My name is Lea Schröder and I am a scientific associate and PhD student at the University of Vechta since 2020. My research focuses on inclusion, writing support and learning with digital media.
Digital Writing Support for 5th Grade Students - Evaluation of a Web Application for the Promotion of Narrative Writing Skills
In the current debate about schools teaching inclusion and digitalisation are two key topics. The combination of inclusion and digitalisation creates new synergy effects for good teaching. This is the focus of the project BRIDGES at the University of Vechta. Scientific and practice-oriented research for methods of dealing successfully with heterogeneity and inclusion will be strengthened and the promoting competences in this area will be integrated into the development of new teaching strategies. In a sub-project, these effects are used to support students in the fifth grade in narrative writing. The learning application ’Reise nach Narrativa digital – eine Welt voller Geschichten’ (Journey to Narrativa Digital- a World Full of Stories) has been developed as a promising and well-structured support for inclusive German lessons. In a longitudinal study with an experimental-control group design, the support/development/possible improvement of narrative writing skills of students in the fifth grade has been investigated within three measurement points (pre, post, follow up). The sample consisted of approximately 350 fifth graders from seven schools in Germany. The experimental group received 90 minutes of writing training per week during eight weeks. The developed learning software is based on the well-known model from Hayes and Flower (1980). The application systematically guides students through the process of writing until a complete story is created at the end of the application. There are numerous differentiations in the application for the heterogeneous learning group. Furthermore the application is designed to be as barrier-reduced as possible. In addition to the individual work on their own story, the young people receive and give feedback.
The control group has only attended regular classes while the experimental group received their training. The quantitative and qualitative development of the text production, the writing-related self-concept, the motivation to write and the attitude towards digital writing were evaluated. The measurements were taken one week before and one week after the intervention for both groups. After three months follow-up surveys were conducted to investigate long-term effects. The first results from the study will be presented on the poster.