Teaching writing

The review proposes 6 recommendations to strengthen teachers’ skills in teaching writing within the NSW curriculum.

1. Establish an evidence base for teaching writing by identifying existing effective practice grounded in research.
2. Clarify and strengthen writing content in syllabus documents.
3. Provide coherent direction for teaching writing in English and other subjects.
4. Develop minimum content specifications for teaching writing in initial teacher education courses.
5. Identify and promote professional development to teach writing.
6. NESA should declare teaching writing a priority.

NESA commissioned 2 pieces of research to inform the review. One focused on how writing is taught in classrooms, while the other investigated teachers’ preparation to teach writing.

How writing is taught in the classroom

How is writing taught in NSW classrooms? Australian Writing Survey report investigated teachers’ knowledge of writing and their approach to teaching and assessing students' writing.

NESA partnered with the Institute of Learning Science and Teacher Education at the Australian Catholic University to carry out this research.

The survey questioned more than 4,000 primary and secondary teachers about:

• their knowledge, understanding and skills for teaching writing
• how they teach writing
• how much classroom time they devote to teaching writing
• how they assess writing
• professional development in teaching writing they have taken
• how well prepared they were to teach writing, based on their initial teacher education.

Key findings included:

• 49% of teachers identified being underprepared (not prepared and minimally prepared) for the task of ‘teaching writing'.
• More than 50% of teachers indicated that they were not prepared or minimally prepared to teach the text structures of ‘imaginative, persuasive, and informative text’.
• 63% of secondary teachers and 44% of primary teachers indicated that they were not prepared to teach ‘keyboarding'.

Preparation to teach writing

In 2017, the preparation to teach writing - initial teacher education (ITE) report investigated how prepared teachers are to teach writing.

The report examined how prepared pre-service teachers were to teach writing. Fourteen NSW ITE institutions completed a questionnaire in relation to primary and secondary English programs.

The review also examined how prepared secondary ITE students are to teach writing in subjects other than English.

The questionnaire asked about the extent of content coverage and/or the time allocated to the following key components of writing instruction:

• theoretical and pedagogical knowledge and understanding
• core curriculum content related to teaching grammar, punctuation, text forms and features, handwriting and spelling
• assessment of writing development including the use of diagnostic testing data
• differentiation in instructional practice to cater for levels of writing achievement
• practice in teaching writing in professional experience placements.

It found that teaching writing in NSW ITE is inconsistent. It also found large gaps in pre-service teacher preparation for teaching writing.

The report is part of our Great Teaching, Inspired Learning initiative, where NESA reviews aspects of ITE.

Previous ITE reports include preparing pre-service teachers for teaching reading and primary mathematics, classroom management, and assessment.