policy & reform campusreview . com . au
Balancing act
Do Australian students have a ‘ problem ’ with writing ?
By Wade Zaglas
A decade ’ s worth of NAPLAN data and a sweeping review of how writing will be taught in NSW has suggested – strongly in the media – that Australian students ’ writing skills are in a sad state of decline .
In a Sydney Morning Herald story , academic Dr Russell Daylight ( who teaches first-year university students how to write at Charles Sturt University ) stated that his students can express themselves clearly when they speak but , when it comes time for writing , what they too often produce is a “ confusing jumble of jargon , colloquialisms and random punctuation ”. But is this a beat-up ? Or is there more to the story ? Dr Janet Dutton , a lecturer in Secondary English at Macquarie University and the former HSC chief examiner for English says that the discourse surrounding students ’ writing in years 7-12 needs to be far more nuanced .
NAPLAN The frequent evidence proffered as ‘ proof ’ that Australian students ’ writing is declining comes from data provided by the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy ( NAPLAN ). Dutton says that Thomas ’ 2009 analysis of NAPLAN writing scores “ shows that the average student in 2018 performed nearly 1.5 years behind the average students in 2011 – despite an upward trend in reading and numeracy ”.
Declines for both genders in writing have been evident from 2011 and 2018 , however females registered a more significant decline in 2018 . Dutton also states that the NSW Education Standards Authority ’ s ( NESA ) Thematic Review of writing found a “ marked and consistent decline ” in writing performance as students transition through the junior secondary years ( years 7-9 ).
While the former HSC chief examiner asserts that NAPLAN data is critical in many ways ( primarily due to the fact that “ it is the largest aggregation of student performance data ” available to Australian educators , and it can be an effective diagnostic tool ), a glaring weakness of the NAPLAN writing tasks is that it measures a student ’ s ability to write a “ single textual form ( narrative or
persuasive )”, therefore excluding other types of texts students will encounter more in the senior years and later at university , including explanations , information texts , essays and reports .
Another key issue Dutton identifies with the NAPLAN writing test is that it can often require familiarity with a particular sociocultural context that “ does not offer equitable access ” to all students .
“ I clearly recall the year when students were asked to craft a persuasive text , offering arguments about why / why not they should learn to cook ,” she says .
“ At the time I was working in a low SES , EAL / D context where the cultural backgrounds of many students did not involve males contributing to cooking unless working professionally in food preparation .
“ Many students reported they couldn ’ t think of an argument in favour or the proposition so wrote one paragraph saying it was stupid to suggest they learn to cook as clearly that was not useful unless they were going to be a chef / cook / own a restaurant .”
Dutton added : “ There is also anecdotal evidence questioning how seriously the [ NAPLAN ] test is taken by some secondary students as well as the increasing evidence of the stress-provoking nature of this high stakes instrument and the extent to which this impacts performance .”
TEACHING PRACTICES Dutton says that Australian research has examined how teachers approach the teaching of writing , with some reports noting a decline “ in the teaching of writing in the early years of secondary school ”.
The NESA commissioned Summary of the Research Report of The Australian Writing Survey 2018 identified two key trends in relation to the teaching of writing . Firstly , it found a “ distinct shift in the priority given to teaching writing across stages of learning from K-12 with significantly less time devoted to writing instruction across secondary schooling compared to Primary school ”.
The Australian Writing Survey also highlighted that , compared to secondary school teachers , teachers in the primary years were significantly more likely to put in high effort ( 33.1 per cent versus 8.2 per cent ) into teaching writing ”.
Dutton says that another report focusing on initial teacher educators ’ ( ITEs ) preparation to teach writing found that teachers ’
10