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Students’ motivation and engagement in writing: Do they have the ‘write’ stuff?
Article Source: https://www.educationmattersmag.com.au/students-motivation-and-engagement-in-writing-do-they-have-the-write-stuff/
Students’ motivation and engagement in writing: Do they have the ‘write’ stuff?
Professor Andrew J. Martin and Dr Rebecca J. Collie
School of Education, University of New South Wales, Australia
Dr Jen Scott Curwood
Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Australia
The importance of writing
Writing is a core literacy skill that all students need to master to be able to function effectively in school, the workplace, and the community. It is also a major focus of national educational bodies. In Australia, for example, writing is included as one of four core areas assessed in the nationwide tests of student achievement (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy [NAPLAN]), and students are expected to know how to write within diverse creative, informative, and persuasive genres.
However, many students struggle with writing, including spelling and grammar as well as audience and purpose. Consequently, there is a need for more research to understand how writing outcomes may be improved, especially since written tasks are often how students communicate their knowledge about a particular topic or discipline within both formative and summative assessment tasks.
