Engaging reluctant writers: the nature of reluctance to write and the effect of a self-regulation strategy training programme on the engagement and writing performance of reluctant writers in secondary school English
Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The studies reported in this thesis examine the way engagement and motivational theories provide insight and understanding into how to engage, more effectively, reluctant writers at the secondary school level. Models of ‘writing engagement’ and ‘reluctance to write’ are proposed which represent a synthesis of findings from literature reviews and from a series of four studies employing a range of quantitative and qualitative methods. Study One investigated the beliefs of experienced teachers of English about the nature of reluctance to write. The teachers were interviewed separately and asked to describe the characteristics of reluctant writers that they had taught displayed. The teachers identified the behaviours and beliefs that they believed these students exhibited and described what they tried to do to improve student engagement with writing. Study Two developed a tool to measure different levels of engagement with writing. A questionnaire was piloted with 99 Year 10 students from four different secondary schools and then further tested and refined with 265 Year 10 students from two secondary schools. The final version of the resulting instrument was later used in the final phase of this project as a means of measuring improvements in reported engagement levels as the result of an intervention. Study Three explored student beliefs about what hindered or aided their engagement with writing in the English classroom. Four focus groups were conducted involving 28 students from the two schools that had participated in the questionnaire study. The focus groups were divided into two types: engaged and reluctant writers. Results from the focus group study clarified the differences and similarities between the two groups of writers and helped to refine understanding of what was important in engaging writers with school based writing. The results suggest that interest in a topic and the perceived relevance of the task to the student are the main factors influencing engagement. Other findings suggest that reluctant writers are more likely to be influenced by teacher, self-belief and knowledge and skill factors than engaged writers who are more likely to want choice and control over their writing. Some gender differences also appeared. In particular, girls appeared to be more aware of the influence of self-belief factors on engagement, and reluctant girls appeared to be particularly influenced by teacher factors. Finally, Study Four was an intervention study exploring the impact a self-regulation strategy development treatment had on the engagement and writing performance of Year 10 students. Students’ ability to self-regulate during the writing process had been identified in each of the previous studies, and in prior research, as an important factor affecting writing engagement and achievement scores. This study specifically sought to measure if the intervention had a differing impact on reluctant versus non-reluctant students. Four treatment groups completed the writing engagement questionnaire before and after the intervention period. Pre and post samples of writing performance were also taken. Findings from this study showed that the reported levels of motivation to engage with writing, of reluctant writers, improved significantly as a result of the treatment and that the treatment had a significantly positive impact on the writing performance of all groups of students. The results from this research suggest that the proposed models of engagement with writing and reluctance to write include important aspects of the two constructs. The study also shows that a self-regulation strategy development intervention set in a regular classroom environment can have positive impacts for all students, and suggests that reluctant writers benefit the most from such interventions.
Author: Shaun Hawthorne
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2187943774