Student Voices: Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Students’ Self-Concepts in Writing

• In Event: Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: Developing Early Adolescents’ Identity, Self-Concept, and Skill as Writers

Abstract

Students' academic self-concepts and writing attitudes decline over the elementary and middle school years. Yet, little research has explored how the decline may be influenced to change. In a two-phase, sequential, explanatory, complementary methods research design, 184 fifth and sixth grade students' self-concepts in writing were adminnistered the Self-concept and Change Survey. Subsequently, four students, one male and one female at each grade level, who reported positive change in their writing self-concepts, wrote narratives about the change to their writing self-concepts. Overall, students’ self-concepts in writing were slightly positive. Based on the narratives, barriers to positive self-concepts were surface features of writing such as handwriting and mechanics, while positive change was influenced by out-of-school support, targeted instruction, and recognition.

Author

• Boni Hamilton, University of Colorado Denver