By Rya Bonavia
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Introduction
For a moment, imagine yourself as a writing center tutor. Students come to you, most likely, in a time of extreme stress and vulnerability. While I am not saying that writing centers are to be seen as a last resort, many students, including myself, find it difficult to vocally express the issues they face with a writing assignment or their writing in general. I try to exhaust all other options before I admit to myself that I need to ask another individual for help. I simply do not like asking others for guidance, as I do not want to burden them with my frustration and endless questions. But that is what writing centers should be utilized for.
As a psychological and brain sciences major at my university, I am quite exposed to different psychological theories, leading me to constantly think about how we, as a society, can apply these theories to our daily lives for the better. When thinking about various disciplines that can in fact be tied to writing center practice, my mind kept going back to the same subject – cognitive psychology.
The theories and implementations that I will be explaining can, and have already transformed writing center practice for tutors and their students. Now, instead of students coming to consultants when they believe they have no other choice, students come into writing centers because they truly believe that their writing will advance, and that their mental health and overall wellbeing will be restored as well. There will no longer be that lingering feeling in the back of students’ minds – that the writing center is not here to judge, but to help. To be utilized for not just writing, but to be heard.
Throughout this paper, I will take a deep dive into mindfulness meditation – a cognitive practice that has led to improvements in cognitive skills such as learning through 1) new experiences and 2) the decisions you make. Mindfulness training in this discipline can be defined as “the ability to focus attention in the present whilst acknowledging that thoughts and emotions that spring to mind are fleeting and changeable” and involves “nonjudgmental acknowledgement of one’s internal or external surroundings” (Johnson, 2018). I will connect this cognitive implementation to Writing Center practice by explaining cognitive load theory – this suggests that one’s working memory, another term for short-term memory, can only hold so much information over a period of time. To avoid overload, there are several practices that can be implemented into the Writing Center space, for instance creating an environment that reduces stress for students that come in seeking help.
Stress and anxiety can only overcrowd our cognitive load, so by alleviating even a small amount of one’s negative emotions, that leaves more space for the student to grow as a writer.
Lastly, I will touch on attribution theory – we must allow students to reflect on past failures with the tutor they are guided by, therefore creating a space in which the student feels comfortable opening up about their difficulties in writing during their consultation process. Collectively, these three breakthroughs in cognitive psychology can create a center that inspires growth in writing and as individuals.
Chapter I: Mindfulness
Mindfulness meditation has already proved to be an overwhelmingly positive addition to Writing Center practice – there has been quite an extraordinary amount of research throughout Writing Center scholarship. In fact, these articles and findings should make this psychological approach the standard in the training of Writing Center consultants.
Look to Katie Hupp and Elizabeth Mack – a Writing Center Coordinator and consultant at Metropolitan Community College, respectively – to understand how effective mindfulness in a Writing Center can be. This paper explores the impacts of mindfulness on tutors in a quarter-long project done in a community college’s Writing Center located in Omaha, Nebraska. All Writing Center consultants learned about the educational and theoretical value of mindfulness and its importance to higher education. These theories were then put into practice by the Writing Center consultants daily. Over an eight week-long period, consultants took part in mindfulness practices and exercises, both within the Writing Center and at their homes. After these weekly trainings, 100% of consultants that participated in the polling stated that utilizing mindfulness into their Writing Center style had an overall, positive impact on student consultations (in their opinions). Benefits included staying focused, listening, and being more patient with their students. A year later, the consultants were asked to reflect on how this mindfulness project is still used by them today. Consultants’ answers varied, but all took something from the project and still utilized it throughout their consultations (Hupp & Mack, 2017). Essentially, mindfulness-based practice creates benefits for both the consultant and the consultee–students receive focused attention and assistance, and consultants experience reduced stress and anxiety. Another study implemented mindfulness techniques on procrastination in student writers via writing tutors, leading to 74% of respondents agreeing that mindfulness positively affected their tutoring sessions and overall practice (Giaimo, 2021).
While Hupp and Mack strictly focus on the outlooks and positives in the perspective of the consultant, Sarah Johnson, a graduate Writing Center tutor, writes a fantastic article on the positive outcomes of mindfulness meditation implementation for the student as well. This piece embodies the fact that mindfulness creates a more supportive environment for students due to the nature of the Writing Center tutor. Johnson continues her piece by explaining how academic pressure and the perception of not having enough time to study, do activities, and rest create significant burdens that then lead to subjective stress like anxiety and tension, as well as depression. Additionally, these stressors lead to higher cognitive loads, or the amount of mental effort one expends.
Cognitive load is dependent upon the number of unfamiliar elements in learning materials necessary to be kept in working memory and how these said elements collaborate amongst one another. Due to the multiple novel elements in not only the student’s but also the tutor’s short-term memory, both of their cognitive loads become high. We, as tutors, feel less stress when we see our students understand and apply the advice we provide for them.
To further reiterate the importance of providing relief for students, a biometric Writing Center assessment measured how stress levels are impacted by tutoring students (Giaimo, 2021). The findings indicated a large drop in cortisol, a hormone that regulates stress levels, between tutors before and after their consultations. This shows that tutoring may in fact lead to a reduction in stress because we believe and witness that our meaningful work catalyzes results in the student’s performance. As we view our students’ relief and appreciation for our guidance, this emotion becomes contagious. If we incorporate mindfulness into our practice, we can perhaps better read our students below the surface and implement mindfulness with the end goal of relief. This also, as evidence presented, will reduce the cortisol levels of tutors as well – a win-win scenario.
By looking to cognitive psychology for mindfulness techniques and combating cognitive load theory, which will be further addressed in my following chapter, Johnson explains that tutors can be looked to as a supportive role and enhance the mental effort of their students. Mindfulness meditation can essentially make learning and writing the priority in the students’ short-term memory – this type of memory is quite limited in how much information it can store (Johnson, 2018). Essentially, tutors can create more space in this limited hard-drive for students to advance in their writing skills – one of the main concerns that Writing Centers are here to solve. The only way that this can happen is for coordinators to allow this information to be accessible to tutors, as this training should be utilized to significantly improve sessions with their students if it is available.
To further emphasize the importance of mindfulness in Writing Centers, Randall Monty discusses that this meditation practice can combat neoliberalism academia, or an institution in which students have come to be regarded “as customers, academic researchers are thought of as entrepreneurs competing for external grant funding, and the university itself more closely resembles a business model than a institute of higher learning” (Monty, 2019). By implementing mindfulness into Writing Center theory and practice, there is an advancement in mental and emotional wellness–all of which essentially negates the dehumanization of neoliberalism. Rather than tutors and students staying in their roles as workers and producers, mindfulness encourages these individuals to prioritize their emotional, mental, and physical well-being. As an effect of neoliberalism, more vulnerable students may feel even more negatively impacted. As such, tutors must be sure to create a space where students feel safe and counteract this negativity – the student’s wellness is more important than finishing an assignment. The Writing Center must be a humane space for students to feel safe and welcomed, and by incorporating mindfulness and other cognitive psychology strategies, students will feel less like robots and more like people.
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Chapter II: Cognitive Load Theory
Since mindfulness meditation is meant to combat high cognitive load, discussing cognitive load theory just seems fitting, doesn’t it? Our cognitive loads are dependent upon the amount of new information that is being thrown at us, and must be kept in our working memory for a certain amount of time to be transferred to our long-term memory. If these novel elements are not rehearsed or utilized in making connections with other information we have stored, then this knowledge essentially disappears from our brains completely. What makes it even more difficult for humans to create this seamless transfer from short-term to long-term memory is one’s personal stress.
Stress is essentially the contaminant in our working memory – it acts as an extraneous cognitive load, competing for the limited space we have in this part of our brains. If stress accomplishes its goals, as we lack guidance on how to fight back, this feeling dictates how we process any upcoming information and tends to lead us astray (Plass & Kalyuga, 2019). But students, individuals who are highly susceptible to stress, must be provided with the opportunity to be guided throughout their times of need. This is where Writing Centers can become the peacemaker in a student’s battle with the negative emotions that come from their writing.
But a high cognitive load is not exclusive to tutees, but also tutors, as every student is unique in a multitude of ways – students do teach tutors. I can personally say that this holds true for me and my experiences. I have learned so much from my students, especially the fact that all students respond differently to the same teaching style. I must adapt and even learn from my students – I must listen to and witness what approach works best for them. My cognitive load here is increasing, as I am gaining new knowledge on how this student has maximized their learning in the past and implementing that into our session.
The tutor’s role is to 1) be supporting and then 2) be instructional. The session itself must be “directed to each student as an individual in a unique, one-to-one interpersonal relationship (Johnson). Many consultants, including Sarah Johnson, have personally felt as though they missed the mark with the student they are tutoring. While she did seek to focus on the student’s paper and its progress, she believed that she did not support the student as much as she could have. This leads to the consultant’s cognitive load to be ridden with guilt.
An individual by the name of Jennifer Nicklay shares that some Writing Center consultants “‘felt guilt following consultations’ because they ‘perceived that there were acceptable and unacceptable ways to approach certain situations, rather than a range of flexible choices…. [G]uilt originates in how the Writing Center community is situated within the larger university and how an individual Writing Center community is structured’” (Johnson, 2018). While there is some leeway in how to approach situations during consultations, these options are also quite limited via the implicit rules consultants have to follow in the center. The guilt of the consultant is a result of the rules clouding their main objective: to provide support.
Our job is to focus on the writer, not the writing. We cannot be present for our students and alleviate some of their cognitive load if our’s is filled as well.
And consultations themselves involve a significant increase in the student’s cognitive load. The student is now processing information and then collaborating with the consultant on what to do with this knowledge. As a result, we must remove any lingering emotions that are blocking this information from entering their minds.
Tutors must also learn how to lessen their negative emotions as well. I love to think of the airplane metaphor here: we as tutors must put our “masks” on before helping our students put their “masks” on.
If tutors obtain the proper framework on how to clear even a small amount of cognitive load on their students, also known to us now as mindfulness meditation, our cognitive loads will also not be clouded by undesired emotions.
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Chapter III: Attribution Theory
At one point in your life, or perhaps even on a daily basis, you have reflected on your past triumphs and also your failures. This is a normal trait to have – we attribute these events in our lives with things our minds can grasp. We hope to find a cause or explanation for these situations. This phenomenon is known as attribution theory.
A lovely chapter in the book Theoretical Models for Teaching, Yustinus Mali discusses multiple attribution studies applied in an educational context, specifically how students reflect on their past performances in the classroom.
One study conducted suggests that the way in which students attribute their past failures may influence their approach to future assignments (Hsieh & Schallert, 2008). Similarly, another study found that students will have an increased amount of motivation in advancing their skills in a class that they previously found difficult when they can perceive their past shortcomings within themselves rather than uncontrollable, external components– we can fight to progress in our knowledge when we can change the narrative (Ellis, 2015). A fine example of this is for students to believe that their past failures were a result of poor effort on their part, which is an unstable, changeable component – if these students make a greater effort, they will have a higher probability of advancing in their learning. Effort is something that students can control, while, for example, the belief that a teacher having a personal vendetta against you is something that you cannot control and is stable, which would, in turn, lead to a lesser likelihood of attempting success (Mali, 2020).
As such, attribution theory creates the ideology that students can strengthen their perseverance to accomplish their learning goals that they have not been successfully accomplished in the past. When a student can properly attribute their previous successes or failures to internal, unstable, and explanations that are in their control (effort is one of these), their inspiration to outperform themselves will intensify (Dörnyei, 2001; Mori et al., 2010).
But how can people such as Writing Center consultants and educators utilize this theoretical model? While this chapter tends to focus on the teacher’s perspective, Writing Centers and instruction “overlap in pedagogy, instructional material, and instructor-student rapport between teaching a writing course and tutoring, the immediacy and ephemerality of Writing Center work is unique” (Meuse, 2016). In terms of Meuse’s statement of Writing Center consultations and immediacy, consultants can still utilize attribution theory in the little time they do have with students. Consultants can ask their students to think about a time where they have felt as though they were unsatisfied with their writing performance. Then, the student can write about this time in an exercise stating 1) why they think they have failed and 2) what they can learn from this time to further improve their writing in the present (Mali, 2020). After this exercise has been completed, the consultant can work with the student to find strategies that can tie these events to internal, controllable factors. When a student feels that they have leadership in how their learning can progress, the assignment they are working on can feel much more manageable.
By integrating attribution theory into Writing Center consultations, we as tutors can better understand what the student is particularly having difficulty with in their writing. After, we can properly guide them on the path to attribution – to attribute past defeats with components they can conquer.
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Conclusion
We can now connect just some of the concepts cognitive psychology has to offer to Writing Centers. Mindfulness meditation leads to an overall stress-reducing environment at a time where students may not initially believe this could occur. Students come to Writing Centers when they have persistent issues with their writing, most likely in a time of defeat. By incorporating mindfulness meditation practices into the centers, consultants can alleviate some of the emotions clouding their student’s cognitive load.
Our cognitive loads are utilized when we are learning new information and creating connections between these novel concepts and our current writing knowledge. Our cognitive load is located in our working memory, which is quite limited in space – it can only fit so much at a time. Unfortunately, the negative emotions students experience from schooling also take up this area.
Consulting students with an already high cognitive load may not be very effective for the student’s long-term writing progress, as their brain will have much difficulty in containing this new information we are providing and the negativity they feel below the surface.
If consultants are properly trained in utilizing mindfulness meditation, the consultations themselves will become more effective and have a higher likelihood of accomplishing their goal – to allow for long-term writing development.
Applying attribution theory would also be a great philosophy to implement into the centers – students can attribute prior weaknesses in performance to elements they can control, like the effort they put into their writing assignments. When these individuals are guided by consultants in finding these controllable factors, the student’s cognitive load could also decrease, as they can now focus on progressing in their future writing rather than dwelling on the past.
Together, these quite extraordinary findings in the cognitive psychology discipline can, and already has begun to, strengthen Writing Centers, with consultants ready to confront the enemy – stress and negativity – head on.
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Works Cited:
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511667343
Driscoll, D.L. & Wells, J. (2020) Tutoring the Whole Person: Supporting Emotional Development in Writers and Tutors. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal 17(3). https://www.praxisuwc.com/173-driscoll-wells
Ellis, R. (2015). Understanding second language acquisition (2nd ed.) Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017.07.013
Giaimo, G.N. (2021). A Matter of Method: Wellness and Care Research in Writing Center Studies. Wellness and Care in Writing Center Work, 130–135. https://doi.org/10.7330/9781646423606.c008
Hsieh, P.H.P., & Schallert, D. L. (2008). Implications from self-efficacy and attribution theories for an understanding of undergraduates’ motivation in a foreign language course. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 33(4), 513–532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.01.003
Hupp, K. & Mack, E. (2017). Mindfulness in the Writing Center: A Total Encounter. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, 14(2). https://www.praxisuwc.com/mack-and-hupp-142?rq=mindfulness%20
Johnson, S. (2018). Mindful Tutors, Embodied Writers: Positioning Mindfulness Meditation as a Writing Strategy to Optimize Cognitive Load and Potentialize Writing Center Tutors’ Supportive Roles. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, 15(2). https://www.praxisuwc.com/johnson-152?rq=cognitive%20psychology
Mali, Y.C.G. (2020). Attribution Theory. Theoretical Models For Teaching and Research. https://opentext.wsu.edu/theoreticalmodelsforteachingandresearch/chapter/attribution-the ory/
Meuse, J. (2017). Tutoring sessions as safe spaces: Affective writing and the Personal Personal Statement. Another Word. https://dept.writing.wisc.edu/blog/tutoring-sessions-as-safe-spaces-affective-writing-and-t he-personal-personal-statement/
Monty, R. (2019). Undergirding writing centers’ responses to the neoliberal academy. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal 16(3). https://www.praxisuwc.com/163-monty-et-al?rq=mindfulness
Mori, S., Gobel, P., Thepsiri, K., & Pojanapunya, P. (2010). Attributions for Performance: A Comparative Study of Japanese and Thai University Students. JALT Journal 32(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.37546/jaltjj32.1-1
Plass, J.L., Kalyuga, S. (2019) Four Ways of Considering Emotion in Cognitive Load Theory. Educational Psychology Review 31, 339–359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09473-5
About the Author
Rya Bonavia is an undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, majoring in Psychological and Brain Sciences and Professional Writing. With her passion for personalized education implementation, she has continued to advocate for the necessary changes our nation’s educational system must make, an effect of personally experiencing the hardships faced by the students she has tutored and mentored.
Rya’s journey began at a young age, inspired by her grandmother, an immigrant from Iran who has faced significant language barriers here in the United States. Throughout her high school years, Rya dedicated herself to tutoring Assyrian students, connecting with them on both academic and cultural levels. She provided individualized educational programs, as she sought to alleviate the stress and pressure her peers faced from their ethnic families.
At UCSB, Rya continued her mission by researching the community college to university transfer process and developed personalized schedules for her peers. Her persistence has helped many students achieve their academic goals: to graduate on time and properly navigate the unfamiliarities of higher education.
As a passionate advocate for education reform, Rya aims to combine her skills in psychological sciences and writing to bring about systemic changes that support students with diverse needs. Her ultimate goal is to become an attorney, specializing in educational policy and ensuring that no student is left behind due to language barriers, disabilities, or other challenges beyond their control.