An Examination of Teachers' Writing Self-Efficacy, First-Grade Students' Attitudes and Self-Efficacy in Writing, and Students' Writing Behaviors
Teachers' self-efficacy has been demonstrated to be an important construct linked to teacher competence (Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk Hoy, 2000; Graham & Perin, 2007). However, little is known about how teachers think about writing, particularly as it relates to their writing instruction and to writing tasks they assign to their young students. The purpose of this multiple methods inquiry was to explore teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and orientations about writing and to examine if these factors were connected to their writing instruction. This study also aimed to examine if students' self-efficacy and attitudes towards writing are connected to their classroom writing behaviors. Data was collected from two first-grade teachers and 42 first-grade students in a suburban elementary school. The results indicated that both teachers had high self-efficacies for teaching writing, employed a combined teaching approach using process and traditional instruction, and assigned writing tasks were in line with their self-efficacy beliefs and orientations. Analysis of the data revealed that 90% of the students had positive attitudes towards writing in their elementary classrooms and the students' classroom writing behaviors were consistent with their reported survey responses. Data analysis also revealed that numerous factors (e.g. motivation, environment) contribute to the complex task of teaching writing to young students and that these factors are seemingly connected to students' writing self-efficacy and their classroom writing behaviors.
Teachers' self-efficacy, Student self-efficacy, Writing orientations, Writing practices, Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education
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