How teachers manage exemplar use : a grounded theory of English for academic purposes teachers

Abstract

Exemplars are sample texts chosen to exemplify levels of quality or competence. They are typically used to help develop student understanding of criteria and standards of assessment (Hendry, Bromberger, & Armstrong, 2011) or as aids to students in improving their writing skills (Hawe & Dixon, 2014). Although exemplars research is gaining more interest, there has been little research on how teachers manage the process of using and sharing exemplars with their students. This research explores this issue in more depth. This study adopts a constructivist grounded theory methodology to theorize how teachers decided to most effectively share exemplars. The study involved twelve participants who were lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at a university in Hong Kong. The participants were observed using exemplars in their class and were also interviewed before and after their observations. The findings revealed a wide range of practices with regard to how teachers managed exemplar sharing. There were noticeable differences in teachers’ exemplar decisions, including the source of the exemplars (student-created, teacher-created or published texts), whether or not to modify them, and the number of them used. There were also differences in the extent and manner to which exemplars were used with explicit assessment criteria and differences in the extent of the dialogue around exemplar use. The resulting theory constructed from the findings is a Theory of Mediated Decision-Making in Exemplar Use. It demonstrates how teachers manage the process of sharing exemplars and illuminates key decision points and teachers’ differing purposes and aims for sharing exemplars. It also shows the mediating factors that appeared to have some influence on the decisions that teachers took. The patterns identified led to the construction of a typology of approaches to exemplar use with three distinct approaches identified; a structured approach, a discovery approach and a dialogic approach. The thesis argues that while each approach has its merits, an approach that is dialogic is most likely to effectively develop student writing in the longer term. The main significance of the study is its contribution to theory about how teachers manage exemplar use. The study offers an in-depth understanding of the process by which teachers decide how to share exemplars and the range of approaches they take. The study also constructs a typology of approaches to exemplar sharing, something which has both theoretical and practical value. The study further suggests implications for EAP practice, including more exemplar use and enhanced dialogue around exemplars to better help students compare their writing against writing of better quality and to better discern and internalize what good quality writing looks like.