National Survey on Writing Instruction in Chilean Public Secondary Schools

• In Event: Research on Writing Instruction Around the World

Abstract

Objectives and theoretical framework

Writing skills are essential to participate in modern society. However, studies indicate weaknesses in the writing skills of secondary students attending public schools in Chile and little is known about practices on writing instruction.

To provide a basis for future interventions in the Chilean context, this study collected information about: (1) Spanish teachers’ practices and (2) their self-efficacy beliefs related to writing and writing instruction.

Method
We developed an online survey, based on previous survey studies on writing instruction, a meta-analysis of writing practices, and relevant literature and studies of the Chilean context. We formulated 124 questions across multiple categories and multiple objectives of the study.
During Spring 2017, we collected 175 completed surveys from teachers of all the regions in Chile. Response rate was 47%.

Results
Results showed that the sample is representative for the general population of teachers working at Chilean public schools in terms of geographical distribution and gender.

Teachers reported that students wrote at least one paragraph and spend at least two hours writing per week. 88% of teachers reported teaching writing strategies explicitly. On average, they spent one hour per week doing so.

On average, they spent 17 hours per month assessing one writing task of the whole class. 28% assessed their students’ texts weekly, 40% do so monthly, and 27% do so sometimes during the semester.

Teachers reported having positive self-efficacy beliefs regarding their writing instruction: on average they gave themselves a score of 7.0 out of 10.0. As potential factors that limit the quality of writing instruction teachers reported a lack of time, class characteristics (e.g, the number of students) and weaknesses of teacher preparation: only 33% of the teachers reported having received enough training in writing instruction.

Teachers reported giving great emphasis to structural aspects of language and to creativity. On the contrary, they reported giving less relevance to communicative aspects of writing. In line with this, most of them did not feel adequately prepared to improve their students' communicative skills (67%) or to improve their writing skills through collaborative writing (67%). From the questions on foci in writing instruction, we created four profiles (60% of variance represented): teachers who adhere to correct language forms, identity development via writing, cognitive development, and creativity development. Our analyses indicated that these profiles are related to teachers’ reported writing practices (allowed learning time, pedagogical choices).

Conclusions and Scientific Significance

This study will be relevant in two respects. First, it contributes to the improvement of writing instruction in Chile, by providing a knowledge base which shows possible improvements to be made. Second, it provides valuable guidance to the international community of L1 researchers, by providing data for Chilean writing instruction, and by making this comparable to similar studies conducted in other countries. For example, some of the limiting factors of writing instruction in Chile are similar to those reported in other countries.

Authors

• Magdalena Flores Ferres

• Daphne Weijen