The effect of participation in a writing institute on selected teachers
Abstract
The research question for this study asked, "What are the effects of participating in a 72-hour, 12-day Summer Writing Institute upon teachers' development as writers and as teachers of writing?" This was a hypothesis-generating study that investigated (a) the participants' development as writers, (b) the participants' development as teachers of writing, and (c) the interaction between developing as a writer and developing as a teacher of writing. Three volunteers were chosen for study from a group of 27 participants in a Summer Writing Institute that was adapted from the National Writing Project model. At the end of the course the three participants shared their process journals in which they kept their notes, drafts of their writing, responses to their own processes, and their reactions to the Summer Writing Institute activities. These were copied for further study. In addition, each participated in an interview that lasted between 45 minutes and an hour, during which time they discussed their reactions to the Summer Writing Institute, their perceptions of how they grew as writers, and their plans for classroom implementation of the philosophy, methodology, and strategies learned. As a result of this study, three hypotheses were generated. They were: (1) Summer Writing Institute participants reveal their development as writers in different ways, for example: exploring such issues as understanding of their own writing process, valuing peer group responses, developing of a personal theme, writing with voice, and developing a willingness to expose their ideas through their writing. (2) Writing Institute participants' development as teachers is revealed by their evolving philosophy of learning and instruction. This may be reflected in an exploration of instructional practices such as peer response in the classroom, student-selected topics, and development of personal themes. (3) Teacher conceptual change about classroom practice is most likely to occur when there is an interaction between the participant's development as a writer and the development as a teacher.
Subject Area
Teacher education|Curricula|Teaching|Language arts
Recommended Citation
Laub, Harry David, "The effect of participation in a writing institute on selected teachers" (1996). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9708252.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9708252
