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Proposal Type: Individual Paper 
Domain: Learning and Special Education 
SIG: Special Educational Needs 
Type Submitted Paper 
Equipment PC and projector
Paper Details
Title Metacognitive knowledge, attitudes and self-perceptions of writing: A study of middle school students with developmental disabilities and learning difficulties
Abstract This paper reports on one aspect of a larger study, the WriteIdeas project (van Kraayenoord, Moni, Jobling, Koppenhaver & Elkins, 2004), which is concerned with writing and middle school students (Years 6 and 7 in primary schools and Years 8 and 9 in the English curriculum area) who have developmental disabilities or learning difficulties and who are taught full-time in inclusive classrooms and their teachers. The paper describes the findings related to the students’ metacognitive knowledge about writing, and their attitudes and self-perceptions of writing in response to instructional programs developed by their teachers.  The relationships between the variables are also examined. The findings are discussed in terms of furthering our understanding about the writing achievements of these students with special educational needs and the nature of instruction in writing that regular classroom teachers should provide. 
Summary Aims

This paper reports on one aspect of a larger study, the WriteIdeas project (van Kraayenoord, Moni, Jobling, Koppenhaver & Elkins, 2004), which is concerned with writing and middle school students (Years 6 and 7 in primary schools and Years 8 and 9 in the English curriculum area) who have developmental disabilities or learning difficulties and who are taught full-time in inclusive classrooms and their teachers. The paper describes the findings related to the students’ metacognitive knowledge about writing, and their attitudes and self-perceptions of writing.  Specifically, the research questions were: What differences are there between those students with developmental disabilities and those with learning difficulties in terms of their metacognitive knowledge and affect with respect to writing? How does the students' performances on these variables change as a result of the instructional programs in writing developed by their teachers and based on the professional development provided by the researchers during the project? Further, what are the relationships between the metacognitive knowledge about writing, attitudes towards writing and self-perceptions of writing in this sample of middle years’ students?



Methodology

Participants

Data from 52 students with developmental disabilities (n = 34) and learning difficulties (n = 18) involved in the WriteIdeas project are reported in this paper. The students comprise 26 males and 8 females with developmental disabilities and 15 males and 3 females with learning difficulties. The students came from three cohorts, each taking part in three consecutive years of the project. All were in the middle years of schooling (Years 6 to 9).

Instrumentation

Items about the “self as a writer” from the Student Writing Interview – Revised (van Kraayenoord, Moni & Jobling, 2004) were used in this study to obtain a measure of the students’ metacognitive knowledge about writing. The items examined the students’ metacognitive awareness about their achievement in writing and the reasons for their views, their awareness of the improvements they wished to make, as well as their understandings about their teachers’ perceptions of them as writers. Two instruments were used to collect data about affect and writing. These were: The Writing Attitude Scale (Kear, Coffman, McKenna & Ambrosio, 2000) and the Writer Self-Perception Scale (Bottomley, Henk, & Melnick, 1997-1998).  The former instrument comprises 28 items and examines students’ feelings about writing. The latter instrument assesses students’ views about themselves as writers.  The Scale comprises 38 items and students’ responses can be reported as a total score or as 5 subscores for the following scales: General Progress, Specific Progress, Observational Comparison, Social Feedback and Physiological States. In addition the researchers added 7 items that examined students’ views about themselves as spellers. Five of the 7 items were aligned with the 5 scales (one item each) referred to above. The items on the Attitude and Self-Perception Scales required ratings on Likert-type scales.  

Procedure

The data was collected at the beginning of the project in March of each year, and again towards the end of the year in November of the year of each students’ involvement. The measures were completed in a one-to-one situation with the student and a researcher or research assistant seated at a table in an unused classroom, staffroom or office, or on a quiet veranda at the school. The students’ oral responses to the open-ended Interview items were written down verbatim by the researcher or research assistant.  The researcher or research assistant read each item of the Attitude and Self-Perception Scales to the student whereupon the student used a pencil to circle the rating representing their response.

Data analyses

Responses to each item of the Interview were read multiple times to determine the main themes before thematic categories were derived and given a code (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992).  Subsequently all of the responses were coded. Reliability of the coding was established through the use of a second coder. The data from all of the instruments at pre- and post-test were then entered into SPSS-X and correlational and multivariate analyses were undertaken as appropriate.   



Outcomes

Theoretical and Educational Significance

The findings of the study will be reported with reference to the three research questions indicated above. First, researchers involved in this study observe that there have been few studies that have examined the metacognitive knowledge of writing of students with developmental disabilities, although several studies have examined the metacognitive knowledge of writing of those with learning difficulties (e.g., Englert Raphael & Anderson, 1992).  The findings of the present study allow us to draw a number of conclusions about the individual differences in metacognitive knowledge of these two groups of students.  Second, with reference to their findings that examine the students’ pre- and post-test performances, the authors have used the arguments of Pressley and Afflerbach (1995) and Snow (2002) that indicate that the period of middle school is an important phase of development when as school demands in literacy change students must self-assess so that they might use their metacognitive knowledge about themselves as writers to optimise their classroom experiences and lessons. Third, the correlational analyses provide further evidence of the relationship between metacognition and affect proposed in the theoretical literature (Borkowski, Estrada, Milstead & Hale, 1989; Bandura, 1997; Efklides, 2006; Schunk, 1982).  The findings indicate that this relationship is evident in the performances of these students with developmental disabilities and learning difficulties. Finally, the authors contend that consideration of both metacognitive and affective factors is important in furthering our understanding of these students’ achievements in writing and in creating effective instructional programs in writing in inclusive classrooms.
Keywords Metacognition
Special education
Writing
Appendices
Authors
Name Surname Institution Country e-mail EARLI Number Presenting
Christina E. van Kraayenoord University of Queensland Australia c.vankraayenoord@uq.edu.au   *  
Karen B. Moni University of Queensland Australia k.moni@uq.edu.au    
Anne Jobling University of Queensland Australia a.jobling@uq.edu.au    
John Elkins University of Queensland Australia j.elkins@uq.edu.au    
David Koppenhaver Appalachian State University United States koppenhaverd@iplm3.appstate.edu    
Robyn Miller University of Queensland Australia r.miller2@uq.edu.au    
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