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Effectiveness of an Improvement Writing Program According to Students' Reflexivity Levels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Jesús Nicasio García  and
Ana Mª de Caso-Fuertes
Jesús Nicasio García*
Affiliation:
Universidad de León
Ana Mª de Caso-Fuertes
Affiliation:
Universidad de León
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jesús Nicasio García Sánchez, Departamento de Psicología, Sociología y Filosofía, Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Universidad de León, Campus de Vegazana, s/n, 44071 — León (Spain). E-mail: jn.garcia@unileon.es
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Abstract

After designing a writing program to enhance students' reflexivity and thus improve their compositions (García & de Caso, 2002a, 2002b), the aim of the research project was to show how reflexivity levels could influence the effectiveness of this program. This writing instruction through reflexivity was carried out with 5th and 6th grade students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or low achievement (LA) during 25 sessions. One hundred participants were assigned to either the experimental group (n = 49), which received specific intervention in writing and reflexivity, or the control group (n = 51), which simply received the ordinary curriculum. Both groups were assessed on the productivity and quality of their writing composition as well as their attitudes, self-efficacy, and reflexivity towards writing. The results show that coherence and reflexivity improved depending on the level of reflexivity, whereas the relationship with attitudes and self-efficacy is not so clear. Thus, it seems possible to improve LD and/or LA students' compositions by taking their reflexive style into account. Depending on the students' learning style, teachers should use either one or another technique.

Tras el diseño de un programa de escritura para incrementar la reflexividad del alumno hacia la misma y mejorar así sus composiciones escritas (García & de Caso, 2002a, 2002b), este estudio pretende mostrar cómo los niveles de reflexividad del alumno pueden influir en la eficacia de este programa. La instrucción en reflexividad hacia la escritura se llevó a cabo con alumnos con dificultades de aprendizaje y/o bajo rendimiento, de 5° y 6° de primaria, durante 25 sesiones. Los 100 participantes fueron asignados bien al grupo experimental (n = 49), que recibió el entrenamiento específico, bien al grupo control (n = 51), que sólo recibió currículum ordinario. Ambos grupos fueron evaluados tanto en productividad y calidad de las composiciones escritas como en actitudes, autoeficacia y reflexividad hacia la escritura. Los resultados muestran que no sólo la coherencia de los textos escritos sino también la reflexividad mejora dependiendo del nivel de reflexividad del alumno, mientras que la relación con actitudes y autoeficacia no está tan clara. De este modo, parece posible mejorar las composiciones escritas de los alumnos con dificultades de aprendizaje y/o bajo rendimiento teniendo en cuenta el estilo cognitivo de los mismos en nuestras intervenciones. Dependiendo de este estilo cognitivo, los profesores deben usar una u otra técnica.

Keywords

reflexivity towards writinglearning-disabled studentsprocess planningtext planningwriting instructionreflexividad hacia la escrituraestudiantes con dificultades de aprendizajeplanificación de procesosplanificación de textosinstrucción en escritura
Type
Articles
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , November 2007 , pp. 303 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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