Action Research Inspired by Critical Incidents: Developing Academic Writing Instructions

This paper focuses on an action research (AR) project that a novice university English instructor conducted in their second and third years of teaching an academic research writing course based on their former study on the analysis of critical incidents identified in the same course in their first year of teaching. The AR project involved adopting new assignments and activities to help students strengthen not only research skills to find and evaluate sources but also writing skills to present their arguments effectively by paraphrasing, summarizing, and referencing sources appropriately. The reflections primarily based on the instructor’s observations and the students’ survey responses indicate that those implemented changes had some apparent educational benefits in cultivating the aforementioned skills; however, the ongoing challenges about plagiarism, especially with the use of generative AI, reveal the need to make further improvement by continuing to modify assignments and activities in their future courses. 本稿は、著者が大学英語講師として一年目に教えた論文作成の授業で起こった重要事例の分析に関する以前の研究をもとに、二・三年目の授業で行ったアクションリサーチについて取り扱う。本研究では、文献を探して吟味するリサーチスキルだけでなく、言い換えや要約、引用を適切に行うことで効果的に主張を表すライティングスキルを強化するための新たな課題や活動を取り入れた。主に著者の観察と学生の授業アンケート結果により振り返ったところ、これらの変更点は前述のスキルを育む上で概ね教育的効果があったと察するが、特に生成AIを利用した剽窃行為が引き続き起こっている問題を考えると、今後の授業でさらに課題や活動を工夫し改善を重ねていくことが求められる。