Otto Kruse (Zurich, Switzerland) and I co-ordinate Workgroup 2 of this network, which was established in Spring 2008, and is financed by COST, European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research.
The main objective of the Network is to improve our understanding of how written production is mastered and how this learning process can be made more effective for each and every European citizen, especially children at school and adults in the workplace. Click for more information about the network as a whole, more information about Workgroup 2, on Effective learning to write at schools and in the workplace, click here. Expertpool for the Barcelona April 6-7 2009 meeting. If you want to join this workgroup, please read carefully about the two topics and the prerequities to partcipate, fill in this form, and send it to G.C.W.Rijlaarsdam@uva.nl >Provisional Programm Barcelona Workshop 6-7April 2009 Universiteit van Amsterdam Graduate School of Teaching and Learning
The European Research Network on Learning to Write Effectively (ERN-LWE)
It is mainly through writing that knowledge is created and shared across boundaries of culture. A key objective is to improve our understanding of how written production is mastered and how this learning process can be made more effective for each and every European citizen, especially children at school and adults in the workplace. Given the diversity of educational systems and languages, it is important to build a common multidisciplinary research programme, sharing theoretical, methodological and educational resources. This research programme needs to focus on four complementary areas: “Early acquisition of writing skills”, “Improvements in written communication”, “Design of written documents” and “Technological advances in writing tools”. By bringing together European research teams that are already working on the topic of writing - or are intending to do so -, the COST Action will support the building of an active and open network sustained by regular scientific events, research meetings and junior researchers’ training. This research network will provide a means of disseminating recommendations throughout European society (schools, universities, workplace) in order to help professionals and citizens write, learn to write and teach writing more effectively within their particular cultural context, as well to communicate across cultural boundaries through writing.
Keywords: Writing skills, Mother tongue, Second/foreign language, Digital tool technology, Classroom teaching, Workplace/Professional writing