Writing assessment in early primary classrooms: thoughts from four teachers

Abstract

It is important that teachers are conscious of and reflect upon their views of writing in order to support students to achieve writing outcomes. This study examined teacher views about which aspects of writing they considered most important in years one and two and explored how these views came to be formed. Four West Australian teachers participated in semi-structured interviews, during which they carried out a think-aloud process, voicing their thoughts as they examined, commented on, and evaluated young students’ writing samples. These data provided insights into their reasoning as they assessed children’s writing in years one and two. Findings revealed that participants focussed on the more surface-level, or secretarial aspects of writing, such as punctuation and ‘correct’ structure for the genre. The data indicated that teachers were particularly influenced by their knowledge of the contexts in which they worked, including knowledge they shared with colleagues, together with curriculum and systemic documents such as the Judging Standards materials supplied by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) or the NAPLAN marking guides. These results highlight how systemic assessments can shape teacher perceptions of writing more generally than the purpose for which they were originally intended.

Moroccan EFL public university instructors’ perceptions and self-reported writing practices

“…Thus, investigating the two concepts and their relationship is warranted in writing research. The majority of previous empirical studies [ 2 , 3 , 7 , 20 , 23 , 24 , 50 ] on teachers’ perceptions and practices employed a mixed-method approach for data collection (e.g., questionnaires and interviews) in order to analyze multiple features of writing, especially those of the product-based approach. These studies also targeted different educational contexts.…”

“…From the perspective of writing assessment, knowledge (basic concepts in classroom writing assessments), beliefs (scoring accuracy, writing assessment methods, and general assessment issues in writing classes), and practices (rubrics, portfolios, rater-training sessions, and self-assessment) of L2 tertiary writing teachers were explored [ 50 ]. In the context of mid-sized schools, other features of writing were assessed, including punctuation, text structure, genre features, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, mechanics, ideas/content, revising, reader engagement, elaboration, and sentence structure [ 7 ].…”

“…However, due to the limitations of this approach, such as its primary focus on grammar and linguistic form [ [4] , [5] , [6] ], process-based writing, which engages students in planning, translating, revising, composing meaningful texts, and acknowledging the roles of self-reflection and evaluation in writing [ 3 ], has recently been emphasized in writing instruction. Mariano et al [ 7 ] stated that there is a “variation in the ways aspects of writing are categorized and defined” (p. 87). According to numerous researchers (e.g., [ [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] ]), some of these writing-related aspects (e.g., generating ideas and sentence construction) are considered high-level, while others that deal with surface writing activities (e.g., spelling and punctuation) are deemed to be low-level.…”

“…Mariano et al [ 7 ] stated that there is a “variation in the ways aspects of writing are categorized and defined” (p. 87). According to numerous researchers (e.g., [ [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] ]), some of these writing-related aspects (e.g., generating ideas and sentence construction) are considered high-level, while others that deal with surface writing activities (e.g., spelling and punctuation) are deemed to be low-level. Thus, the present study focuses on the product- and process-based writing approaches in order to determine whether they are effective for EFL students.…”

“…Specifically, as argued by Khanalizadeh and Allami [ 2 ], teachers' beliefs can have a significant influence on teaching practices and behaviors. Previous empirical studies usually focused on primary or secondary teachers' perceptions and practices [ 7 , [18] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] ], and few studies dealt with university EFL teachers' writing instruction beliefs and practices [ [23] , [24] , [25] ]. Therefore, due to the rarity of studies on this issue at the university level, especially in the Moroccan context [ 26 ], the present study aims to examine Moroccan EFL public university instructors’ perceptions and self-reported practices of the product- and process-based approaches to writing, combined with a discussion of previous empirical studies from diverse educational levels.…”