Improving Adolescent Girls' Argument Writing: A Tier 1 Self-Regulated Strategy Development Intervention in a New Zealand Secondary School Social Studies Classroom

Abstract

Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) is a model of writing instruction with a convincing evidence base (Santangelo, Harris & Graham, 2016). The present study examines why SRSD is more effective for some students than for others. A mixed methods one-group pre-post design was used to compare writing performance, writing self-efficacy, self-regulation for writing, and knowledge of argument writing. The whole-class (n=27) wrote argument essays using an SRSD writing instruction method, in an urban multicultural New Zealand secondary school. Students completed the following digital scales and questionnaires: a writing self-efficacy scale, a self-regulation aptitude for writing scale, and writing knowledge questionnaires pre- and post-intervention. Following the quantitative phase, where students showed gains in argument writing, interviews were conducted with a sample of students who showed low, moderate and high gains in argument writing. Results indicate that while SRSD instruction in argument writing improves writing performance generally, transcription issues can be barriers to writing progress, as can issues with ideation and self-regulation. This Tier 1 SRSD intervention contributes to the SRSD writing research in that it supports the global generalisability of the SRSD method in teaching argument writing, and evaluates reasons for its relative effectiveness.