Do effective practices for teaching writing change students' relationship to writing?

Exploratory study with students aged 10-12 years

Abstract

The present research aims to highlight the impact of effective writing instruction on 1) the progress that students can make in their written products and 2) the relationship that students have with writing. It is not yet known what influence such instruction can have on primary school students' relationship with writing, particularly the emotional, conceptual and axiological dimensions of this relationship. Writing instruction that includes known effective practices was contrasted with a teacher's usual practices. Two classes of 10- to 12-year-old students (a total of 40 students) were given instruction aimed at supporting their production of the same kind of text, but based on either usual practices or known effective practic-es. The results show that writing instruction that implements effective practices leads to greater progress by students than a teacher's usual practices. In addition, students who experienced the system combining effective principles for teaching writing reported an improvement in their relationship with writing.