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Dissertation
Exploring Eighth-Grade Students' Self-Efficacy Experiences with Writing in Northwest Florida
University of West Florida Libraries
Doctor of Education (EDD), University of West Florida
2022
Abstract
Middle school students lack confidence in their writing capabilities, hindering their ability to meet writing standards. The negative consequences of eighth-grade students’ inabilities to write argumentative essays on the Florida Standards Assessment English Language Arts (FSA ELA) exam are lower self-efficacy, lack of self-confidence, anxiety, and negative writing perspectives. The purpose of this qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was to explore the self-efficacy experiences of eighth-grade students with writing at a select middle school in Northwest Florida. Bandura’s self-efficacy theory was the theoretical framework used to make meaning of participants’ beliefs in their ability to write an argumentative essay. The four constructs of self-efficacy theory, mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and affective and physiological states, guided the development of the research questions. Nine eighth-grade students with a grade of 69% or below in their ELA class participated in the study. The participants revealed that writing ability, self-regulation, self-confidence, writing in other classes, peer writing engagement, peer writing persuasion, and feelings about writing defined their self-efficacy experiences with writing. The study concludes that participants’ reasons for their writing ability are inconsistent, and they receive minimal feedback from family, teachers, and peers. Also, a strong connection exists between the participants’ responses to their self-confidence and writing confidence, which can inform educational practice and policies. Future research can explore students’ self-efficacy experiences with writing at multiple middle schools, with more female participants, with families, and in other United States regions.
Details
- Title
- Exploring Eighth-Grade Students' Self-Efficacy Experiences with Writing in Northwest Florida
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Contributors
- Wisdom Mensah (Committee Chair)Aneta Walker (Committee Member)
- Publisher
- University of West Florida Libraries
- Format
- pdf
- Number of pages
- 261
- Copyright
- Unpublished work © Rachael Ciara McGriff
- Identifiers
- 99380092596606600
- Academic Unit
- School of Education
- Language
- English
- Awarding Institution
- University of West Florida; Doctor of Education (EDD)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Education (EDD), University of West Florida