Research thread aims at providing evidence-based teaching strategies and tiered intervention tips for educational practitioners, while accommodating diverse needs of learners.
Pseudoscience pertains to unsubstantiated or erroneous claims presented as scientific. This issue holds particular significance within the context of educational research studies, given that many of them operate within experimental conditions and often target specific student groups with varying backgrounds and levels of expertise in the measures under examination. The prevalent research-to-practice gap in education emphasizes the importance of ensuring that the effectiveness of instructional strategies extends to real-life scenarios. Achieving this goal necessitates collaborative efforts between educational scholars and practitioners.
In my ongoing research related to instruction and curriculum, I have focused on investigating the efficacy of evidence-based writing processes (prewriting, drafting, composing, revising, editing) and reading comprehension. In a prior research initiative, our research team conducted an in-depth analysis of writing classroom practices by exploring elements such as teachers’ emphasis on teaching materials, tactics, process orientation, class management, and skill focus during specific units. This investigation also involved observing students’ class behaviors and evaluating their final writing products. The overarching objective is to furnish educational practitioners with research findings aligned with best practices in the field, thereby contributing to the enhancement of instructional methodologies.
A Synthesis of Research on Expository Science Text Comprehension
Eunsoo Cho, Cherish Sarmiento, Heqiao Wang, and 1 more author
In preparation 2024
How Students’ Writing Motivation, Teachers’ Personal and Professional Attributes, and Their Writing Instruction Impact Student Writing Achievement: A Two-Level Hierarchical Linear Modeling Study
Student motivation to write is a pivotal factor influencing their writing achievement. However, individual motivation to write is not independent of the learning environment. It also is crucial for teachers to develop their own efficacy, knowledge, and ability in writing and writing instruction to help them utilize effective instructional methods that stimulate students’ motivation to write and further promote their writing achievement. Given these considerations, we utilized a two-level hierarchical linear model to examine the relationships among student motivation, teacher personal and professional traits, teacher writing instruction, and writing achievement at student and teacher levels. Our analysis of the dataset, which included 346 fourth and fifth graders nested within 41 classrooms, found that motivation had a positive predictive effect on writing ability at both student and teacher levels. Moreover, female students, fifth graders, and typically achieving students demonstrated higher writing achievement than their counterparts. While there were no significant effects of teacher efficacy, knowledge, ability, or professional development on student writing achievement, we observed that higher frequency of classroom management practices during writing instruction had a significant negative effect on student writing achievement. Our full model revealed that the relationship between student motivation and achievement was negatively moderated by teachers’ increased use of instructional practices related to process features and using writing instruction materials, but positively moderated by increased use of varied teaching tactics. Overall, our findings emphasize the importance of contextual factors in understanding the complexity of student writing achievement and draw attention to the need for effective instructional practices to support students’ writing development.
@article{wang2023students,title={How Students' Writing Motivation, Teachers' Personal and Professional Attributes, and Their Writing Instruction Impact Student Writing Achievement{:} A Two-Level Hierarchical Linear Modeling Study},author={Wang, Heqiao and Troia, Gary A},journal={Frontiers in Psychology},volume={14},pages={1213929},year={2023},publisher={Frontiers},}
Teaching Effective Revising Strategy to Improve Writing Performance for Children With Learning Disabilities in the United States: A Review
Writing is an important part of a student’s academic achievement. For children with learning disabilities, writing is critical, complex, and challenging as well. Previous research studies have shown that writing performance of most children with learning disabilities is significantly lower compared to their typically developing peers. Besides, they seldom engage in effective revising behaviors either. Researchers in the United States have conducted revising strategy instruction for those struggling writers, and the students’ overall writing performance has shown to improve significantly after receiving the strategy instruction. Being informed of the writing research in the United States will enable us to deepen understanding of the effectiveness of revising strategy instruction on the writing performance of students with learning disabilities, which will further promote writing research on conducting appropriate revising instruction for struggling writers in China.
@article{wang2022revising,title={Teaching Effective Revising Strategy to Improve Writing Performance for Children With Learning Disabilities in the United States{:} A Review},author={Shen, Mei and Wang, Heqiao},journal={Modern Special Education (Chinese)},volume={1},number={G769},pages={77-79},year={2022},publisher={Jiangsu Education Press and Periodicals Headquarters, Jiangsu, China},}
Prospects and Challenges of Using MTSS for Children with Written Language Disorders.
Amna Agha, Cherish Sarmiento, Katie Valentine, and 3 more authors
Given the recent advocacy for using a science-based lens in conducting educational research and practice and developing educational policy, multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) is designed to provide a systematic framework for all target students by adopting evidence-based intervention, monitoring progress, and making instructional decisions with assessment data. The breadth and depth of MTSS implementation across states and nations requires discussions on the landscape of policy guidance and suggestions behind. However, so far there are few studies investigating the potential factors that cause the variability of implementing MTSS. Less is known regarding the academic intervention models for children at risk for or identified with language disorder. The primary purpose of this article was to synthesize the existing MTSS policy recommendations at the federal, state, and local levels that may address current implementation barriers. The secondary objective was to demonstrate practical guidance from some representative case examples from the U.S. and other countries. We highlight diverse factors at different levels, such as the availability (or lack thereof) of: financial support, teachers’ preparedness for instructing target children, cooperation between practitioners and researchers, etc., that may impact implementation of MTSS. More importantly, the paucity of developing MTSS framework for students with writing difficulties was also identified. Implications and future directions for MTSS implementation were discussed.
A Synthesis of Research on Expository Science Text ComprehensionIn preparation 2024
Prospects and Challenges of Using MTSS for Children with Written Language Disorders.unpublished 2022
