VSU Writing Tutoring: Exploring the Evolution of Sociocultural Settings and Strategies
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Authors
Cooper, Anna Elizabeth
Issue Date
2025-06-17
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Academic theses , Collaborative learning , Electronic records , Peer teaching , Rhetoric and composition , Sociocultural theory , Tutoring , Valdosta State University , Writing centers , Writing--Study and teaching
Alternative Title
Abstract
This thesis examines the effects of sociocultural changes on the writing tutoring practices and environments of Valdosta State University’s three writing tutoring iterations: The Writing Center, Student Success Center, and Academic Support Center. Through an interview series involving past and current peer writing tutors and writing tutoring staff, this thesis evaluates the similarities and differences in collaborative learning, scaffolding, and dialogic interactions that have influenced the sociocultural writing tutoring environment. After collecting interview data from each writing tutoring generation, this study explores how the writing center’s physical environment, community values and goals, and sociocultural-based tutoring training practices have shaped tutees’ writing development. Additionally, tutor and staff interviews help acknowledge how sociocultural tutoring strategies, based on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, Bruffee’s collaborative learning, and Bakhtin’s dialogic theory, have effectively taught students how to write over time. This study further clarifies which tutoring methods should be maintained and which aspects could improve. Overall, this thesis describes Valdosta State University’s writing tutoring impact over the years, emphasizing the relationship between sociocultural writing-based practices and collaborative environments in providing students with effective writing support.
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This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.