The Extension and Practicality of Heutagogy in College Writing Education

This study was conducted to explore the possibility of applying and implementing heutagogy in college writing classes and to provide meaningful implications for future college writing education. To achieve this research purpose, we analyzed in-depth interview data, reflection journals, and lecture evaluations of liberal arts writing class professors. First, it was found that heutagogy was useful for understanding the learner context in writing classes. This result supports the basic assumption of heutagogy that writing is derived from personal experience and ultimately develops the capacity of learners as the main actors. Second, the participants emphasized that in applying the heutagogy principle to college writing classes, it should be conducted as a self-directed learner-centered class and that the ultimate goal of writing classes should be to expand the transferability of learning. Third, college students are learners with little writing experience and are said to be unable to create the purpose, topic, and structure of purposeful writing on their own. The process in which learners later learn positive problem-solving methods in problem situations and find new paths in the process of accepting them can be interpreted as actively connected to the double-loop learning context of heutagogy. Effective heutagogy strategies for future writing classes are also discussed.