This thesis presents an investigation into secondary school English teachers’ and students’ conceptualisations of good writing, and how they might use their understandings of quality in writing for the purpose of improving writing. By focusing on the views and classroom practices of twelve-year-old students and their teachers, the research aims to advance understanding of teachers’ and students’ conceptual thinking about writing quality, and the underlying constructs. The research utilises data from an ESRC-funded project titled Grammar for Writing?: The Impact of Contextualised Grammar Teaching on Pupils’ Writing and Pupils’ Metalinguistic Understanding (grant number RES-062-23-0775). This data was gathered from thirty-one teachers and their Year 8 students over three terms. Lesson observations took place once each term, and were followed by interviews with each project teacher and one teacher-chosen student from each class. Interview questions relating to beliefs about good writing were included in the project schedules and were inductively analysed to discern themes in participants’ responses. Interviews with students took the form of ‘writing conversations’ during which students commented on samples of their own and their peers’ writing. A small-scale follow-up study with three Year 8 classes in one secondary school was used to confirm initial findings and to provide additional data on students’ beliefs about good writing. The research found that teachers’ conceptualisations of writing quality were internally consistent but that variation between teachers was marked. Teachers not only valued different qualities in writing but experienced different degrees of conflict and ambiguity when relating their personal construct of quality to the official, public construct, as embodied in national assessment criteria. The findings support earlier views of teacher judgement as richly textured and complex, drawing on different available indexes, including idiosyncratic conceptualisations of writing quality. Whilst students’ criteria for good writing echoed their teachers’ criteria to some extent, there was also evidence of students drawing on their own conceptualisations of quality, especially in relation to the intended impact of writing on the reader. Many students expressed a strong awareness of writing for an audience and clearly valued writing as a social practice. They especially valued peer judgement of their writing. However, students’ strategies for improving writing were often difficult to articulate, formulaic and generalised, or circumscribed by limited linguistic subject knowledge. The study is significant in offering an insight into teachers’ and students’ conceptualisations of writing quality and how these might be brought into play in the writing classroom. The findings may have particular resonance since they are reported at a time of radical change to assessment policy and practice in secondary schools in England.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcela Marcia Canonico de Tremmell.pdf: 1557892 bytes, checksum: 604ae48e86b745f20b8f2c6e868465fc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The theme of this research is the Secondary School that is organized by Sets of Semester-long Subjects, a curriculum developed by the State Department of Education of Paraná - SEED / PR - and introduced in 2009. The objective of this study is to evaluate this proposal for secondary school. For this reason, this project presents the following question as a research problem: the teaching model of Secondary School Grouped in "blocks" helped increase the period students stay in school, and notice their strengths and difficulties regarding this proposal. The main references that guide this research are the following authors: Kuenzer (2000), Frigotto and Ciavatta (2003), Ramos (2004), Cury (2002, 2008), Freire (1996), Arroyo (2004); Apple (2006) and Saviani (2007, 2010). As the methodological direction, the research adopted a qualitative approach, with an analysis of the school s documents. The instrument used to collect data was the structured questionnaire answered by 71 subjects: 57 students, 14 educators. In order to interpret the data, convergences and divergences indicated in the statements of the research subjects were sought, through inter-subjective dialogues and, at the same time, empirical and with required theories. The research revealed that that there was a slight decline in student dropout in secondary school grouped in "blocks" at the studied school. Moreover, it revealed that the new proposal has been contributing to improve the quality of education. However it also presented difficulties that must be overcome since the need to adapt the proposed project was confirmed / A pesquisa tem como tema o Ensino Médio Organizado por Blocos de Disciplinas Semestrais, uma proposta curricular elaborada pela Secretaria de Estado da Educação do Paraná - SEED/PR - e implantada no ano de 2009. O presente estudo tem como objetivo avaliar essa proposta para Ensino Médio; para tanto traz como problema de pesquisa o seguinte questionamento: o modelo do Ensino Médio Blocado permitiu aumentar a permanência dos alunos e saber quais são seus aspectos positivos e dificuldades encontradas nessa proposta. Da literatura especializada os autores Kuenzer (2000), Frigotto e Ciavatta (2003), Ramos (2004), Cury (2002, 2008), Freire (1996); Arroyo (2004); Apple (2006) e Saviani (2007, 2010) são as principais referências que norteiam esta pesquisa. Como encaminhamento metodológico a pesquisa adotou uma abordagem qualitativa, tendo como procedimento a análise dos documentos do Colégio. Na coleta de dados foi utilizado como instrumento o questionário estruturado, respondido por 71 sujeitos. São eles: 57 alunos, 14 educadores. Na interpretação dos dados buscaram-se as convergências e divergências apontadas nas falas dos sujeitos da pesquisa, dialogando na intersubjetividade, ao mesmo tempo com o empírico e com as teorias requeridas. A pesquisa constatou que houve uma pequena queda na desistência dos alunos no Ensino Médio Blocado do Colégio em questão, além disso, revelou que a nova proposta vem contribuindo para melhorar a qualidade da educação; entretanto apresentou também dificuldades que precisam ser superadas visto ter-se constatado a necessidade de adequação da proposta

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education