Krista Sarraf: hello, and welcome to this workshop on writing assignments that pose with good problems.
Krista Sarraf: Today we're going to start with a brief presentation about what it means to assign writing assignments that can pose wicked problems to your students and then we're going to go over and activity and discuss the key takeaways from today's talk.
Krista Sarraf: So a common problem that we all face as instructors, is that we want our students to generate new interesting and effective approaches to disciplinary problems.
Krista Sarraf: Whether that's a unique but effective way of approaching a math problem an unconventional approach to reading a literary text a pitch for an innovative business idea or new ways to manage infectious disease.
Krista Sarraf: Plus we're responsible for ensuring that our students learn how to communicate, not only with others within their discipline, but in the workplace as well, so how can we teach content encourage Problem Solving and improve our students communication skills all at the same time.
Krista Sarraf: The concept of wicked problems is useful here, because each discipline has problems it's trying to address.
Krista Sarraf: Sometimes these problems are particularly complex were wicked problems that lack a single correct answer.
Krista Sarraf: When we have these wicked problems we need original and effective solutions which leads to the working definition of creativity of on the screen.
Krista Sarraf: The definition i'm offering comes from the notions of wicked problems from our back, as well as originality malady and effectiveness from runco and Jager and it is that creativity is the use of effective and new or unique ideas or approaches to wicked problems.
Krista Sarraf: And again, a wicked problem is a class of social system problems that are built formulated where the information is confusing.
Krista Sarraf: Where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly confusing and that's from riddle 37.
Krista Sarraf: So at this point, you might pause the video or take a moment to think about some of these questions, so what are some wicked problems that you could have students write about you could have students write about wicked problems like environmental issues or the housing crisis or.
Krista Sarraf: job loss or wildflower wildfires or you could have students use writing as a way to address wicked problems so using writing to brainstorm new ideas and generate new approaches.
Krista Sarraf: So let's talk a little bit more about how writing itself is a wicked problem.
Krista Sarraf: So whenever we think about school writing typically we're asking students to do kind of these tiny assignments that don't necessarily present them with very challenging problems.
Krista Sarraf: So, we might ask students to write an essay exam to propose the best solution to climate change, and you might attach points to grammar mistake for each mistake the student loses a point.
Krista Sarraf: And so that assignment is somewhat wicked because it does have students propose solutions to climate change, but it's not as wicked as it could be, because with wicked problems there's no.
Krista Sarraf: best solution they're only better or worse, not true or false also being so focused on grammar can be problematic because it might discourage students from taking risks with their writing and trying out new ideas.
Krista Sarraf: Now, in the wild we're faced with wicked problems, all the time, so, for example, we might apply for a grant to address climate change.
Krista Sarraf: And when you think about if that is a wicked problems, think about again are the solutions only good or bad not true or false, can you test your approach and is the writing situation unique.
Krista Sarraf: So what we want to try to do is get school based writing to look a little bit more like writing in the wild so the writing assignments are wicked and require Problem Solving and critical and creative thinking from our students.
Krista Sarraf: So there are both linear and wicked problems and a linear problem is where you define a problem, and then you pose a solution.
Krista Sarraf: And a wicked problem is more ill formulated, there are conflicting audiences and there's more than one effective solution airy answer.
Krista Sarraf: So, again with a linear model you just assess the problem, and then you solve it, but with a wicked problem you have to constantly reassess the problem and work through this solution.
Krista Sarraf: And so we want to move our students towards wicked problems because they require ongoing engagement with the problem and allow our things our students to think more outside of the box, rather than just automatically going to a solution.
Krista Sarraf: So writing problems out there in the wild often are wicked and because of that, we need to try to create school writing assignments that prepare students for the real world.
Krista Sarraf: So you might think about how can we prepare students for the wickedness of in the wild communication problems and think about some of the strategies that you already use.
Krista Sarraf: So when designing wicked assignments, which are one way to kind of move students from class writing to in the wild writing.
Krista Sarraf: You might think about how ambiguous your assignments are so you don't want to purposefully confuse students, but you might want to have assignments that are kind of.
Krista Sarraf: have some areas that are ill formulated that allow students to make choices, or have them kind of really grappling with what you're asking them to do.
Krista Sarraf: You might replace topic centered papers with problem centered assignments ask open ended questions, rather than yes and no questions.
Krista Sarraf: You might also propose that your students work on wicked issues like wicked cultural, social or scientific problems.
Krista Sarraf: And explicitly tell your students, that the problem is wicked so that they know that there's, not a single correct solution and that they need to kind of continue to think of possible solutions to the problem.
Krista Sarraf: You might also engage your students in problem posing so instead of having students, you know kind of.
Krista Sarraf: think that they can just easily come up with research questions, for example, have them really dig in and think about what sorts of problems can they define and what or how does defining a problem in different ways, draw attention to different aspects of the problem.
Krista Sarraf: You might also try simulation based learning in your classes to kind of simulate real world audiences and engage students and that kind of wicked problem solving.
Krista Sarraf: So, if you look at the assignment sheet on the screen here and i'm not going to go into breakout rooms, since this is a recording after the fact.
Krista Sarraf: That you might look at these three different assignment options and pause the video and read through them and think about what are the pros and cons of each assignment.
Krista Sarraf: And we've got here, the first option, which is just write an eight to 10 page research paper on therapeutic touch.
Krista Sarraf: Option number two is, you are a staff nurse to large urban hospital recently the hospital became embroiled in a major controversy, where several nurses were discovered to be practicing.
Krista Sarraf: TT on patients and so look at the professional literature for evidence based studies and write an argument to the hospital governing board.
Krista Sarraf: The third option would be that assume that you and several colleagues seek grant funding to do a controlled research, study on the efficacy of TT for reducing I inside in pain and surgery patients.
Krista Sarraf: So the most the more wicked ones would be option two and three because they give students, a sense of a real audience.
Krista Sarraf: They require students to kind of problem solve and think about what would be the best way to present this argument to the audience.
Krista Sarraf: And also, they lack a single correct answer, whereas assignment one is just asking students to kind of regurgitate what they've learned about therapeutic touch and might not lead to very creative assignments.
Krista Sarraf: So these are a couple of the ways that you might design assignments to pose wicked problems if you would like more resources, please visit us at speak right.wvu.edu Thank you.