News

Another New Article on the Writerly

For the second time in three weeks, a new article on the writerly has been published. “‘Capturing moments’ and ‘creating opportunities’: applications of the writerly peer observation framework,” co-authored by Robert Gray, Laura Cruz, Andrea Ragonese, Alexander van der Haven, and Claire Major, was published in The International Journal for Academic Development (IJAD).

The paper presents the Writerly Protocol, which divides writerly teaching and learning into three dimensions: creating spaces, engaging in dialogue, and making meaning. It also situates the writerly protocol within the process of peer observation of teaching, providing a novel alternative to traditional forms of observation. The paper also explores, for the first time, the original intention of the writerly framework when Rob started applying Roland Barthes’s ideas on writerly texts to teaching and learning in higher education: the evaluation of online courses.

You can see the article here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1360144X.2025.2573897

For more information on The Writerly Protocol and the accompanying peer observation process, see the files below.

  1. The Writerly Protocol Annotated (pdf)
  2. The Writerly Protocol Observation Process (pdf)
  3. The Writerly Protocol Instructor Questionnaire

Finally, we would like to thank André Mestre for his help with the visual design of these documents and Joél Lewis Billingsley and Matt Russell for their help in developing the framework and protocol.

New Article on the Writerly

A new article on the writerly, “Inflection and Innuendo: Using the Writerly Framework to Achieve Deep Learning and Scientific Intuition,” was recently published in Innovative Higher Education. Co-authored by Robert Gray, Matthew Russell, and Eoghan Reeves, the paper explores how a writerly approach to teaching happens in a geochemistry course using focus group and interview data from students.

This is an important step in the development of the concept of writerly pedagogy as it’s the first truly empirical study using the the writerly as a framework (although another article will be out soon in The International Journal for Academic Development that uses the Writerly Protocol to evaluate online courses).

You can see the article here:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10755-025-09855-4?fbclid=IwY2xjawNTCc5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHrnF7h6uNRllf0ogHJNYu4dGhd1KPl_Tr_8eRF54fol9NzObD-gIqDybCwYX_aem_Htgnb9za-CDcIuGWQRyLHA

Cover of Innovative Higher Education

TeLEd Event, August 2025

The TeLEd research group at the University of Bergen (TeLEd stands for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) offers a monthly webinar series that features speakers from all over the world, ranging from one of the over 500 members of the group sharing their research or teaching innovations to some of the biggest names in the field.

The TeLEd Event for August 2025 will feature Laura Cruz (from Penn State) and Rob Gray (from UiB) giving an interactive session on the writerly entitled, “In Search of the Writerly: A Framework for Meaningful Learning.” You can learn more about the event here and join the session here.

You can use this link to join TeLEd.

The session will take place on Thursday, 28. August, 14.00-15.30 CEST (which is 8:00-9:30am EDT in the US).

To participate in the session, you will need the following files:

New Article on the Writerly

An article on the writerly came out in Teaching and Learning Inquiry back in April. The article, “Learning Is [Like] an Act of Writing: The Writerly Turn in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education,” explores how the writerly can be manifested in the classroom using illustrative examples based on comments from a chemistry professor.

You can see the article here:

https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/TLI/article/view/79358

Photo of blackbird, by AS Morton, cropped

New Publication on the Writerly

This is the image the article is based around. The picture is of me writing "Learning is an act of writing" in the margin of Roland Barthes's S/Z, on the page that includes much of his central thinking about the writerly.

An article that works kind of as my teaching philosophy statement was recently published in Transformative Dialogues.

It is titled “Learning as Interpretation, as [Re]Writing: A Philosophy of Teaching and the Function of the Writerly,” and you can access it here: https://journals.psu.edu/td/article/view/1819

Gray, Robert. (2024). Learning as Interpretation, as [Re]Writing: A Philosophy of Teaching and the Function of the Writerly. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal 17(2), 101-107. https://doi.org/10.26209/td2024vol17iss21819

Upcoming Talk on the Writerly

Rob Gray will be giving an online webinar for Auburn University at Montgomery as part of National Distance Learning Week (US). The webinar is titled “Online Learning as a Textual Act: The Role of the Writerly in Course Design and Evaluation” and will take place on Thursday, 7. November at 9:00 am CST / 16:00 CET.

Image

This workshop presents new ways to think about how students engage with course content by reconceptualizing learning as an act of writing, an act of meaning making. Focusing on this “writterly” concept of learning, this session explores how to adapt it to the context of online course design and evaluation.