Do writing motivational beliefs predict middle school students' writing performance?
Grant number:: #H327M11000Name:: Center on the Use of Emerging Technologies to Improve Literacy Achievement for Students with Disabilities in Middle SchoolDates:: 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2016Funder:: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs
Abstract
Individual differences in motivational beliefs, such as writing efficacy and attitudes toward writing in different contexts (academic, recreational, print or digital), are hypothesised to account for variability in writing performance. This study tested this proposition with 185 middle school students (58% were male), examining if writing self‐efficacy and attitudes toward writing made a statistically significant and unique contribution to predicting performance on a norm‐referenced writing measure, after variance related to gender, free/reduced lunch status, student's first language, disability status, reading self‐efficacy and attitudes toward reading were first controlled. Collectively, writing attitudes and self‐efficacy accounted for statistically significant and unique variance in writing scores after the other variables were controlled, providing support for the theoretical proposition that writing motivational beliefs are important ingredients in middle school students' writing.
Highlights
What is already known about this topic?
- Motivational variables contribute to students' writing engagement and performance.
- Attitudes toward writing predict students' writing performance on researcher‐designed measures.
- Self‐efficacy toward writing predict students' writing performance on researcher‐designed measures after controlling for reading motivational beliefs, gender, language, poverty and language.
What this paper adds?
- Collectively, students' attitudes toward writing and self‐efficacy for writing accounted for unique variance in performance on a norm‐referenced measure of writing.
- Attitudes toward writing academically and recreationally in digital contexts make unique contributions to predicting writing performance.
- Motivational beliefs are especially important in predicting the writing performance of students with disabilities.
Implications for theory, policy or practice?
- Greater attention needs to be paid to the motivational beliefs of developing writers if we want to enhance their writing performance.
- It is especially important to devote attention to the motivational beliefs of students with disabilities.
- Attention to students' attitudes toward writing in digital contexts needs to become more prominent.
