Abstract:

The paper presents a teaching and learning experience aimed at improving students’ academic writing skills at post-graduate level. The activity was carried out in the course “Communication for Peace” of the Master in International Studies in Peace, Conflict and Development at the University Jaume I (Castellón, Spain).

The paper will describe the experience of introducing new active methodologies to enhance learning practices to help students improve their academic writing. In order to present the experience, the paper will be organized in the following sections. First, we will introduce the context of the course within its post-graduate program and the peculiarities of the international and interdisciplinary students’ background. Second, we will review the main conceptual and pedagogical approaches that sustain the introduction of a workshop on academic writing, based on active learning methodologies. Third, we will describe the structure and activities of the theoretical-practical workshop with its main parts: preparatory assignment, professor’s explanation, students’ personal work and professor’s individual tutoring, students peer review and mutual support, and final reflection on the learning process. Fourth, we will discuss the experience assessing both positive outcomes and challenges encountered, also taking into account students’ feedback and the implementation of the workshop in the last two years. Finally, we will present the conclusion on this experience offering some guidelines that may be useful to other programs interested in carrying out similar practices in their educational settings.

Keywords:

Academic writing, Active learning, Analytical thinking, Critical thinking, Higher Education, International students, Online tools, Peer review, Post-graduate.