Supporting College Students with Disorder of Written Expression: A Web-Based Model for Teachers in Under- Resourced Contexts

Abstract

In many under-resourced contexts, college teachers who have students with special needs are often insufficiently supported due to external constraints, such as limited teacher training or geographical constraints. To promote educational equity as well as college teachers’ development in under-resourced contexts, this paper provides a model that highlights the role of college teachers’ self-directed development in relation to the use of web resources as knowledge suppliers. In particular, with disorder of written expression in English as the focus, the study demonstrates how college English teachers gain a systematic and multi-layered understanding of writing as a meaning-based activity through their self-directed use of web resources to best help the students. This paper concludes with implications in relation to the potential challenges of implementing the model at various levels in under-resourced contexts (e.g., the role of institutional assistance).