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An Exploration of the Teacher-Student Writing Conference and the Potential Influence of Self-Efficacy

The purpose of this research was to examine the nature of scheduled teacher-student writing conferences with confident and less confident students. The participants of the study were fifth-graders from a public elementary school in the Southeastern United States. The guiding assumptions of this study were 1) the nature of conferences can be investigated by focusing on the length, number and functions of questions asked, content of the discussion (ideas/mechanics), participants' roles and praise statements; and 2) the nature of student participation during conferences varies based on their level of perceived self-efficacy. A qualitative study design involving multiple case studies was used. Data were collected in both classrooms using the pre-and post Writing Self-Efficacy Scale (Pajares, Miller, & Johnson, 1999) as adapted from Shell, Murphy, & Bruning (1989), as well as students' written performance scores from students' writing samples, audio and video-taped teacher-student writing conferences, audio-taped interviews with teachers and students, and field observations. Collected evidence was described and interpreted using qualitative methods. Qualitative data that came from the analyses of recorded writing conferences also presented that conferences of students with higher and lower levels of self-efficacy differed in terms of focus, ownership, conference agenda, turn taking, frequency of talk, numbers and functions of the questions asked, numbers of praise statements provided by the teacher, and amount of outside interruptions. This study has implications for practitioners and researchers. / A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Teacher Education in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2009. / March 16, 2009. / Elementary School, Writing Conference, Tutoring, Teacher Education, Interaction, Feedback / Includes bibliographical references. / Carolyn L. Piazza, Professor Directing Dissertation; Susan Wood, Outside Committee Member; Janice Flake, Committee Member; Diana Rice, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_175722
ContributorsBayraktar, Aysegul (authoraut), Piazza, Carolyn L. (professor directing dissertation), Wood, Susan (outside committee member), Flake, Janice (committee member), Rice, Diana (committee member), Department of Childhood Education, Reading and Disability Services (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
PublisherFlorida State University, Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text
Format1 online resource, computer, application/pdf
RightsThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them.

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