Do sixth-grade writers need process strategies?

Torrance, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5305-4315, Fidalgo, R and Robledo, P, 2015. Do sixth-grade writers need process strategies? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 85 (1), pp. 91-112. ISSN 2044-8279

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Abstract

Background: Strategy-focussed writing instruction trains students both to set explicit product goals and to adopt specific procedural strategies, particularly for planning text. A number of studies have demonstrated that strategy-focussed writing instruction is effective in developing writing performance.
Aim: The present study aimed to determine whether teaching process strategies provides additional benefit over teaching students to set product goals.
Sample: 94 typically developing Spanish sixth-grade (upper primary) students.
Method: Students received 10 hours of instruction in one of three conditions: Strategy-focussed training in setting product goals and in writing procedures (planning and
revision; Product-and-Process), strategy-focussed training in setting product goals (Product-Only), and product-focussed instruction (Control). Students' writing
performance was assessed before, during, and after intervention with process measures based on probed self-report and holistic and text-analytic measures of text quality.
Results: Training that included process instruction was successful in changing students' writing processes, with no equivalent process changes in the Product-Only or control
conditions. Both Process-and-Product and Product-Only conditions resulted in substantial improvements in the quality of students' texts relative to controls, but with no evidence of benefits of process instruction over those provided by the Product-Only condition. Teaching process substantially increased time-on-task.
Conclusions: Our findings confirm the value of strategy-focussed writing instruction, but question the value of training specific process strategies.

Item Type:	Journal article
Alternative Title:	Do sixth grade writers need process strategies? Writing process instruction [running head]
Publication Title:	British Journal of Educational Psychology
Creators:	Torrance, M., Fidalgo, R. and Robledo, P.
Publisher:	Wiley
Place of Publication:	Oxford
Date:	March 2015
Volume:	85
Number:	1
ISSN:	2044-8279
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1111/bjep.12065 DOI
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 09:45
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:10
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/2266

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