Gert Rijlaarsdam

Theories, models and methodology in writing research

Theories, Models and Methodology in Writing Research describes the current state of the art in research on written text production. The chapters in the first part offer contributions to the creation of new theories and models for writing processes. The second part examines specific elements of the writing process, such as lower order processes, cognitive load, revision and planning. Part three also discusses the specific elements of the writing process but examines them from the point of view of developmental psychology. The final part contains chapters dealing with aspects of research methodology.

Educational Leadership and Pupil Achievement: The Choice of a Valid Conceptual Model to Test Effects in School Effectiveness Research.

School effectiveness research often uses multilevel models in which only direct effects of characteristics of schools on pupil achievement are modelled. Recently, more attention is given to conceptual models that assume indirect and antecedent effects. In this paper, we elaborate on these models and show that the findings from school effectiveness research are influenced by the conceptual model underlying the analyses. We do this by focusing on the effect of “integrated leadership” on 2 outcome measures: mathematics achievement and mother tongue achievement. Four different conceptual models will be tested by means of multilevel structural equation modelling. Therefore we use data from a school effectiveness research in Flanders (850 fourth graders and 847 sixth graders within 47 schools). The results of these analyses show that the conclusion whether integrated leadership has an effect or not on pupil achievement, is dependent on the choice of the conceptual model.

Effective strategies for the teaching and learning of writing.

This introductory paper outlines the theoretical background to this special issue on the teaching and learning of writing. It distinguishes approaches which focus on direct interventions into cognitive processes from those which focus on the social and motivational context within which the writing process is embedded, arguing that they should be treated as complementary rather than competing. It then discusses the individual contributions, relating them to each other and to the broader theoretical context.

Changes in cognitive activities during the writing process and relationships with text quality

This study investigates effective temporal organisations of writing processes in novice writers, using protocol analysis and focusing on task representation and formulating processes. Ninth grade students (n = 36) wrote an argumentative text under thinking-aloud conditions. Writers did not only differ with respect to the number of task representation and formulating activities, but also with respect to the moment on which these activities were performed. Task representation activities are positively related to text quality, but only during the initial phases of the writing process. Formulating activities are negatively correlated with text quality in the beginning, but positively in the end of the process.

Writing Experiment Manuals in Science Education: The Impact of Writing, Genre, and Audience.

In this study, Grade 9 students wrote experiment manuals for their peers describing a simple physics investigation to explore whether air takes space. Peers executed these manuals and their processes were videotaped. In several experimental conditions, these videotapes were played back for authors. Then they had to rewrite the experiment manual. Three weeks later they wrote a letter‐of‐advice, explaining to peers how to write an experiment manual. Both measures (rewritten manuals and letter‐of‐advice) showed clear effects of the condition in which writers saw real‐time readers’ feedback on their own manual, on understanding of the genre of an experiment manual, as well as on the understanding of physics topics introduced.

Writing as a learning tool: Testing the role of students' writing strategies

The claim that writing facilitates students’ learning, although widely accepted, has little support from empirical research. A possible explanation for the lack of empirical evidence is that writing-to-learn research has disregarded that students use different writing strategies. The purpose of the present experimental study is to test whether it is effective to adapt writing-to-learn tasks to different writing strategies when teaching literature. A course “Learning to write argumentative texts about literature” was developed in two different versions: one adapted to a planning writing strategy, the other to a revising writing strategy. Participants were 113 tenth-grade high school students in the Netherlands. Our hypothesis is an adaptation hypothesis: we expect that the more a student will use a planning writing strategy, the more the student will profit from the lessons in the planning condition, and that the more a student uses a revising writing strategy, the more beneficial the revising condition will be. However, results show that for improving literary interpretation skill, a course adapted to the planning writing strategy is more effective for almost all students.RésuméL’affirmation selon laquelle l’écriture favorise l’apprentissage chez les collégiens est largement acceptée mais peu soutenue par des résultats de recherches empiriques. Une explication possible à ce manque d’évidences empiriques tient au fait que la recherche relative à l’apprentissage de l’écrit a négligé l’étude des différentes stratégies d’écriture des collégiens. L’objectif de cette étude expérimentale est de voir s’il est efficace d’adapter une stratégie d’écriture réécrivant et une stratégie planifiant à des activités d’apprentissage de production écrite dans l’enseignement de la littérature. Un cours intitulé “Apprendre à écrire un texte argumentatif sur la littérature” a été proposé sous deux formes différentes: l’une pour la stratégie d’écriture planifiant, l’autre pour la stratégie réécrivant. Les participants étaient 113 collégiens en classe de troisième aux Pays-Bas. Notre hypothèse est une hypothèse d’adaptation: on s’attend à ce qu’un collégien ayant une stratégie d’écriture planifiant profitera davantage des leçons adaptées à cette stratégie et que les leçons de type sculptural seront bénéfiques pour les lycéens ayant une stratégie d’écriture réécrivant. Cependant, les résultats montrent que, pour améliorer la compétence d’interprétation littéraire, un cours adapté a une stratégie d’écriture planifiant est plus efficace pour quasiment tous les collégiens.

Literary Reading Activities of Good and Weak Students: A Think Aloud Study

In this study we examined how good and weak students of literature interact with short literary stories. We focused on differences in the use of cognitive and affective reading activities, and in the extent to which good and weak students adapt their activities to (parts of) the story they are reading.19 Dutch tenth-grade students from 8 classes participated in the study, of whom 10 were known to be good students of literature and 9 were known as weak literature students. Each student read five literary stories under think aloud conditions. The stories were presented segment by segment on a computer screen. Students responses were transcribed, segmented and coded. Analysis of variance was applied to the data to test the diffrences between good and weak students.Results show that good students were more evaluative and emotional in their responses to the stories than were their weaker peers. Moreover, they appeared to be more sensitive to differences between stories than were weak students. Implications for further research and for literature teaching are outlined.RésuméL’objectif de cette recherche est d’analyser l’approche de textes littéraires par les lecteurs débutants, forts et faibles en littérature. Nous nous sommes concentrés sur les différences concernant d’une part l’emploi d’activités cognitives et affectives et d’autre part la mesure où les lecteurs forts et faibles adaptent leurs stratégies au texte, intégral ou partiel, qu ’ils sont en train de lire.19 lycéens néerlandais, tirés de 8 classes, ont participé à la recherche: 10 d’entre eux étant reconnus ‘forts’ en littérature et 9 ‘faibles’. Chaque élève a lu 5 textes littéraires en formulant à haute voix ses pensées, les textes littéraires étant présentés en fragments à l’écran d’ordinateur. Les pensées ainsi formulées ont été transcrites, segmentées et codées. Nous avons évalué les différences entre élèves forts et élèves faibles en appliquant la méthode d’analyse statistique.La recherche a avéré que l’évaluation des textes littéraires faite par les élèves forts a été plus élaborée que celle faites par élèves faibles. Par rapport aux élèves faibles. les élèves forts se sont montrés plus sensibles aux différences entre les textes littéraires. A la fin de l’article nous montrons les conséquences pour des recherches ultérieures et pour l’enseignement littéraire.

The effect of observational learning on students’ performance, processes, and motivation in two creative domains

BACKGROUND Previous research has shown that observation can be effective for learning in various domains, for example, argumentative writing and mathematics. The question in this paper is whether observational learning can also be beneficial when learning to perform creative tasks in visual and verbal arts. AIMS We hypothesized that observation has a positive effect on performance, process, and motivation. We expected similarity in competence between the model and the observer to influence the effectiveness of observation. Sample.  A total of 131 Dutch students (10(th) grade, 15 years old) participated. METHOD Two experiments were carried out (one for visual and one for verbal arts). Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions; two observational learning conditions and a control condition (learning by practising). The observational learning conditions differed in instructional focus (on the weaker or the more competent model of a pair to be observed). RESULTS We found positive effects of observation on creative products, creative processes, and motivation in the visual domain. In the verbal domain, observation seemed to affect the creative process, but not the other variables. The model similarity hypothesis was not confirmed. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that observation may foster learning in creative domains, especially in the visual arts.

Effective learning activities in observation taks when learning to write and read argumentative texts

On repeated occasions, observational learning has proved itself to be an effective instruction method. Experimental studies have shown to be effective for complex tasks such as reading and writing for both teachers and students as models. The problem when interpreting the results of such research is that, in observation tasks, several mental activities play a simultaneous role. In this study we therefore set out to identify the effective elements of observation tasks. We focused on two elements of the observation tasks, both aimed at stimulating monitoring activities: evaluation of the model’s performance and elaboration on this evaluation. We have also distinguished between elaboration on the observed products (the models’ written answers), and elaboration on the observed processes (the models’ verbalisations of their mental activities).The data were subjected to a LISREL analysis. First of all, it was observed that subjects who performed “evaluation” and “productelaboration” better, and “process-elaboration” more often in one lesson, also performed these activities better or more often in the subsequent lesson. Next, we observed an effect of aptitude on the learning activities: pre skill scores influence “evaluation” and “product-elaboration”. The most important finding is that “evaluation” and “product-elaboration” contribute positively to argumentative writing skills. It is discussed that these findings confirm the importance of the monitoring, evaluative and reflective activities when learning complex tasks as writing.RésuméComparativement à l’apprentissage par l’action, la méthode d’apprentissage par l’observation c’est plus efficace. On sait queles études expérimentales s’appliquent bien à destâches complexes comme la lecture et la production écrite, à la fois chez les enseignants et chez les élèves, pris comme modèles. Portant l’interprétation des résultats expérimentaux pose un problème puis que dans les tâches d’observation, plusieurs activités interviennent simultanément. Dans la présente étude, nous voulons identifier les éléments réellement critiques dans ces tâches d’observation. Nous nous sommes intéressés à deux d’entre eux: ‘l’évaluation’ et ‘l’élaboration’ (du ‘produit’ et du ‘processus’).Pour le traitement des donées nous avons utilisée par la méthode LISREL. En premier lieu, les sujets qui, dans une première leçon, réalisent plus souvent correctement les activités d’apprentissage ‘évaluation’ et ‘élaboration du produit’, et réalisent plus souvent ‘élaboration du processus’, réussissent de la même façon dans le leçon suivante. En outre, nous avons constaté quel’existe un effet d’aptitude: les aptitudes établies préalablement influencent ‘l’évaluation’ et ‘l’élaboration du produit’. Le plus important résultat c’est des effets positifs de ‘l’évaluation’ et de ‘l’élaboration du produit’ sur les performances d’écrire argumentatives. Ce résultat confirme l’importance des activités monitor, évaluation et réflexion pendant l’apprentissage des taches complexes comme écrire.

Importance in instructional text: teachers' and students' perceptions of task demands

History teachers (N = 22) and their 11th-grade students (N = 451) rated the relative importance of sections of an instructional text on which teachers would be giving a test. Multilevel analysis revealed only a moderate correspondence between teachers in their importance ratings. This suggested that there were large differences between the task demands of individual teachers; therefore, students needed to attune to the demands their own teacher set. However, only a moderate correspondence was found between ratings of individual students and those of their teacher. Although this correspondence varied between teachers, between students, and between text sections, results suggest that in general, the participating students did not have a very clear or sound perception of task demands.