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Collaborative writing: the effects of metacognitive prompting and structured peer interaction
1Aberdeenshire Educational Psychology Service, Scotland.
The British Journal of Educational Psychology
|July 14, 2001
Summary
Interactive writing instruction significantly improves student writing quality and self-esteem. The Paired Writing system, utilizing metacognitive prompting and scaffolding, demonstrated greater gains for students who wrote collaboratively compared to those who wrote alone.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Writing Pedagogy
Background:
- Paired Writing is a structured peer-assisted learning system.
- It integrates metacognitive prompting and scaffolding for interactive writing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the impact of metacognitive prompting and scaffolding in Paired Writing.
- To determine their contribution to writing quality and attitudes.
- To control for practice and teacher effects.
Main Methods:
- 28 ten- and eleven-year-olds in a mixed-ability class participated.
- Students were randomly assigned to Interaction (peer tutoring) or No Interaction (writing alone) conditions.
- Both groups received metacognitive training; the Interaction group collaborated on writing tasks.
Main Results:
- All students showed writing improvement.
- Interactive writing groups demonstrated significantly greater gains than lone writers.
- Paired writers exhibited enhanced self-esteem as writers.
Conclusions:
- The study discusses the effectiveness and sustainability of the Paired Writing system.
- Interactive peer learning appears crucial for maximizing writing gains.