Early college entrance programs have existed in the United States since the 1950s, but in-depth research on academic success in these programs is lacking. Every year, early college entrance programs utilize a variety of data-gathering and candidate-screening techniques to select hundreds of students for admission into these accelerated programs. However, only a smattering of research articles has discussed the factors that predict academic success in these programs. This exploratory study investigated commonly-relied-upon admissions data points—such as high school GPA and ACT scores—and demographic information—such as sex, ethnicity, and locality—to see if any of these factors predicted academic success: namely, graduation and early college entrance program GPA. Secondary data from nearly 800 students admitted over an 11-year period to a state-supported, residential early college entrance program located at a large Southern university in the United States were utilized for this study. Logistic regression failed to yield a model that could accurately predict whether or not a student would graduate from the program. Multiple regression models showed that high school GPA and ACT scores were predictive of performance, and that factors like locality and ethnicity can have predictive power as well. However, the low variance in performance explained by the variables included in this study demonstrates that high school GPA, standardized test scores, locality, sex, and ethnicity can only tell us so much about a student's likelihood of success in an early college entrance program.

杨志明. / 呈交日期: 2003年2月. / 论文(哲学博士)--香港中文大学, 2002. / 参考文献 (p. 115-120). / 中英文摘要. / Cheng jiao ri qi: 2003 nian 2 yue. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Yang Zhiming. / Zhong Ying wen zhai yao. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2002. / Can kao wen xian (p. 115-120).

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of students from China's Henan province regarding inequities they experience in the Chinese higher education system based solely on their geography. Henan students are required to score higher than students from other provinces on the Chinese National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE) in order to apply for admission into Chinese top tier universities. Yet despite having higher scores than their peers from other provinces and meeting all admissions requirements, Henan students have little guarantee of admission. The study systematically reviews the history of the Chinese higher education system to contextualize the impact of current NCEE policies and procedures. The perceptions of six Henan students currently studying in the top tiered Chinese University were gathered using qualitative interviews and explored for commonalities and differences. The students’ responses reveal a range of feelings from anger to acceptance, and even gratitude for the ways the inequities impacted their lives. This work increases our understanding of the link between geography and access to Chinese top tiered university and the effects of that link on students from Henan province. / School of Education; / Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program for Education Leaders (IDPEL) / EdD; / Dissertation;

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Education, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Educational Psychology), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1995. / The present research study evaluated an unresearched assessment battery used to determine student trainability at a multi-disability commercial college. The issues of validity - specifically criterion-related validity and content-related validity and dynamic assessment were the main focus of the study. Revisions to the assessment battery where necessary were recommended, Fifty-two students from the multi-disability college formed the sample population for establishing the criterion-related validity of the assessment battery. Students assessment results were correlated with the number of credits .hey obtained on course completion using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. This research established that useful inferences about student trainability could be made from the existing assessment battery scores. Establishing the content-related validity of the assessment battery was a two foid process. Firstly, course lecturers completed a self-administered questionnaire to determine what skills/ attributes were necessary for success in the four courses offered at the College. Secondly, a workshop was held with a multi-disciplinary team of professionals to determine what skills/ attributes were being tapped by the various sub-tests of the battery. It was established that twelve of the skills/attributes necessary for course success were not tapped on the existing assessment battery. Measures which tap these skills/attdbutes need to be included in the assessment battery so that its content validity can be established. Given the controversy relating to standardised/static testing it was important to research the relevance and usefulness of the introduction of a dynamic assessment component to the existing battery. Dynamic assessment would allow for learning potential to be tapped. Analyses of variance were conducted to determine the relationships between the variables - race, educational level and type of disability with performance on the assessment battery. The significant relationships between educational level and performance and type of disability and performance

Ao término da Educação Básica, espera-se que um indivíduo esteja habilitado a redigir adequadamente em qualquer situação, que saiba interagir com a palavra para a produção escrita nos diversos gêneros textuais em circulação. Embora tais expectativas se realizem em alguns casos, em geral, a realidade vivenciada é diversa: mesmo após completarem os ensinos Fundamental e Médio, muitos sujeitos elaboram textos repletos de desvios, marcas que expõem as muitas dificuldades com a produção escrita, as quais revelam uma língua cindida entre um saber-dizer e um dever-dizer. Questionamentos sobre o que leva a essa cisão motivaram esta pesquisa. Considerando-se a perspectiva sócio-histórica, os conceitos bakhtinianos de gênero, dialogismo e polifonia, bem como preceitos da Lingüísitca Textual, o trabalho consistiu na análise de elementos composicionais da redação dissertativa de vestibular, gênero que desafia estudantes interessados em ingressar no Ensino Superior. Mais especificamente, foram analisados: (a) a norma lingüística, (b) os índices de pessoalidade e (c) a macroarticulação em uma amostra de 374 redações (1% do total) produzidas por candidatos inscritos no Vestibular-2007 promovido pela FUVEST (Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular) São Paulo, Brasil. Foram analisadas, também, algumas relações entre o perfil sócio-histórico dos candidatos e os perfis de escrita verificados nos textos. Depreendeu-se, das observações realizadas, que a excessiva preocupação com o outro, com o molde e com a demonstração do saber-fazer interfere no movimento de exteriorização do discurso: em vez de tentar levar ao texto seu universo e sua idéia, o estudante se propõe à tarefa de levar, para o papel, mundo e idéias presumidos do interlocutor e da interlocução, vivencia um confronto - e não uma negociação - entre um saber-dizer que se esvaece diante de um dever-dizer e cinde a língua. As observações realizadas revelaram, ainda uma escolarização que, no âmbito de sua atuação, parece não promover satisfatoriamente condições para o desenvolvimento de estratégias para o diálogo entre os saberes, parece não promover satisfatoriamente a possibilidade de escrever com autonomia. / After concluding high school, students are expected to be able to write proficiently in any situation. They are supposed to interact with words in order to produce texts in the diverse genres currently circulating. Although some of these expectations are sometimes met, in general, the reality is different. Even after having fulfilled the academic requirements of high school, many students produce texts with several deviations, which signal difficulties with writing. This also reveals a schism between knowing-how-to-say-it and should-say. Questioning the reasons for this schism was the starting point for research. Based on sociohistorical patterns, bakhtinian concepts for genres of discourse, dialogism, and polyphony, as well as the Textual Linguistics precepts, this work consisted in analyzing the elements found in the Writing Essays from students participating in Standardized College Entrance Exams for the public universities in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. This is a genre of text which challenges students who want to enter into a college career. Specifically, the topics analyzed were: (a) proficiency in standard Portuguese , (b) personal input and (c) macroarticulation in a sample of 374 essays (1% of the total) from the entrance exam that was ministered through FUVEST (Foundation for College Entrance Exams), São Paulo, Brazil, from the year 2007. The analysis included also the relationship between the candidates socio-historic profile and the writing patterns found in their work. Through this analysis I could detect an exaggerated concern with the other one, with following a model, and with a concern in demonstrating the knowing-how-to-say-it. These concerns interfere with the movement of the discourse exteriorization: instead of putting in the text their own world view and their own ideas, students try to present a perspective that agrees with a presumed readers world view and ideas foreign to themselves: a confrontation and not an exchange between the knowhow- to-say-it and the should-say that schisms the language. My observations revealed also a schooling process that does not seem to promote satisfactory conditions to develop strategies that foster the dialogue among the diverse facets of knowledge, and does not promote the individuals self-reliance in their own writing.

Aquilo que é posto na terceira pessoa, aquilo de que se fala/escreve, quando considerado como produto da interação autor/destinatário(s), traz, no apelo ao já-dito, um terceiro elemento (uma terceira voz) na composição do objeto de discurso. Este último, por se constituir também a partir de um já-dito, de uma voz social, expressa uma réplica específica do locutor, de acordo com as diversas posições as diferentes experiências sociais que ele, na qualidade de escrevente, assume na interação. Pensar o objeto de discurso como uma voz social é, portanto, assumi-lo como produto da réplica do locutor a destinatários (BAKHTIN, [1979] 2010a), o que permite refletir não só sobre a interação presente, mas também constituindo-a sobre possíveis dizeres ligados a práticas sociais recuperadas pelo escrevente. Para tanto, ao assumir a participação de um terceiro na produção de linguagem, busca-se descrevê-lo, no caso das redações de vestibular, em termos das vozes que participam dos textos dos vestibulandos e defini-las segundo práticas letradas a que o escrevente tem/teve acesso (direto ou indireto). O quadro teórico da análise dialógica (BAKHTIN [1961-1962, 1975, 1979] 2010 a, b, c) e o CÍRCULO), o da argumentação (PERELMAN; OLBRECHTS-TYTECA, 2005), o das teorias do letramento (STREET, 2012b, 2014) e o paradigma indiciário (GINZBURG, 1989) são assumidos como arcabouço teórico-metodológico do trabalho. Desse modo, são buscados os fenômenos que mobilizam o aparecimento de indícios materializados nos textos, fenômenos ao mesmo tempo ligados ao que há de específico da situação enunciativa imediata, por um lado, e aos que se mostram como elementos estabilizados nas e pelas interações ao longo da história, por outro. O corpus é composto por 264 redações de vestibular do exame da FUVEST de 2006, cujo tema foi trabalho. Os resultados obtidos evidenciam que a construção do objeto de discurso trabalho é um diálogo entre três interlocutores rigorosamente presentes nessa produção escrita: o escrevente, o(s) destinatário(s) e determinadas vozes do já-dito, cujas marcas se alojam no objeto de discurso, constituindo-o e a ele se impondo. / That which comes in the third person, that about which one says / writes, when it is considered a product of authors / addressees interactions, brings, by referring to an already-said, brings a third element (a third voice) in the composition of discourse objects. This last, due to also constitute itself from an already-said, a social voice, expressa reply from the addresser, in accordance with the many several positions the different social experiences that the addresser, as the author, takes in interactions. To think discourse objects as social voices is, thus, to accept it as a product of addressers replies to addressees (BAKHTIN, [1979] 2010a 2006), which allows to think not only about the present interaction, but also as its constitutive element on possible utterances linked by addressers to social practices authors bring to bear on their texts. For doing this, by accepting the participation of a third in language production, we aim to describe it, as regards college entrance exam texts, in terms of voices that participate in college entrance exam texts and define them according to school practices authors have had or have (direct or indirect) access. The theoretical foundation sof dialogical analysis (BAKHTIN [1961-1962, 1975, 1979] 2010 a, b, c) and the CIRCLE), modern rhetoric (PERELMAN; OLBRECHTS-TYTECA, 2005), literacy theories (STREET, 2012b, 2014), and the indiciary paradigm (GINZBURG, 1989), are taken as the works theoretical-methodological basis. Thus, phenomena are examined that mobilize the emergence of marks materialized in texts, phenomena at the same time linked to the specificities of the immediate enunciative situation, on the one side, and to what appear as elements stabilized in and by interactions throughout history, on the other. The corpus is composed by 264 FUVEST 2006 college entrance exam texts having work as their subject. Results obtained show that the construction of the discourse object work is a dialogue among three rigorously present interlocutors in these written productions: the addresser/author, addressees and some identifiable voices of the already-said, whose marks are summoned in discourse objects, constituting them and imposing themselves on them.

Esta pesquisa investiga nas 122 dissertações de vestibular que compõem o corpus, produzidas por alunos de ensino médio de um colégio da Grande São Paulo os traços espaçotemporais que lhes são constitutivos. Tomando como base o conceito bakhtiniano de cronotopo que, sem se confundir com a noção de contexto, designa a indissociabilidade entre espaço e tempo nos textos e na vida concreta (BAKHTIN, 1998) , estuda-se a intrincada relação entre os sujeitos, os ambientes escolares e a sua história. Essa relação pressupõe uma concepção de linguagem em que os sujeitos (falantes ou escreventes) lidam com a língua sempre a partir da relação que têm com o outro, o que inclui a relação também com um dado cronotopo. Dessa preocupação mais geral, deriva o cumprimento de três objetivos específicos: foi definido como constitutivo dessas redações o que se passou a chamar de cronotopo da avaliação; foi verificada a conformação da dissertação de vestibular como gênero do discurso, na relação constitutiva com esse cronotopo; e foram consideradas as implicações do mesmo cronotopo para o ensino e a aprendizagem da escrita, especialmente quanto à retração da autoria. Na análise, foram selecionadas marcas linguísticas representativas do processo de produção das redações: dentre outras, formas de encantamento do leitor-avaliador o supradestinatário (BAKHTIN, 2015); a ausência de evidencialidade, dissimulada por um uso específico da modalidade (HALLIDAY, 2014); generalizações; e marcadores de esquiva da responsabilidade enunciativa. Como resultado, constatou-se que se coadunam três perspectivas: a de um modelo de educação forjado pela modernidade, de tradição racionalista em que predomina o conteudismo (ORLANDI, 2015) ; a do letramento autônomo (criticado por STREET, 2015) e a de um legado da educação privada, cujo caráter propedêutico no ensino de escrita aparece intimamente ligado a interesses mercadológicos. Toma-se, pois, como um dos resultados desta pesquisa, a proposição da noção de cronotopo da avaliação, formulada como o compósito dessas três perspectivas. Os resultados obtidos indicam que, nesse cronotopo, a produção de texto e o ensino da escrita padecem de prejuízos e distorções, a mais importante, talvez, sendo a de, ao conceber o ensino por meio de gêneros do discurso, enfatizar a produção do aluno via modelos fixos (CORRÊA, 2013), abrindo espaço e legitimando a prática de retração da autoria. / This research investigates in 122 texts that simulate college entrance exams dissertations, written by pre-college students from a school in São Paulo the space-time features that constitute them. Taking the chronotope, a bakhtinian concept, as a starting point which is not the same as context and describes the inseparability between space and time in the texts and in the concrete life (BAKHTIN, 1998) , we study the intricate relation between subjects, school environment and its history. This relation assumes a language conception according to which subjects (talkers or writers) deal with language considering otherness, what also includes the link with the chronotope. From this more general concern, there are three specific goals: it was defined as constitutive of these texts what is called the evaluation chronotope; it was verified the constitution of college entrance exams dissertations as a genre of discourse, in the relation with this chronotope; at last, we considered the implications of this chronotope for teaching and learning of writing, especially in regards of authorship disencouragement. In the analysis, we selected linguistic traits that represent the text production: enchantment forms of the reader-evaluator the superadressee (BAKHTIN, 2015); the absence of evidence, suppressed by a specific modality use (HALLIDAY, 2014); generalizations; and markers of avoidance of enunciation responsibility. As results, we could observe that there are three convergent perspectives: an education model brought by modernity, that relates to rationality tradition in which we see what ORLANDI (2015) calls conteudismo (focus in the content) ; the autonomous literacy model (criticized by STREET, 2015) and the private education legacy, that focus in the preparation of students for the university and is strictly linked to marketing interests. These three perspectives, in intersection, configure the evaluation chronotope. The results indicate that, at this chronotope, the text production and writing teaching has distortions: the most important of these are the teaching through fixed models (CORRÊA, 2013), practice that is responsible for authorship disencouragement.

Aquilo que é posto na terceira pessoa, aquilo de que se fala/escreve, quando considerado como produto da interação autor/destinatário(s), traz, no apelo ao já-dito, um terceiro elemento (uma terceira voz) na composição do objeto de discurso. Este último, por se constituir também a partir de um já-dito, de uma voz social, expressa uma réplica específica do locutor, de acordo com as diversas posições as diferentes experiências sociais que ele, na qualidade de escrevente, assume na interação. Pensar o objeto de discurso como uma voz social é, portanto, assumi-lo como produto da réplica do locutor a destinatários (BAKHTIN, [1979] 2010a), o que permite refletir não só sobre a interação presente, mas também constituindo-a sobre possíveis dizeres ligados a práticas sociais recuperadas pelo escrevente. Para tanto, ao assumir a participação de um terceiro na produção de linguagem, busca-se descrevê-lo, no caso das redações de vestibular, em termos das vozes que participam dos textos dos vestibulandos e defini-las segundo práticas letradas a que o escrevente tem/teve acesso (direto ou indireto). O quadro teórico da análise dialógica (BAKHTIN [1961-1962, 1975, 1979] 2010 a, b, c) e o CÍRCULO), o da argumentação (PERELMAN; OLBRECHTS-TYTECA, 2005), o das teorias do letramento (STREET, 2012b, 2014) e o paradigma indiciário (GINZBURG, 1989) são assumidos como arcabouço teórico-metodológico do trabalho. Desse modo, são buscados os fenômenos que mobilizam o aparecimento de indícios materializados nos textos, fenômenos ao mesmo tempo ligados ao que há de específico da situação enunciativa imediata, por um lado, e aos que se mostram como elementos estabilizados nas e pelas interações ao longo da história, por outro. O corpus é composto por 264 redações de vestibular do exame da FUVEST de 2006, cujo tema foi trabalho. Os resultados obtidos evidenciam que a construção do objeto de discurso trabalho é um diálogo entre três interlocutores rigorosamente presentes nessa produção escrita: o escrevente, o(s) destinatário(s) e determinadas vozes do já-dito, cujas marcas se alojam no objeto de discurso, constituindo-o e a ele se impondo. / That which comes in the third person, that about which one says / writes, when it is considered a product of authors / addressees interactions, brings, by referring to an already-said, brings a third element (a third voice) in the composition of discourse objects. This last, due to also constitute itself from an already-said, a social voice, expressa reply from the addresser, in accordance with the many several positions the different social experiences that the addresser, as the author, takes in interactions. To think discourse objects as social voices is, thus, to accept it as a product of addressers replies to addressees (BAKHTIN, [1979] 2010a 2006), which allows to think not only about the present interaction, but also as its constitutive element on possible utterances linked by addressers to social practices authors bring to bear on their texts. For doing this, by accepting the participation of a third in language production, we aim to describe it, as regards college entrance exam texts, in terms of voices that participate in college entrance exam texts and define them according to school practices authors have had or have (direct or indirect) access. The theoretical foundation sof dialogical analysis (BAKHTIN [1961-1962, 1975, 1979] 2010 a, b, c) and the CIRCLE), modern rhetoric (PERELMAN; OLBRECHTS-TYTECA, 2005), literacy theories (STREET, 2012b, 2014), and the indiciary paradigm (GINZBURG, 1989), are taken as the works theoretical-methodological basis. Thus, phenomena are examined that mobilize the emergence of marks materialized in texts, phenomena at the same time linked to the specificities of the immediate enunciative situation, on the one side, and to what appear as elements stabilized in and by interactions throughout history, on the other. The corpus is composed by 264 FUVEST 2006 college entrance exam texts having work as their subject. Results obtained show that the construction of the discourse object work is a dialogue among three rigorously present interlocutors in these written productions: the addresser/author, addressees and some identifiable voices of the already-said, whose marks are summoned in discourse objects, constituting them and imposing themselves on them.

SILVA, João Eudes Moreira da. O Vestibular da UFC. Implicações para o Ensino Médio: um estudo de caso a partir das mudanças realizadas de 1978 a 2004. 2007. 117f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação Brasileira, Fortaleza (CE), 2007. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-02-14T16:46:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2007-DIS-JEMSILVA.pdf: 351896 bytes, checksum: acce2d5f173bad8aba4d9cb51363fe7a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-02-14T16:57:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2007-DIS-JEMSILVA.pdf: 351896 bytes, checksum: acce2d5f173bad8aba4d9cb51363fe7a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-02-14T16:57:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2007-DIS-JEMSILVA.pdf: 351896 bytes, checksum: acce2d5f173bad8aba4d9cb51363fe7a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / This study intends to investigate changes brought about in the College Entrance Examinations (Vestibular) of the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) in the last 26 years and its effects in the Brazilian Secondary Education. Specifically, the explanations for several modifications established - each at a different time and manner - are analyzed based on interviews with presidents and vice-presidents of the Examination’s Coordination Committee (CCV). Through the speech of the teachers responsible for the elaboration of the Biology tests, the impact of the vestibular exams are revealed as well as the effects in the subjects dealt with in Secondary School. This investigation confirms the historicity of the change process by utilizing documents from the Education, Research and Community Service Council (CEPE) and the Call for Exams Publications from 1978 to 2007. This qualitative research chose a semi-structured interview and document analysis as tools for data survey, focusing especially on the sayings of the presidents and vice-presidents of the CCV related to the changes that took place in UFC’s Vestibular examinations from 1978 to 2007; the sayings of teachers who developed the Biology tests in he UFC Vestibular; as well as on documental analysis of these Biology tests and official documents. In the text, the ability of private schools to adapt to the innovations proposed by the CCV is highlighted and the lack of visibility of these actions by public schools is noticed. It is concluded that the access system to the university has an indisputable influence in Secondary School, both in content and in its epistemological approach, however this influence can only be positive if there is a convergence between the access system to Higher Education and the objectives in Secondary School itself. It is shown that UFC needs to review its selection criteria, resize the contents required and invert the way it contributes with the evaluation process, centralizing its concerns in the construction of an educational proposal that may shape individuals capable of thinking, proposing and making changes that can transform the course of history. / Este estudo se propôs a investigar as mudanças provocadas nos vestibulares da Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), nos últimos 26 anos e suas repercussões no Ensino Médio. De modo mais específico analisa-se a partir das entrevistas com os presidentes e vice-presidente da Comissão Coordenadora do Vestibular (CCV) as explicações para as diversas modificações implantadas por cada um ao seu tempo e ao seu modo. Através da fala dos professores elaboradores de provas de Biologia revela-se o impacto causado pelas provas do vestibular e sua repercussão nos conteúdos abordados no Ensino Médio.Esta pesquisa, confirma a historicidade do processo de mudanças fazendo uso dos documentos do Conselho de Ensino, Pesquisa e Extensão (CEPE) e dos editais de convocação dos vestibulares compreendidos entre 1978 e 2007. A pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa adota como instrumento de levantamento de dados a entrevista semi-estruturada e análise de documentos concentrando-se especialmente: nas falas dos presidentes e vice-presidentes da CCV relacionadas com as mudanças ocorridas nos vestibulares da UFC no período de 1978 a 2007; nas contribuições dos professores elaboradores de provas de Biologia do vestibular da UFC; na análise documental das provas de Biologia do vestibular da UFC; e na apreciação dos documentos oficiais. Destaca-se no texto a capacidade de adaptação das escolas particulares às inovações propostas pela CCV, e se notifica a pouca visibilidade de iniciativas tomadas nesse sentido pela escola pública. Chega-se à conclusão que o sistema de acesso à universidade tem uma influência inegável no Ensino Médio, tanto no conteúdo como no seu enfoque epistemológico; entretanto essa ascendência pode ser positiva desde que haja convergência entre o sistema de acesso ao Ensino Superior e os objetivos do próprio Ensino Médio. Evidencia-se a necessidade da UFC repensar os critérios utilizados no processo de seleção, redimensionando os conteúdos exigidos e centralizando sua preocupação na construção de uma proposta educativa que forme sujeitos capazes de pensar propor e realizar mudança que transformem o curso dessa história. Palavras-Chaves: Vestibular; Mudanças; Ensino Médio.

abstract: High school students with high-incidence disabilities and struggling writers face considerable challenges when taking high-stakes writing assessments designed to examine their suitability for entrance to college. I examined the effectiveness of a writing intervention for improving these students’ performance on a popular college entrance exam, the writing assessment for the ACT. Students were taught a planning and composing strategy for successfully taking this test using the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model. A randomized control trial was conducted where 20 high school students were randomly assigned to a treatment (N = 10) or control (N = 10) condition. Control students received ACT math preparation. SRSD instruction statistically enhanced students’ planning, the quality of their written text (including ideas and analysis, development and support, organization, and language use), the inclusion of argumentative elements in their compositions, and the use of transition words in written text. Limitations of the study, future research, and implications for practice are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Learning, Literacies and Technologies 2017