Exploring the effects of strategy-focused instruction in writing skills of 4 TH grade students
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Exploring the effects of strategy-focused instruction in writing skills of 4TH grade students L. Rodríguez-Málaga 1,2
2
& M. Cueli & C. Rodríguez
2
Received: 10 September 2019 / Accepted: 5 October 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
The improvement of writing skills is one of the aims of the educational system. The present study implemented strategy-focused instruction through the Cognitive SelfRegulation Instruction (CSRI) program which included three instructional components: Direct Teaching, Modelling, and Peer-Practice. The aim was to explore the short- and long-term effects of different sequences of the three CSRI instructional components on writing skills (reflected in greater Coherence, Structure and Quality of the text product). Six 4th grade primary education classes from three different schools (N = 126) were randomly allocated to the experimental conditions which differed in the order in which the instructional components were implemented: Direct Teaching, Peer-Practice, and Modelling (experimental condition 1, n = 47); or Modelling, Peer-Practice, and Direct Teaching (experimental condition 2, n = 36). A control condition (n = 43) was also included in which students received traditional instruction. Writing performance was measured through compare-contrast writing tasks. In addition, writing performance was assessed through the anchor text procedure (considering three variables: Coherence, Structure and Quality). Findings supported the effectiveness of strategy-focused instruction after four sessions of the CSRI program. Experimental conditions 1 and 2 showed a significant gain relative to the control condition and were equally effective for the improvement of writing skills over a short-term period. More specifically, the PeerPractice component was associated with the largest gains in the 4th grade students’ writing skills. Keywords Writing skills . Strategy-focused instruction . Direct Teaching . Modelling
* C. Rodríguez [email protected]
1
Department of Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy, Faculty of Education, University of León, León, Spain
2
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Oviedo, Plaza Feijoo s/n, 33003 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Rodríguez-Málaga L. et al.
Introduction Writing skills constitute a basic and fundamental condition of participation both in society and academic environments (Graham 2018). Becoming an effective writer demands not only mastery of transcription skills (e.g., handwriting and spelling) but also the deployment, executive control, and self-regulation of high level cognitive processes such as planning, drafting, and modifying ideas according to their correct linguistic form as well as revising and editing (e.g., Hayes 2012; van den Bergh et al. 2016). However, given its multidimensional nature, mastering writing is a significant problem for new writers who face a “double challenge” (Rijlaarsdam and Couzijn 2000). According to these authors, students must perform two tasks du
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