Original article: LINK
By Clarence Ng & Steve Graham
Effective writing skills are essential for success in school, work, and everyday life. However, research has shown that students in countries like Australia, the UK and the USA are struggling with children’s writing proficiency. This issue is especially pressing for students from economically underserved areas.
A school’s ambitions for teaching writing
A school’s ambitions for teaching writing reflect what they aim to achieve through their writing instruction. Their goals influence their classroom practices, students’ motivation, and overall writing outcomes. Research identifies four types of school ambition:
- Mastery – The school is sincerely and deeply interested in students’ long-term learning and development.
- Ability – The school is focused on their own competence in delivering effective writing instruction so children achieve genuine academic competency.
- Ability-avoidance – The school is focused on getting children to produce writing that looks competent and independent (also called ‘gaming the system’, ‘presenting competency’ or ‘fake competency’).
- Work-avoidance – Schools are focused on making their lives easier.
Understanding these different approaches can help schools reflect on their instructional strategies. A school’s ambitions shape the way they view their students’ writing abilities. For example:
- A mastery school may implement personal writing projects and encourage revision and proof-reading to develop students’ writing skills over time.
- An ability school might seek professional development to improve their own teaching effectiveness.
- An ability-avoidance school may concentrate on ‘presenting’ assessment benchmarks in children’s writing rather than genuinely developing their writing competency.
- A work-avoidance school is likely to use pre-packaged writing schemes, worksheets, plan minimal writing projects, and provide less feedback to students.
Most schools are likely have a mix of these goals, but reflecting on them can help refine your school’s strategy to better support your economically underserved students.
Understanding teachers’ ambitions for teaching writing to economically underserved students
The study explored how teachers’ beliefs and goals for teaching writing influenced their instructional practices, particularly for students from economically underserved areas.
Key findings include:
- Teachers who believed economically underserved students lacked the cognitive abilities for writing were more likely to adopt ability-avoidance and work-avoidance goals. In addition, they focused on only teaching basic writing skills. Finally, these teachers allocated the least amount of time to teaching writing.
- Teachers who pursued mastery goals were more likely to teach advanced writing skills to economically underserved pupils. Mastery-driven teachers were generally older and had more experience teaching economically-underserved students and so knew what children are truly capable of. In addition, mastery-driven teachers were more likely to praise their teacher training and other writing CPD. Finally, mastery-driven teachers dedicated lots of time and effort to their writing instruction.
This research highlights the complex relationship between what schools believe about economically underserved students’ writing abilities and the way they approach teaching. Schools with teachers who believe that economically underserved students have strong cognitive abilities (and so do not need a simplified writing curriculum) are more likely to set mastery-driven goals and teach advanced writing skills. On the other hand, schools which think economically underserved students struggle with writing tend to focus on basic instruction and are more likely to avoid setting ambitious writing goals.
Why mastery matters
Findings from the study suggest that teachers and schools who set themselves mastery-driven ambitions provide a more effective and motivating writing education for economically underserved students. When mastery is the dominant motivation, teachers are more likely to challenge students with advanced skills and reject the idea that economically underserved students need only basic writing instruction. On the other hand, schools which focus on performance-related goals deny their students the proper writerly apprenticeship they deserve:
- Mastery-driven schools – These schools prioritise students’ long-term learning and writing development. They focus on teaching advanced writing skills and believe economically-underserved students can succeed without relying on a simplified ‘back-to-basics’ writing curriculum. They also spend more time teaching writing.
- Performance-driven schools – These schools are more focused on getting their students to present a ‘fake’ (or superficial) level of competency in their writing. They often believe that economically underserved students naturally struggle with writing and tend to emphasise basic skills instruction as a result. They spend less time teaching writing and often feel discouraged by the writing their economically underserved students produce.
- Moderate schools – These schools hold a mixture of mastery and performance ambitions. They are more adaptive than performance-driven schools and show a more centralist approach to their writing instruction.
Implications for schools
This study underscores the importance of helping schools and teachers develop positive beliefs about economically underserved students’ writing abilities and encourage them to set mastery-driven goals. To enhance writing outcomes for economically underserved students, schools can:
- Reflect on their ambitions to align with best practices for student writing growth [see LINK for more].
- Use evidence-based writing instruction that balances the teaching of basic and advanced writing skills [see LINK for more on evidence-based writing instruction].
- Engage in long-term professional development to challenge misconceptions about economically underserved students’ abilities [LINK for more on this].
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