Learning to write during primary and secondary school: Wishful thinking or reality?

Abstract

The acquisition of writing skills requires a whole academic lifetime, but students should already reach acceptable levels of proficiency in compulsory education. This research article examines the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of writing skills in the Spanish educational system. It compares the development of knowledge and its associated difficulties in different school years by interviewing 40 students from the even years of primary and secondary education. This study follows the theoretical framework of Hayes and Flower (1980), as amended and restated by Hayes (1996). After classifying the students’ statements based on the theoretical model used, descriptive and correlational analyses were applied. They revealed an unexpected stagnation, depending on the level, with important educational implications. The first instance of stagnation is seen during the intermediate years of primary education; the second one is observed during subsequent years, which means the expected development does not take place. However, even with this limitation, the students showed a greater evolution in the development of writing competencies than in the overcoming of difficulties and deficiencies. Generally, the development in writing operations does not correlate with the overcoming of difficulties and shortcomings. We identified some expected correlations in isolated cases (the greater the skills, the smaller the difficulties), but surprisingly the opposite was also true (the greater the skills, the greater the difficulties). The educational implications are obvious and important. Not only should schools further develop the students’ writing patterns throughout the primary and secondary years in order to improve their writing skills, they should also work towards mitigating the common deficiencies and difficulties.

Keywords: writing, basic education, progress, difficulties.