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Writing instruction in Singapore primary English language classrooms
Author
Shreenjit Kaur
Supervisor
Anitha Devi Pillai
Abstract
The impact of teacher cognition on teachers’ professional lives has long been established (Clark and Peterson, 1986; Pajares, 1992). Understanding what teachers think, know and believe addresses many issues; one of them being its influence on classroom practice (Borg, 2003). However, this has yet to be explored in the Singapore context, specifically in matters of writing instruction. This study, anchored upon Borg’s (2006) teacher cognition framework, was designed to understand how primary school teachers’ writing instructional practices are influenced by their schooling experience, professional coursework, contextual factors and personal beliefs. Qualitative research methods, namely semi-structured teachers\ interviews and classroom observations are used in this study. Data is collected from five teachers from different primary schools. An exploration of the ‘insider perspective’ is key to this study and therefore, it puts teachers at the centre of the research. Three approaches to writing instruction were identified: traditional skills instruction, process writing approaches and genre-based instruction. However, the teachers displayed quite a bit of variability in how they enacted process-oriented and genre-based instruction. A range of factors influenced this variability and this study revealed how teachers negotiated the tensions among the various factors in order to resolve contradictions in their teaching approaches. Based on the data, it appeared that contextual factors, teachers’ reported beliefs, prior schooling experience and access and quality of professional coursework affected teachers’ choices of instructional practices. Teachers’ greatest influences were contextual factors as it directly affected their beliefs and consequently, their preference for certain instructional practices. There is evidence that the curriculum and a conscious awareness of the examination requirements dictated teachers' instructional practices. As a result, some teachers revealed discrepancies between their perspectives on teaching writing and actual instructional practices.
Date Issued
2016
Call Number
PE1404 Shr
Date Submitted
2016