He is also the co-author of three widely-used composition textbooks- Writing Arguments, The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing, and Reading Rhetorically. He is the author of Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, 2 nd edition (Jossey-Bass, 2011). from the University of Washington (1972). Bean is a professor of English at Seattle University, where he holds the title of “Consulting Professor of Writing and Assessment.” He has an undergraduate degree from Stanford (1965) and a Ph.D.
Thinking about scaffolded assignments within a course or curriculum-facilitated by faculty-owned assessment-can support more robust student learning. Short assignments can also be scaffolded to build knowledge and skills needed for a longer paper at the end a course or for “expert insider prose” at the end of the curriculum.
Drawing on assignment examples and assessment stories from a variety of disciplines, this presentation will show how short writing assignments focused on authentic disciplinary problems can promote critical thinking and deepen students’ engagement with course concepts. This interactive keynote presentation has two goals: (1) to show how short, problem-based writing assignments can accelerate students’ growth from novice to expert within a disciplinary field and (2) to show how assessment can be a faculty-friendly process that leads to productive talk about curriculum and assignment design. "Faculty-Friendly Problem-Based Writing Assignments to Enhance Students’ Growth as Disciplinary Thinkers"