Writing

Promoting writing in learning using ICTs

Roger Matthews, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Problem

Voogt and McKenney (2007) observed that the lack of writing skills development in learning is a hindrance to development across all curricular areas for students and is a “substantial determinant of later academic performance” (p. 92). Wong et al. (2002) found that, when writing skills are not fully developed, the impact to learning is notable in students’ understanding and achievement in areas such as literary understanding, critical thinking as well as many specific curricular areas.

Students often find writing to be a difficult and frustrating task (Cihak and Castle, 2011). Many students require assistance with writing in order to successfully complete their academic requirements (Conroy, 2010). Students have demonstrated problems with writing ranging from basic sentence construction to more complex ideas such as organization and cognitive writing strategies (Cihak and Castle, 2011). Students who are deficient in the area of writing will find they are missing a key skill needed for success in both the academic and professional world and, as such, the “development of students' writing skills is therefore an explicitly formulated educational goal” (de Smet et al., 2014, p. 352).

The traditional modes of teaching writing in the classroom are not always effective and therefore other modes to promote writing in learning must be developed (Arslan and Sahin-Kizil, 2010).

Works cited

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