The Same Old Seminar in a New Written Format
The Same Old Seminar in a New Written Format

Summary/Abstract: Studies in various professional domains have found that university graduates lack sufficient ‘soft’ professional knowledge and skills such as oral and written competencies. This current action research explores the process and outcomes of teaching preschool student teachers a new writing genre. Within a controlled design, 46 senior undergraduate students in an Israeli teachers’ college attended two similar annual seminars conducted by the author. Ten of them volunteered for the experimental group who wrote their research project in the format of a professional article. That format was a relatively short text written in simple jargon-free language, in contrast to the type of articles appearing in peer-reviewed academic journals. The control group (N=36) wrote A seminar paper according to the conventions of academic writing. Comparing students’ perceived academic writing skills within subjects and between groups, before and after the program showed no significant differences. The students’ open qualitative reflections vividly describe the problems they faced at the beginning of the course and the satisfaction they shared at the end. The discussion addresses these unexpected outcomes, criticizes the reliance on one conservative writing genre, and emphasizes the importance of teaching other up to date and more relevant genres that meet current professional demands.

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