. So, it stands to reason that whatever she says in writing will not be persuasive and polished. Here are my options:
• I can edit the hell out of the first draft of her paper that she submits to me so that by the time you or one of your colleagues gets her second draft it sounds good. She will graduate, but she still will not be able to write acceptable English.
• I can return the paper to her with the instructions that she must resubmit her paper that is grammatically correct, which would give her these options:
o Rewrite the paper without additional tutoring. She will likely fail to produce an acceptable paper and thus not graduate this semester.
o Have the paper edited by someone who puts it into acceptable English. The student will probably have paid what could be a great deal of money and would probably have learned practically nothing, She will still not be able to write English, but will graduate this semester.
o Learn to write English, rewrite the paper, and graduate sometime in the future.
o Withdraw without graduating.
What would you do in my shoes/how do you suggest I proceed? What are the school’s options so this situation does not continue recurring?
/arlene
Arlene Spark, EdD, RD, FADA, FACN
Professor of Nutrition
CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College
2180 Third Ave (room 609)
New York, NY 10035
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