The relationship between early elementary teachers’ instructional practices and theoretical orientations and students’ growth in writing

Abstract We investigated the relationship between 28 teachers’ theoretical orientations to writing instruction and self-reported instructional practices and student writing performance. First-, second-, and third-grade teachers completed the Teacher Writing Orientation Scale developed by Graham, Harris, MacArthur, and Fink (2002) and reported the frequency of common instructional practices in writing. Student writing samples included a curriculum-based measurement writing assessment administered three times across the spring of a single school year and a subtest of a norm-referenced writing assessment. The correlational relationships between teachers’ theoretical orientations and their instructional practices varied by grade level. Multilevel models indicated that the relationships between teachers’ orientations towards writing instruction and student outcomes varied depending on the writing outcome and whether the model was predicting writing achievement or growth. These findings point to the need for additional research that could help to develop a better understanding of the ways teachers’ theoretical orientations, instructional practices, and student outcomes are related.
Source: Reading and Writing - Category: Child Development Source Type: research