Date of Conferral
2022
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Education
Advisor
Deborah Focarile
Abstract
AbstractWith the introduction of Common Core State Standards in 2009, there has been an increase in the expectations for writing instruction in the United States. Writing instruction standards are now part of language arts and other content areas, but many teachers feel unprepared to teach writing. There is limited research on teachers’ perspectives of their abilities to teach writing upon completion of a teacher preparation program. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to examine teachers’ perspectives of their ability to teach writing in elementary school and identify coursework they deem useful for enhancing their abilities to teach writing. Vygotsky’s theory of constructivism and Bandura’s self-efficacy theory were used to examine how teachers constructed their knowledge during teacher preparation programs and how that impacted their perspectives of their self-efficacy to teach writing. The study included 10 first-year teachers who participated in semistructured interviews. Thematic analysis yielded five themes: teachers’ feelings of unpreparedness to teach writing, teachers’ insecurities to teach writing, desire for writing courses, examples of student writing and expectations, and desire for experiences to teach writing during preparation programs. Most participants did not feel prepared to teach writing and attributed this to a lack of preparation. The findings may impact social change by providing leaders of teacher preparation programs with data that support the inclusion of more writing courses in training curricula. This preparation may foster greater teacher self-efficacy in teaching writing that leads to improvements in instruction and student learning.
Recommended Citation
Givler, Angelica Felicia, "First Year Teachers’ Perspectives of Their Self-Efficacy to Teach Writing in Elementary" (2022). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 12364.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/12364
