Does Discussion Improve Writing? Investigating the Relationship among Discussion, Academic Language, and Writing

• In Event: 54.018 - Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

This study empirically investigates the relationship among various features of whole-class discussion and writing quality, where classroom-level data will be used to predict students’ individual outcomes. The following research questions are examined:
1. Which student and teacher discussion features predict writing quality in post-discussion persuasive essays, when accounting for students’ prior academic language, English learner status, socioeconomic, special education status, and race?
2. Does the relationship between writing quality scores and students’ discussion features differ depending upon teachers’ discussion features, when accounting for students’ prior academic language English learner status, socioeconomic, special education status, and race?

Author

• Shireen Al-Adeimi, Harvard University