Writing development and education standards in cross-national perspective

Abstract

The importance of writing ability for academic and career advancement is increasingly a focus of education research and policy globally. In response to concerns regarding students' writing competence, policymakers and curriculum designers have begun placing more emphasis on writing in nationwide academic standards. However, given the complexity of writing as a cognitively dynamic and socioculturally situated activity, representing the development of writing competence in standards that vary by grade level is challenging, and little is known regarding how educational systems vary in approaching this challenge. In response to calls for more worldwide writing research, we undertake a cross-national examination of writing standards with the aim of informing policymakers, those involved in the research and development of writing standards, and researchers interested in writing development, by comparing how three educational systems (in Denmark, Norway, and the US) have represented writing development in curricular standards. To that end, we ask, 1) How do the three educational systems variously frame writing development in grade-level distinctions for writing standards? 2) How do the developmental pathways implicated in these grade-level distinctions relate to theory and research on writing competence and its development?

Teaching writing in the primary grades in Norway: a national survey

“…Two possible consequences of increased emphasis on writing at the national level and small class sizes is that Norwegian teachers may (1) place considerable emphasis on teaching writing in the primary grades, and (2) apply formative assessment techniques to direct and adjust their instructional efforts. It is possible, however, that these potential benefits are diminished by the 2016 decision to suspend the National writing assessments in Norway 1 (Jeffrey, Elf, Skar, & Wilcox, 2018). This may have sent a message to teachers that writing or the assessment of writing are not important.…”

“…A majority of teachers applied all but two of the writing practices assessed sometime during the school year. The exceptions involved writing argumentative text, which is not emphasized in the primary grades in Norway (GSI, 2019;Jeffrey et al, 2018), as well as sharing students' writing beyond the boundary of a teachers' classroom. This second activity may be uncommon because it requires extra effort on the part of teachers, teachers may be uncertain about how to implement it, or such sharing may be viewed negatively by school administrators and parents.…”

A review of Scandinavian writing research between 2010 and 2020

“…Furthermore, the fact that the majority of studies are Norwegian could be interpreted as an updated affirmation of what the two special issues of Written Communication in 2002 suggested about Norway's leading role in Scandinavian writing research since the 1980s, even though Sweden does not trail far behind, judged by the number of peer reviewed articles. Furthermore, and given the many similarities in culture and school systems touched upon earlier, it is striking that we have only been able to identify one study in the review that are actually collaborative Scandinavian writing research written by researchers from more than one country (Jeffery et al, 2019), and one study that builds on data from an early inter-Scandinavian collaboration (Krogh, 2012). There is a long and well established tradition for collaboration between the Scandinavian and Nordic countries that also extends to academia (e.g.…”

“…Five studies concerned textbooks (Hasund, 2019;Magnusson, 2018Magnusson, , 2019, science internet-based learning resources (Lorentzen et al, 2020) or the framing of writing development in national L1 curricula from Denmark, Norway, and the United States (Jeffery et al, 2019). Turning to the textbook studies by Magnusson, they both analysed 19 L1 writing textbooks for year 1-3 (age 7-9) in Sweden.…”

Establishing Rating Scales to Assess Writing Proficiency Development in Young Learners

“…Unfortunately, adopting a similar system in a new context is not as simple as translating writing assessment resources from other contexts. Current thinking and years of empirical evidence suggest that writing proficiency and writing development are contextual, and that resources therefore need to be adapted to the particular assessment context (Camp, 2012;Jeffery et al, 2018;Purves, 1992a;Slomp, 2012).…”