The Preservice Teacher Self-Efficacy for Writing Inventory (PTSWI): A tool for measuring beliefs about writing
Introduction
Perhaps as a response to students’ continued underperformance in writing (e.g., National Center for Education Statistics, 2012), published research examining writing and writing instruction has increased drastically in recent years. For years, writing researchers have described writing as a neglected part of both research and the school curriculum (James, Jao, & Berninger, 2017; National Commission on Writing, 2003). However, a search of the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) reveals that for the past twenty years (January 2000 – January 2021), 20,094 articles were published in the field of writing research, as compared to 18,228 articles published in the area of reading research, both within educational research. Most notably, 2015 saw a near doubling in the number of articles focused on writing education with that trend continuing into the current year. One troubling finding from this recent work is that teachers do not feel adequately prepared to teach writing (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Karaca & Uysal, 2021).
The fact that teachers feel under-prepared to teach writing is particularly problematic taken in conjunction with the established connection between teacher beliefs for writing and student achievement in writing: students of teachers with high efficacy (or confidence in their abilities to teach writing) spend more time writing each week than students of teachers with low efficacy for writing (Tschannen-Moran & Johnson, 2011). Additionally, high-efficacy teachers teach writing processes, grammar, and usage skills more often (Graham, Harris, Fink, & MacArthur, 2001). Finally, teachers who demonstrate a high sense of efficacy are more likely to diversify their instructional strategies, utilize multiple genres of text, and engage students in various grouping methods to improve student achievement (Tschannen-Moran & Johnson, 2011). These findings suggest that teacher education programs – the programs tasked with preparing future teachers – must focus on developing teachers’ self-efficacy for writing in order to develop effective writing teachers. Only by preparing teachers who are confident in writing instruction and engage in writing practice in the classroom can the field hope to improve K-12 students’ writing performance. This is to not say that self-efficacy for writing alone prepares teachers to instruct writing, as writing skills and pedagogical content knowledge certainly contribute, however, the focus of this work is on self-efficacy.
Acknowledging that we can only study phenomena that we can measure, few tools exist that specifically measure preservice teachers’ self-efficacy for writing (Bruning, Dempsey, Kauffman, McKim, & Zumbrunn, 2013; Graham et al., 2001) or writing instruction (Graham, Harris, MacArthur, & Fink, 2002). Instead, much of the writing research focuses on inservice teachers’ writing apprehension (Daly & Miller, 1975), self-regulation efficacy (Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994) or strategies (Harris, Graham, & Mason, 2006). While these tools are helpful in understanding many aspects of writing instruction, they are not created to measure the beliefs of preservice teachers. Moreover, research focusing specifically on preservice teachers is largely qualitative, limiting the generalizability across different groups of future teachers (Zimmerman, Morgan, & Kidder-Brown, 2014).
To extend the measurement work regarding efficacy and writing to our target population of preservice teachers, we used previously published research as a starting point (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Daly & Miller, 1975; Graham et al., 2001, 2002; Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994), to create the Preservice Teacher Self-Efficacy for Writing Inventory (PTSWI). This tool may allow researchers to better understand the beliefs of future teachers and identify strategies to increase teacher efficacy for writing instruction. Four sub-sections comprise the measure to understand three factors of preservice teacher self-efficacy, which we will describe in later sections: (F1) preservice teacher self-efficacy for writing; (F2) preservice teacher self-efficacy for teaching writing elements; and (F3) preservice teacher self-efficacy for writing instruction.
The purpose of the present study is to explore evidence for validity and reliability for the PTSWI. To accomplish these goals, we used the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (2014) to engage in a robust validation program to provide both substantive (i.e., theoretical) and structural (i.e., statistical) evidence for the validity of this measure (Benson, 1998). In the following sections, we outline the substantive evidence for the measure, which aligns to Standard 4.0 (see Table 1), indicating that the instrument is designed using prior research and theory on the topic.
Section snippets
Empirical and theoretical model for self-efficacy for writing and teaching writing
According to Benson (1998), providing substantive evidence of measurement validity requires examining existing theory and grounding work with that body of literature. The present study is grounded in a rich research tradition informed by sociocultural theory, sociocognitive theory with an emphasis in self-efficacy, and empirical research on the intersections of writing, writing instruction, and self-efficacy.
Validity program for measuring self-efficacy for writing and teaching writing
As Weigle (2013) conveys, test validation is “the process of articulating and seeking evidence for a series of inferential steps that are taken between a test performance and score interpretation and use” (p. 91). This definition aligns with Benson’s (1998) structural piece of validation programs, and mirrors the work done by others when validating measures of writing affect. We also use current research on writing motivation and survey development to approach measuring the specific construct
Survey development
From the research and theoretical foundations presented above, we created the PTSWI with three scales: (F1) self-efficacy for writing; (F2) self-efficacy for teaching writing elements; and (F3) self-efficacy for writing instruction.
Methods
In the following sections, we describe the sample participants, administration procedures, and statistical analyses used to establish validity and reliability of the instrument. We also document initial results from the survey. Our research aims to answer the following research questions:
- 1)
What is the internal factor structure of the PTSWI survey (targeting three sub-constructs of self-efficacy for writing, self-efficacy for teaching writing elements, and self-efficacy for writing instruction)?
- 2)
Results
In the following sections, we outline our results by each statistical analysis.
Discussion
In the present study, we created and validated a tool to help teacher educators distinguish how preservice teacher develop self-efficacy beliefs about writing and writing instruction, along with which sub-constructs might be presenting preservice teachers with concerns about writing. This tool is informed by prior research in writing, theoretical perspectives of self-efficacy, and theoretical perspectives related to writing (context, genre, cognitive approaches, and motivation). In the
Conclusions
Ideally the PTSWI can open conversations regarding the importance of self-efficacy for writing in preservice teacher preparation. Specifically, teacher education programs can utilize the PTSWI to identify strengths and weaknesses in their own preservice teacher writing preparation. The programs can see which sub-constructs preservice teachers have high self-efficacy for and which sub-constructs they feel need further development. Teacher educators can design writing instruction, research, and
Dr. Tracey S. Hodges, is an Assistant Professor Literacy Education at the University of Alabama. Dr. Hodges is a former 6-8 English teacher, which influenced her interest in developing high quality writing teachers. She researches teacher self-efficacy beliefs, writing interventions and instruction, and student motivation for writing.
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Dr. Tracey S. Hodges, is an Assistant Professor Literacy Education at the University of Alabama. Dr. Hodges is a former 6-8 English teacher, which influenced her interest in developing high quality writing teachers. She researches teacher self-efficacy beliefs, writing interventions and instruction, and student motivation for writing.
Dr. Katherine Landau Wright is an assistant professor and director of the Literacy Lab at Boise State University. Dr. Wright is a former middle school English and social studies teacher. Her research aims to motivate and support middle and high school readers and writers in their content-area classes.
Erin M. McTigue is a Research Scientist at the National Centre for Reading Education and Reading Research in Stavanger, Norway. She has authored over 50 journal articles and chapters on literacy education. Previously, Dr. McTigue taught disciplinary literacy and co-directed a support program for academic writing at Texas A&M University.