Secondary Teachers’ Beliefs About Teaching Writing to Typically Achieving and Struggling Adolescent Writers

Abstract

Writing is a critical component of many secondary classrooms, but little is known about teachers’ beliefs and assumptions surrounding their teaching of writing at the secondary level (particularly including the beliefs of special educators) and teaching writing to students with disabilities. Yet, teachers’ beliefs impact their own perceptions and judgments, which can then affect their behavior (i.e., instructional decisions) within their classrooms. The purpose of this study was to describe middle and high school general and special educators’ beliefs about writing. Results of this study demonstrated that secondary teachers (a) felt somewhat self-efficacious about teaching writing and somewhat less self-efficacious about effecting change in students’ writing, (b) moderately emphasized explicitly teaching writing, (c) were less likely to make adaptations for struggling writers across several writing practices, and (d) placed less emphasis on teaching basic transcription skills. Although limitations related to sample size preclude further disaggregated analyses, this study offers an early examination of teachers’ writing beliefs across several content domains. Changing writing practices in secondary classrooms will necessitate instructional methods that are individualized to meet students’ needs as well as a personal examination of one’s own beliefs to ensure that what one believes is not inhibiting the delivery of effective instructional writing practices.