An Analysis of the Relationship between Primary School Fourth-Grade Students’ Writing Performance, and Student and Class Variables

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the writing performance of the primary school fourth-grade students in relation to the student-level variables (writing, reading comprehension, self-regulation-based writing, writing motivation, and writing anxiety) and classroom-level (teacher) variables (knowledge of text-writing instruction and text-writing instruction self-efficacy beliefs). The data were collected from Zonguldak, Turkey in 2019-2020 academic year. Correlational research method was used in the study, which consisted of 734 fourth-grade students at primary school and 31 classroom teachers. The data collection tools included the Story Text and Informative Text Assessment Analytical Rubric, Writing Achievement Test, Reading Comprehension Test, Self-Regulation-Based Writing Scale, Writing Motivation Scale, Writing Anxiety Scale, and Text-Writing Instruction Form for Classroom Teachers, and Text-Writing Instruction Self-Efficacy Beliefs Scale. A two-level Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) analysis was performed on the data. The results showed that students’ writing knowledge, reading comprehension level and self-regulation-based writing skills play a significant role on their writing performance. The student-level variables examined in this study account for the text-writing performance of students by 24%. The study presents the results based on the findings and recommendations based on the results.