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Publication BEYOND CHEATING: CULTIVATING AI LITERACY THROUGH WRITING AND ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORKS(2025-04-17) Roderick, RyanAs generative AI technologies become increasingly integrated into educational environments, it is essential to consider how they shape human learning, creativity, and decision-making. While generative AI presents significant opportunities for augmenting knowledge creation, it also introduces challenges around ethical use, assessment, and pedagogy. To address these complexities, this poster presentation focuses on the evolving concept of AI Literacy—a broad and multifaceted skill set that includes prompt engineering, human-AI co-creation, ethical AI engagement, and AI-augmented higher order thinking. Drawing on frameworks from rhetoric and composition studies, I define AI Literacy as a social and rhetorical competency: the ability to critically interact with AI systems, understand their embedded biases, and navigate their use within specific contexts. Rather than treating AI as a replacement for human cognition, I consider how it can supplement and extend it by building on Bloom’s Taxonomy. A widely adopted framework in educational assessment, Bloom’s Taxonomy offers a starting point for exploring how learners collaborate with AI through iterative prompting, evaluation, and adaptation. By examining these interactions, we uncover strategies for recognizing and cultivating AI Literacy in educational settings. This work aims to support educators in designing learning experiences that promote critical, ethical, and effective engagement with generative AI.Publication EFFECTS OF TASK-SWITCHING AND PROACTIVE CONTROL ON METATMEMORY REGULATION(2025-04-17) Hacker, JessicaPast researchers have proposed a relationship between cognitive control and metamemory and several studies have provided the most support for a relationship between task-switching and metamemory regulation. Nevertheless, the evidence has been correlational. To my knowledge, the present study was the first to include an experimental manipulation incorporating a dual-task that required task-switching within a feeling of knowing (FOK) paradigm to directly observe the effects of task-switching on FOK accuracy. Research on cognitive control has demonstrated that engaging in proactive cognitive control typically leads to better performance in cognitive tasks and that young adults are naturally biased to engage in proactive control. Furthermore, cognitive control styles can be manipulated through a variety of means. I had a secondary interest in participants' metamemory awareness. Particularly if knowledge of task demands would lead participants to study word pairs longer in the dual-task block study phase relative to the single-task block study phase. The sample consisted of 191 healthy young adults (Mage = 19.34, SD = 1.57). I predicted that task switching would decrease FOK accuracy as well as the ability to engage in proactive control. These hypotheses were supported; however, study duration did not differ between the single and dual-task blocks. Importantly, the present study provided empirical evidence for a relationship between task-switching and metamemory regulation and provided a basis for which to further investigate this relationship.Publication TREATING MORAL INJURY FOR THE MODERN WARRIOR WITH EAS (EQUINE ASSISTED SERVICES)(2025-04-17) Grant, Justin M.; Mahoney, Tara; Decker, Kimberley; Hacker, JessicaMoral Injury (MI) is a profound psychological and spiritual wound resulting from experiences that violate deeply held moral beliefs, often occurring in high-stakes situations involving a betrayal of what is right by a legitimate authority. For American military veterans, MI can stem from combat-related actions such as harming others, witnessing death, or failing to prevent morally distressing events. Left unaddressed, MI can lead to lasting emotional, cognitive, behavioral, spiritual, and social consequences. Equine Assisted Services (EAS) offers a promising approach to addressing MI by leveraging the innate characteristics of horses, which are highly attuned to human emotions and nonverbal cues. Research has demonstrated that equine interactions support emotional regulation and facilitate trust, self-awareness, and connection—key elements in moral repair. The process of moral repair focuses on restoring integrity, addressing grief, making amends, and rebuilding hope and trust. By engaging with horses in a structured and supportive environment, veterans can experience a unique form of nonjudgmental acceptance that fosters healing and resilience. Studies suggest that therapeutic riding and Chaplain-enabled Equine Assisted Activities may be particularly effective in treating MI among veterans, given the significant overlap between MI and PTSD symptoms. Through equine interactions, veterans can reconnect with their values, work through moral dilemmas, and rebuild their sense of self and purpose. This presentation will explore best practices in EAS for treating MI, emphasizing ethical considerations for both horse and human. It will also address the stigma surrounding MI and highlight the importance of expanding awareness and access to collaborative therapeutic interventions for those who have served and still served. By integrating EAS into active duty and veteran care, we can offer a compassionate, effective pathway toward healing, moral reconciliation, and renewed hope for those affected by the invisible wounds of war.Publication Constructing Adult Literacies at a Local Literacy Tutor-Training Program(2013) Roderick, RyanThis study investigates how literacy was constructed at an adult literacy organization’s volunteer tutor-training program. By drawing on qualitative analysis of training texts used during training, such as training evaluations, and data gathered from interviews with experienced tutors, it is possible to identify the assumptions about literacy constructed by the training program and tutors’ training practices. Tutors seemed to present mixed assumptions about literacy: students simultaneously were given authority over their own literacy practices and literacy goals, while a sentiment of universally valued reading and writing skills was also present in terms of achieving fluency.Publication Improving Instructor Ethos through Document Design(2019) Wolfe, Joanna; Roderick, Ryan; Francioni-Rooney, AndreaDespite much attention given to visual rhetoric in Composition, there is evidence that most first-year writing instructors overlook document design, both in their instruction and in the documents they produce for their students. These instructors may be underestimating the role that visually informative prose (that uses document design features such as chunking and visual hierarchy) can play both in helping students understand assignment objectives and in establishing a student-centered ethos in their classrooms. To illustrate how visually informative prose helps shape student perceptions of instructors, 166 first-year undergraduates responded to two assignment prompts: a visually informative and a minimally designed prompt. Students perceived the instructor who wrote the visually informative prompt as more experienced, enthusiastic, and caring than the instructor who wrote the minimally designed prompt, and they found the task more interesting when it was presented in the visually informative prompt. These findings suggest that creating visually informative classroom materials is a relatively low-cost/high-payoff strategy that can positively shape students' perceptions of the instructor and assignments.Publication Becoming a Scholar: Genre Knowledge, Self-Regulation, and a Graduate Student’s Transition from MA to PhD(2020) Roderick, Ryan; Moreau, CraigThis study takes a close look at how prompted self-reflection on writing intervenes in a graduate student’s development of self-regulation and genre knowledge as he transitions from MA to PhD program in rhetoric. We present the case of one graduate student, ‘Eric,’ who was explicitly taught conventions and strategies for writing and prompted to reflect on writing projects over several semesters using an in-process protocol. Aligning data from in-process protocols, interviews, and drafts of Eric’s writing, we construct a fine-grained narrative that shows a complex and recursive relationship among Eric’s development of knowledge about academic genres, self-regulation practices, and sense of scholarly identity. This narrative raises questions about how genre knowledge and self-regulation inform each other in graduate-level writing, and it offers an example of a self-regulation intervention that may help graduate students develop specialized ways of writing.Publication Writing about Writing Processes: Self-regulation and Process Logs(2020-10-01) Roderick, RyanIn this blog post, I consider how WAW pedagogies might benefit from research on self-regulation of writing. Self-regulation refers to an ability to monitor and control knowledge and practices in pursuit of a goal. Drawing on self-regulation research, I present a prompt I call the “process log” that encourages students to self-regulate their writing. Then, I analyze some of the process logs I’ve collected as part of IRB-approved studies, to offer some examples of what researchers might learn when using process logs as an artifact of analysis. Ultimately, I suggest that WAW courses might use the process log as a way to encourage students to write about writing processes.Publication Using Signs of Student Engagement to Revise a First-year Writing Curricula(2021-08) Roderick, Ryan; Crowley, Adam; Talty, MorganThis article shares the development of a first-year writing curricula developed for Husson University and based on a Writing about Writing approach. We drew on data across sections and semesters to look broadly at how students engaged with a course website and more narrowly at individual students writing. From these sources, we piece together a limited but useful sense of student engagement and describe how such observations can inform curricular revision of an undergraduate writing course.Publication Self-Regulation and Rhetorical Problem Solving: How Graduate Students Adapt to an Unfamiliar Writing Project(2019-07) Roderick, RyanResearch on writing and transfer has shown that writers who have sophisticated rhetorical knowledge are well equipped to adapt to new situations, yet less attention has been paid to how a writer’s adaptability is influenced by their writing processes. Drawing on Zimmerman’s socio-cognitive theory of self regulation, this study compared the writing processes taken up by graduate student writers composing a research proposal for their final project in a tutor-training practicum. Findings from process logs, interviews, and drafts differentiated self-regulation strategies associated with varying degrees of success. The more successful writers framed problems in terms of potential solutions, used problems to set goals, and reacted to problems by creating a narrative of progress; in contrast, less successful writers avoided problems or framed them as dead-ends. Compared to the less successful writers, the more successful writers concluded the project with robust knowledge about research proposal writing. These findings suggest that self-regulation strategies may be linked to an ability to develop rhetorical knowledge and practices in the face of challenging writing situations.Publication DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND ITS LONG-LASTING IMPACT ON WOMEN’S HEALTH(2023-04-20) Helwig, Shelby; Wagner, AlexisDomestic violence (DV), also known as intimate partner violence, is experienced by many women. In fact, 1 in 7 Maine women report abuse from their intimate partners. In this research, I conducted a literature review to investigate the types of DV and how each impacts women’s mental health. I investigated this research question in two ways: (1) I examined published studies regarding DV and how it impacts the victims involved and (2) I determined if there is a correlation between abuse and long-lasting mental health problems. I searched for relevant articles on DV, domestic abuse, intimate partner violence, and mental health. I selected eight representative articles published between 2002 – 2021 in journals such as Partner Abuse, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Violence Against Women, and Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. All of these articles demonstrated that women who are abused currently or have previously been in an abusive relationship are negatively impacted mentally, emotionally, and financially. Women can experience many forms of abuse: physical, mental, emotional, and financial. Victims of each type of domestic abuse reported high rates of depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms with suicide attempts being three times higher in intimate partner violence survivors. Even further, DV impacts women’s physical health and many women are murdered by current or ex intimate partners. 40% of women who are murdered are killed by intimate partners and, in Maine, 43% of all murders are DV homicides. Moving forward, It is critical that healthcare and other organizations develop strategies to recognize the red flags of abuse and help protect women from their abusive situation before it escalates even further. In Maine, programs that can address a higher volume of victims with a focus on women scared to report could assist with the epidemic of DV.Publication THE STRESS IMPACTS OF RELOCATION ON ELDERLY(2023-04-20) Helwig, Shelby; Blackie, TeaganMoving into an assisted living facility can be a challenge and also place stress on the elderly, their caregivers, and their families. Specific stressors that the elderly face when moving into an assisted living facility include fear of losing family, memory, physical mobility, and freedom. I conducted a literature review to investigate how the stress of moving into an assisted living facility impacts an elder’s mental and physical health. I investigated this research question from multiple perspectives including the staff, family, and the elderly. I looked for articles that focused on moving into an assisted living facility, what the signs of depression and other mental health issues are in elderly, and what impact this move has on the family. I identified eight research articles published between 1995-2019 in journals such as Issues in Mental Health Nursing, Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, and Aging and Mental Health. These articles identified multiple pathways between elders moving into a long term care facility and stress. From a family perspective, family members were surprised and felt a sense of guilt when placing their elders into a home. From a staff perspective, burnout is prevalent due to overwork and understaffing. Unfortunately, families’ guilt and staff’s burnout can increase stress experienced by the elders in the care facilities. Additionally, stress driven by uncertainty, unfamiliarity, the fear of aging, as well as health and cognitive decline are related to greater stress during a transition to a care facility. When completing this literature review, I had a hard time finding articles that directly addressed the impact of transitioning into a care facility. The elderly population is growing and needs to be taken care of, thus, it is important for researchers to further research on this issue.