Patterns of Cognitive Self-Regulation of Adolescent Struggling Writers

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between patterns of cognitive selfregulatory activities and the quality of texts produced by adolescent struggling writers (N = 51). A think-aloud study was conducted involving analyses of self-regulatory activities concerning planning, formulating, monitoring, revising, and evaluating. The study shows that the writing processes of adolescent struggling writers have much in common with "knowledge telling" as defined by Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987). Nevertheless, there are interesting differences among the individual patterns. First, it appears that adolescent struggling writers who put more effort in planning and formulation succeed in writing better texts than do their peers. Furthermore, selfregulation of these better-achieving writers is quite varied in comparison to the others. Therefore, it seems that within this group of struggling writers, self-regulation does make a difference for the quality of texts produced. Consequently, some recommendations can be made for the stimulation of diverse self-regulatory activities in writing education for this special group of students. 304 Written Communication 29(3) Keywords writing processes, poor writers, low-achieving writers, writing strategies, knowledge telling, writing performance, protocol think-aloud Learning to write well is a necessity for young people (Graham & Perin, 2007). Along with reading comprehension, writing skill is an important factor for academic and professional success and a basic requirement for participation in the current information society. Yet, studies in a range of countries have signaled that many adolescents struggle with literacy and that large numbers of adolescents are unable to write at the levels required by the school curriculum and future employers (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2006;

The orchestration of processes in relation to the product, and the role of psychological variables in written composition. [La orquestación de procesos en relación con el producto, y papel de las variables psicológicas en la composición escrita]

“…Looking more closely at the PE students' engagement in the process of written composition, and more specifically at tasks characteristic of the planning process, it is noteworthy that in both cases, it was the PE students who made most use of these, despite their variable complexity. In this regard, it was to be expected that PE students, who apparently possessed little or no knowledge about a diversity of subjects or discourse (González, 2003), devoted more time and frequency to reading background information; however, this was not the case for drawing up an outline, a task which requires a certain degree of self-regulation that can only be achieved through experience of writing (De Milliano, Van Gelderen and Sleegers, 2012). Perhaps these results reflect the current trend -prompted by past criticisms that schools have had to face in relation to their conception of writing as a global skill based on aspects of a formal nature (grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc,) -towards extensive teaching of the processes underlying the writing task, which requires reflection on the what, how and why of writing, in other words, instilling a writing style in students which is based on planning, also referred to as an "engineering" approach (Biggs, Lai, Tang and Lavelle, 1999).…”

Explaining Level and Development of Writing Proficiency of Low-Achieving Adolescents by Different Types of Engagement

“…Given the strong body of research demonstrating positive links between self-regulation and writing proficiency (Graham, 2006), these findings were unexpected. One explanation may be that low-achieving adolescents experience much difficulty with self-regulatory aspects of literacy practices (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987;De Milliano et al, 2012;Englert et al, 1988). Therefore, more self-regulation and cognitive effort may not necessarily be related to better writing proficiency norto more progression over the three grades studied.…”

“…Research into the relations between actual self-regulatory behavior and writing quality of specific tasks, for example using think-aloud procedures, is therefore needed to corroborate our findings. Interestingly, a study of De Milliano et al (2012) demonstrated that such an approach reveals that positive relationships do exist between sequential patterns of self-regulatory activities undertaken by low-achieving adolescents and their writing quality.…”

“…Findings, in general, suggest that better writers are more strategic than poorer writers. In addition, it was found that, even among low achieving adolescents, those who plan and revise their writing more intensively and who check their formulation more precisely write texts of better quality (De Milliano, Van Gelderen, & Sleegers, 2012).…”

La orquestación del proceso de escritura. Desarrollo y diseños de edad y de nivel = The orchestration of the writing process. Development and designs by age and level

“…Such results can be explained based on the level of complexity in both planning activities. The elaboration of a plan demands from the writer a greater degree of self-regulation, that increases with age and writing experience (De Milliano, Van Gelderen, & Sleegers, 2012), except in presence of learning difficulties, or, for example, problems with hyperactivity or attention disorders, which are the result of insufficient self-regulation (Miranda, Colomer, Fernández, & Presentación, 2012). In contrast, to reach for outside information to help with the writing process, is a habit more prominent in writers with none or little knowledge of general topics, as well as discourses.…”