Per Uppstad - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Per Uppstad
Routledge eBooks, Jun 7, 2023
Nordic Journal of Literacy Research
Forskning fremhever læreres positive selvoppfatning som en forutsetning for å kunne gi god lese- ... more Forskning fremhever læreres positive selvoppfatning som en forutsetning for å kunne gi god lese- og skriveopplæring (Hodges et al., 2021); de må oppleve seg kompetente, ha handlingsrom og oppleve en tilknytning til arbeidet (Deci & Ryan, 2012). Selv om forskningslitteraturen innen motivasjon for skriving er omfattende og voksende (Camacho et al., 2021; Graham et al., 2018; Walgermo & Uppstad, under utgivelse), pekes det i litteraturen på at lærerutdannere ikke legger nok til rette for å styrke læreres positive selvoppfatninger knyttet til skriveopplæring (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Hodges et al., 2021). I denne artikkelen følger vi et autentisk undervisningsopplegg i lærerutdanningen og utforsker i hvilken grad det å gi lærerstudenter en innføring i å skrive tekster for barn i begynneropplæringen – ut over ordinær undervisning i lærerutdanningen – kan styrke studentenes forventning til egen engasjerende begynneropplæring. I et forfatterledet undervisningsopplegg fikk førsteårsstudenter ...
Journal of Educational Change, Dec 8, 2022
Having two teachers work collaboratively in the same class has been suggested as a possible solut... more Having two teachers work collaboratively in the same class has been suggested as a possible solution to several instructional challenges, including the inclusion of students with special needs in mainstream classrooms and as part of school-wide prevention models to increase student achievement. In this, shared responsibility between teachers is regarded as a prerequisite to successful co-teaching. However, few studies have investigated whether shared responsibility between teachers actually leads to improved student achievement. This mixed methods study investigates shared responsibility in a sample of 148 classrooms where two general educators worked collaboratively in literacy instruction through first and second grade. First, we analysed whether the degree of shared responsibility between the two teachers for planning, enacting, and evaluating literacy instruction predicted student reading when controlling for pre-reading skills at baseline. Second, we carried out in-depth individual interviews with six collaborative teacher dyads purposefully selected from high-and low-performing classrooms to investigate what characterized their sharing of responsibility. The results show that shared responsibility significantly predicts students' reading achievement. Further, the interviews reveal a surface level collaboration between coteachers in low-performing classes, yet a more profound level of collaboration with influence on key teaching decisions in high-performing classes. Keywords Co-teaching • Early literacy instruction • Mixed methods • Teacher collaboration • Student-teacher ratio Aslaug Fodstad Gourvennec and Oddny Judith Solheim have contributed equally to this work.
Proceedings of the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting
Learning to Write Effectively: Current Trends in European Research, 2012
wentieth-century psychology has placed an extraordinarily high value on data that are publicly ob... more wentieth-century psychology has placed an extraordinarily high value on data that are publicly observable and replicable, while it has not distinguished itself for the quality of its theories. Much of contemporary linguistics has focused on the construction of elaborate theories invented for the understanding of minuscule and questionable observations. The human sciences thus suffer from various pathologies that block more complete understandings of language and the mind. (Chafe, 1994, p. 11) It is the objective task of the scientist-an objective World 3 task which regulates his 'verbal behaviour' qua 'scientist'-to discover the relevant logical consequences of the new theory, and to discuss them in the light of existing theories.
Nordic Journal of Literacy Research
Effective reading instruction requires precise assessment of the learner’s current skill level. F... more Effective reading instruction requires precise assessment of the learner’s current skill level. For young learners, however, assessment often comes at a great cost: Tests take a long time and students are presented with items that are both too easy and too difficult. Recent developments in adaptive testing have the potential for solving both these challenges. In this paper, we take the path of argument-based validity (Kane, 2015) by presenting an interpretation and use argument for an upcoming adaptive test. We term this paper a study protocol, in line with the established tradition for protocols for pre-registered empirical trials. The function of the protocol is to communicate openly what often remains tacit knowledge on test development.
Psychological Research-psychologische Forschung, Jan 8, 2022
This study investigates the possibility that lack of fluency in spelling and/or typing disrupts w... more This study investigates the possibility that lack of fluency in spelling and/or typing disrupts writing processes in such a way as to cause damage to the substance (content and structure) of the resulting text. 101 children (mean age 11 years 10 months), writing in a relatively shallow orthography (Norwegian), composed argumentative essays using a simple text editor that provided accurate timing for each keystroke. Production fluency was assessed in terms of both within-word and word-initial interkey intervals and pause counts. We also assessed the substantive quality of completed texts. Students also performed tasks in which we recorded time to pressing keyboard keys in response to spoken letter names (a keyboard knowledge measure), response time and interkey intervals when spelling single, spoken words (spelling fluency), and interkey intervals when typing a simple sentence from memory (transcription fluency). Analysis by piecewise structural equation modelling gave clear evidence that all three of these measures predict fluency when composing full text. Students with longer mid-word interkey intervals when composing full text tended to produce texts with slightly weaker theme development. However, we found no other effects of composition fluency measures on measures of the substantive quality of the completed text. Our findings did not, therefore, provide support for the process-disruption hypothesis, at least in the context of upper-primary students writing in a shallow orthography.
Visual Communication, Mar 15, 2018
Behavior Research Methods, May 24, 2017
We describe the Multilanguage Written Picture Naming Dataset. This gives trial-level data and tim... more We describe the Multilanguage Written Picture Naming Dataset. This gives trial-level data and time and agreement norms for written naming of the 260 pictures of everyday objects that compose the colorized Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set (Rossion & Pourtois in Perception, 33, 217-236, 2004). Adult participants gave keyboarded responses in their first language under controlled experimental conditions (N = 1,274, with subsamples responding in Bulgarian,
Nordic Journal of Literacy Research
The present editorial article presents the concept and function of peer-reviewed study protocols ... more The present editorial article presents the concept and function of peer-reviewed study protocols as part of the academic process, particularly in the context of furthering transparency and rigour in educational research. The aim is to provide a first rationale for publishing peer-reviewed study protocols in the Nordic Journal of Literacy Research (NJLR) in order to further increase scientific rigour in its field, which is now well established, although it is still young. Our proposal goes beyond the status quo by also encompassing qualitative study protocols. Here we have drawn our inspiration from common practices in medicine and from claims within the philosophy of science to the effect that the fate of both quantitative and qualitative studies stands or falls with their transparency. Our proactive suggestion also reflects a 'climate change' with regard to the status of qualitative studies on the international scene. The publication of peer-reviewed study protocols is now common procedure in some fields of research. This also happens in educational research, but much less consistently. A study protocol can be defined as a highly precise and scholarly description of the design of an upcoming study, including its rationale, aims, research questions and measures. Such a protocol has several functions. First of all, protocols ensure transparency and force researchers to adhere to their initial choice of approach. This is of particular importance in quantitative studies, to prevent cherry-picking. Second, protocols give other researchers information at an early stage about the scope and scientific rigorousness of a study. Such early communication helps to avoid duplication of effort and makes it possible to position new studies relative to the one described. When the protocol is not published, other researchers generally have to rely on hearsay. Third, the publication of the research protocol will facilitate the subsequent publication of results and findings, given that the methodology used has already been peer-reviewed. A related advantage is that, as a protocol allows the methodology to be
Educational Psychology Review
For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on... more For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on knowing the student’s capabilities and inner drives. To date, research on writing has yet to establish a consistent framework for assessing writing motivation, and often fails to acknowledge students’ self-reports, rather favoring evaluations of students’ writing motivation made by others, such as teachers and researchers. This limbo state originates partly from a general skepticism towards the trustworthiness of elementary students’ self-reports. Nonetheless, the validity of such self-reports has been acknowledged in adjacent fields, such as reading. Aiming to establish a knowledge base from studies addressing students’ voices, the present study adopts the method of a systematic review and investigates how writing motivation has been assessed in empirical studies (1996–2020) through K-5 students’ self-reports. Of the 7047 studies identified through database search, 56 met the inclusion...
Educational Psychology Review
For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on... more For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on knowing the student’s capabilities and inner drives. To date, research on writing has yet to establish a consistent framework for assessing writing motivation, and often fails to acknowledge students’ self-reports, rather favoring evaluations of students’ writing motivation made by others, such as teachers and researchers. This limbo state originates partly from a general skepticism towards the trustworthiness of elementary students’ self-reports. Nonetheless, the validity of such self-reports has been acknowledged in adjacent fields, such as reading. Aiming to establish a knowledge base from studies addressing students’ voices, the present study adopts the method of a systematic review and investigates how writing motivation has been assessed in empirical studies (1996–2020) through K-5 students’ self-reports. Of the 7047 studies identified through database search, 56 met the inclusion...
Writing Development in Struggling Learners, 2017
This volume highlights writing development and its relation to other cognitive domains, such as l... more This volume highlights writing development and its relation to other cognitive domains, such as language and reading, for individuals who struggle to acquire writing proficiency, including those with specific learning disorders (sld; e.g., dyslexia, dysgraphia, and specific language impairment) which affect writing skills (e.g., handwriting, composition). Writing and writing development are presented from a trans-national perspective with an integrated focus on conceptualizing writing as a developmental process. This trans-national perspective from across six European nations, Australia and the United States seeks to capture those essentials of instruction and intervention in writing that seem to be cross-cutting rather than language or culture specific, in order to facilitate a cohesive and integrative discussion of issues relevant to the acquisition of writing skills. Focused primarily on struggling writers or individuals with sld, this volume seeks to complement existing resources, such as the Handbook of Writing Research 2nd edition (MacArthur, Graham, & Fitzgerald, 2016) or those focused on improving writing in typically developing students (e.g., Graham & Harris, 2005; Miller, McCardle, & Long, 2014), The authors in this volume primarily target professionals working with developing writers (e.g., educators, speechlanguage pathologists, occupational therapists) and writing researchers, with many of the contributing authors highlighting implementations of specific intervention programs. This volume systematically highlights and links to major writing research domains, with a thematic focus on the development of writing skills in individuals who struggle, complementing the foci of the other recent volumes of the "Studies in Writing" series. As part of the "Studies in Writing" series, this volume extends the focus to be encompassing of struggling writers, who are often overlooked in writing education and research.
Studies in Writing
The present chapter investigates theoretical perspectives on how to combine new information about... more The present chapter investigates theoretical perspectives on how to combine new information about on-line measures with end-product features. An attempt is made to delimit traditional approaches to writing, which focus primarily on aspects of the end product. In order to outline an alternative, it is suggested how writing and cognition can be operationalized and how awareness and automaticity are intertwined in writing. A pilot study of three eleven-year-old bilingual pupils is used as an example of the theoretical and methodological questions raised in this chapter. This example shows how pupils exploit their pausing time differently, and how on-line measures add information to the profile drawn from end-product measures. The chapter presents a model for the skills of writing. This model is considered to be a hypothesis which is testable by further use of the on-line measures described in the present chapter.
Definitions and Explanations in Language, Reading and Dyslexia Research 209 reading involve langu... more Definitions and Explanations in Language, Reading and Dyslexia Research 209 reading involve language? Inasmuch as these words do not have meaning, and given that phonemes are defined as the smallest meaning differentiating unit in language, the sounds elicited from reading a nonsense word cannot be defined as phonemes.
Psychological Research, 2022
This study investigates the possibility that lack of fluency in spelling and/or typing disrupts w... more This study investigates the possibility that lack of fluency in spelling and/or typing disrupts writing processes in such a way as to cause damage to the substance (content and structure) of the resulting text. 101 children (mean age 11 years 10 months), writing in a relatively shallow orthography (Norwegian), composed argumentative essays using a simple text editor that provided accurate timing for each keystroke. Production fluency was assessed in terms of both within-word and word-initial interkey intervals and pause counts. We also assessed the substantive quality of completed texts. Students also performed tasks in which we recorded time to pressing keyboard keys in response to spoken letter names (a keyboard knowledge measure), response time and interkey intervals when spelling single, spoken words (spelling fluency), and interkey intervals when typing a simple sentence from memory (transcription fluency). Analysis by piecewise structural equation modelling gave clear evidence...
Scientific Studies of Reading, 2016
It has been hypothesised that students with dyslexia struggle with writing because of a wordlevel... more It has been hypothesised that students with dyslexia struggle with writing because of a wordlevel focus that reduces attention to higher level textual features (structure, theme development). This may result from difficulties with spelling and/or from difficulties with reading. 26 Norwegian upper secondary students (M = 16.9 years) with weak decoding skills and 26 age-matched controls composed expository texts by keyboard under two conditions: normally and with letters masked to prevent them reading what they were writing. Weak decoders made more spelling errors and produced poorer quality text. Their inter key-press latencies were substantially longer pre-word, at word-end, and within-word. These findings provide some support for the word-level focus hypothesis, although we found that weak decoders were slightly less likely to engage in word-level editing. Masking did not affect differences between weak decoders and controls indicating that reduced fluency was associated with production rather than monitoring what they had produced.
Routledge eBooks, Jun 7, 2023
Nordic Journal of Literacy Research
Forskning fremhever læreres positive selvoppfatning som en forutsetning for å kunne gi god lese- ... more Forskning fremhever læreres positive selvoppfatning som en forutsetning for å kunne gi god lese- og skriveopplæring (Hodges et al., 2021); de må oppleve seg kompetente, ha handlingsrom og oppleve en tilknytning til arbeidet (Deci & Ryan, 2012). Selv om forskningslitteraturen innen motivasjon for skriving er omfattende og voksende (Camacho et al., 2021; Graham et al., 2018; Walgermo & Uppstad, under utgivelse), pekes det i litteraturen på at lærerutdannere ikke legger nok til rette for å styrke læreres positive selvoppfatninger knyttet til skriveopplæring (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Hodges et al., 2021). I denne artikkelen følger vi et autentisk undervisningsopplegg i lærerutdanningen og utforsker i hvilken grad det å gi lærerstudenter en innføring i å skrive tekster for barn i begynneropplæringen – ut over ordinær undervisning i lærerutdanningen – kan styrke studentenes forventning til egen engasjerende begynneropplæring. I et forfatterledet undervisningsopplegg fikk førsteårsstudenter ...
Journal of Educational Change, Dec 8, 2022
Having two teachers work collaboratively in the same class has been suggested as a possible solut... more Having two teachers work collaboratively in the same class has been suggested as a possible solution to several instructional challenges, including the inclusion of students with special needs in mainstream classrooms and as part of school-wide prevention models to increase student achievement. In this, shared responsibility between teachers is regarded as a prerequisite to successful co-teaching. However, few studies have investigated whether shared responsibility between teachers actually leads to improved student achievement. This mixed methods study investigates shared responsibility in a sample of 148 classrooms where two general educators worked collaboratively in literacy instruction through first and second grade. First, we analysed whether the degree of shared responsibility between the two teachers for planning, enacting, and evaluating literacy instruction predicted student reading when controlling for pre-reading skills at baseline. Second, we carried out in-depth individual interviews with six collaborative teacher dyads purposefully selected from high-and low-performing classrooms to investigate what characterized their sharing of responsibility. The results show that shared responsibility significantly predicts students' reading achievement. Further, the interviews reveal a surface level collaboration between coteachers in low-performing classes, yet a more profound level of collaboration with influence on key teaching decisions in high-performing classes. Keywords Co-teaching • Early literacy instruction • Mixed methods • Teacher collaboration • Student-teacher ratio Aslaug Fodstad Gourvennec and Oddny Judith Solheim have contributed equally to this work.
Proceedings of the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting
Learning to Write Effectively: Current Trends in European Research, 2012
wentieth-century psychology has placed an extraordinarily high value on data that are publicly ob... more wentieth-century psychology has placed an extraordinarily high value on data that are publicly observable and replicable, while it has not distinguished itself for the quality of its theories. Much of contemporary linguistics has focused on the construction of elaborate theories invented for the understanding of minuscule and questionable observations. The human sciences thus suffer from various pathologies that block more complete understandings of language and the mind. (Chafe, 1994, p. 11) It is the objective task of the scientist-an objective World 3 task which regulates his 'verbal behaviour' qua 'scientist'-to discover the relevant logical consequences of the new theory, and to discuss them in the light of existing theories.
Nordic Journal of Literacy Research
Effective reading instruction requires precise assessment of the learner’s current skill level. F... more Effective reading instruction requires precise assessment of the learner’s current skill level. For young learners, however, assessment often comes at a great cost: Tests take a long time and students are presented with items that are both too easy and too difficult. Recent developments in adaptive testing have the potential for solving both these challenges. In this paper, we take the path of argument-based validity (Kane, 2015) by presenting an interpretation and use argument for an upcoming adaptive test. We term this paper a study protocol, in line with the established tradition for protocols for pre-registered empirical trials. The function of the protocol is to communicate openly what often remains tacit knowledge on test development.
Psychological Research-psychologische Forschung, Jan 8, 2022
This study investigates the possibility that lack of fluency in spelling and/or typing disrupts w... more This study investigates the possibility that lack of fluency in spelling and/or typing disrupts writing processes in such a way as to cause damage to the substance (content and structure) of the resulting text. 101 children (mean age 11 years 10 months), writing in a relatively shallow orthography (Norwegian), composed argumentative essays using a simple text editor that provided accurate timing for each keystroke. Production fluency was assessed in terms of both within-word and word-initial interkey intervals and pause counts. We also assessed the substantive quality of completed texts. Students also performed tasks in which we recorded time to pressing keyboard keys in response to spoken letter names (a keyboard knowledge measure), response time and interkey intervals when spelling single, spoken words (spelling fluency), and interkey intervals when typing a simple sentence from memory (transcription fluency). Analysis by piecewise structural equation modelling gave clear evidence that all three of these measures predict fluency when composing full text. Students with longer mid-word interkey intervals when composing full text tended to produce texts with slightly weaker theme development. However, we found no other effects of composition fluency measures on measures of the substantive quality of the completed text. Our findings did not, therefore, provide support for the process-disruption hypothesis, at least in the context of upper-primary students writing in a shallow orthography.
Visual Communication, Mar 15, 2018
Behavior Research Methods, May 24, 2017
We describe the Multilanguage Written Picture Naming Dataset. This gives trial-level data and tim... more We describe the Multilanguage Written Picture Naming Dataset. This gives trial-level data and time and agreement norms for written naming of the 260 pictures of everyday objects that compose the colorized Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set (Rossion & Pourtois in Perception, 33, 217-236, 2004). Adult participants gave keyboarded responses in their first language under controlled experimental conditions (N = 1,274, with subsamples responding in Bulgarian,
Nordic Journal of Literacy Research
The present editorial article presents the concept and function of peer-reviewed study protocols ... more The present editorial article presents the concept and function of peer-reviewed study protocols as part of the academic process, particularly in the context of furthering transparency and rigour in educational research. The aim is to provide a first rationale for publishing peer-reviewed study protocols in the Nordic Journal of Literacy Research (NJLR) in order to further increase scientific rigour in its field, which is now well established, although it is still young. Our proposal goes beyond the status quo by also encompassing qualitative study protocols. Here we have drawn our inspiration from common practices in medicine and from claims within the philosophy of science to the effect that the fate of both quantitative and qualitative studies stands or falls with their transparency. Our proactive suggestion also reflects a 'climate change' with regard to the status of qualitative studies on the international scene. The publication of peer-reviewed study protocols is now common procedure in some fields of research. This also happens in educational research, but much less consistently. A study protocol can be defined as a highly precise and scholarly description of the design of an upcoming study, including its rationale, aims, research questions and measures. Such a protocol has several functions. First of all, protocols ensure transparency and force researchers to adhere to their initial choice of approach. This is of particular importance in quantitative studies, to prevent cherry-picking. Second, protocols give other researchers information at an early stage about the scope and scientific rigorousness of a study. Such early communication helps to avoid duplication of effort and makes it possible to position new studies relative to the one described. When the protocol is not published, other researchers generally have to rely on hearsay. Third, the publication of the research protocol will facilitate the subsequent publication of results and findings, given that the methodology used has already been peer-reviewed. A related advantage is that, as a protocol allows the methodology to be
Educational Psychology Review
For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on... more For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on knowing the student’s capabilities and inner drives. To date, research on writing has yet to establish a consistent framework for assessing writing motivation, and often fails to acknowledge students’ self-reports, rather favoring evaluations of students’ writing motivation made by others, such as teachers and researchers. This limbo state originates partly from a general skepticism towards the trustworthiness of elementary students’ self-reports. Nonetheless, the validity of such self-reports has been acknowledged in adjacent fields, such as reading. Aiming to establish a knowledge base from studies addressing students’ voices, the present study adopts the method of a systematic review and investigates how writing motivation has been assessed in empirical studies (1996–2020) through K-5 students’ self-reports. Of the 7047 studies identified through database search, 56 met the inclusion...
Educational Psychology Review
For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on... more For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on knowing the student’s capabilities and inner drives. To date, research on writing has yet to establish a consistent framework for assessing writing motivation, and often fails to acknowledge students’ self-reports, rather favoring evaluations of students’ writing motivation made by others, such as teachers and researchers. This limbo state originates partly from a general skepticism towards the trustworthiness of elementary students’ self-reports. Nonetheless, the validity of such self-reports has been acknowledged in adjacent fields, such as reading. Aiming to establish a knowledge base from studies addressing students’ voices, the present study adopts the method of a systematic review and investigates how writing motivation has been assessed in empirical studies (1996–2020) through K-5 students’ self-reports. Of the 7047 studies identified through database search, 56 met the inclusion...
Writing Development in Struggling Learners, 2017
This volume highlights writing development and its relation to other cognitive domains, such as l... more This volume highlights writing development and its relation to other cognitive domains, such as language and reading, for individuals who struggle to acquire writing proficiency, including those with specific learning disorders (sld; e.g., dyslexia, dysgraphia, and specific language impairment) which affect writing skills (e.g., handwriting, composition). Writing and writing development are presented from a trans-national perspective with an integrated focus on conceptualizing writing as a developmental process. This trans-national perspective from across six European nations, Australia and the United States seeks to capture those essentials of instruction and intervention in writing that seem to be cross-cutting rather than language or culture specific, in order to facilitate a cohesive and integrative discussion of issues relevant to the acquisition of writing skills. Focused primarily on struggling writers or individuals with sld, this volume seeks to complement existing resources, such as the Handbook of Writing Research 2nd edition (MacArthur, Graham, & Fitzgerald, 2016) or those focused on improving writing in typically developing students (e.g., Graham & Harris, 2005; Miller, McCardle, & Long, 2014), The authors in this volume primarily target professionals working with developing writers (e.g., educators, speechlanguage pathologists, occupational therapists) and writing researchers, with many of the contributing authors highlighting implementations of specific intervention programs. This volume systematically highlights and links to major writing research domains, with a thematic focus on the development of writing skills in individuals who struggle, complementing the foci of the other recent volumes of the "Studies in Writing" series. As part of the "Studies in Writing" series, this volume extends the focus to be encompassing of struggling writers, who are often overlooked in writing education and research.
Studies in Writing
The present chapter investigates theoretical perspectives on how to combine new information about... more The present chapter investigates theoretical perspectives on how to combine new information about on-line measures with end-product features. An attempt is made to delimit traditional approaches to writing, which focus primarily on aspects of the end product. In order to outline an alternative, it is suggested how writing and cognition can be operationalized and how awareness and automaticity are intertwined in writing. A pilot study of three eleven-year-old bilingual pupils is used as an example of the theoretical and methodological questions raised in this chapter. This example shows how pupils exploit their pausing time differently, and how on-line measures add information to the profile drawn from end-product measures. The chapter presents a model for the skills of writing. This model is considered to be a hypothesis which is testable by further use of the on-line measures described in the present chapter.
Definitions and Explanations in Language, Reading and Dyslexia Research 209 reading involve langu... more Definitions and Explanations in Language, Reading and Dyslexia Research 209 reading involve language? Inasmuch as these words do not have meaning, and given that phonemes are defined as the smallest meaning differentiating unit in language, the sounds elicited from reading a nonsense word cannot be defined as phonemes.
Psychological Research, 2022
This study investigates the possibility that lack of fluency in spelling and/or typing disrupts w... more This study investigates the possibility that lack of fluency in spelling and/or typing disrupts writing processes in such a way as to cause damage to the substance (content and structure) of the resulting text. 101 children (mean age 11 years 10 months), writing in a relatively shallow orthography (Norwegian), composed argumentative essays using a simple text editor that provided accurate timing for each keystroke. Production fluency was assessed in terms of both within-word and word-initial interkey intervals and pause counts. We also assessed the substantive quality of completed texts. Students also performed tasks in which we recorded time to pressing keyboard keys in response to spoken letter names (a keyboard knowledge measure), response time and interkey intervals when spelling single, spoken words (spelling fluency), and interkey intervals when typing a simple sentence from memory (transcription fluency). Analysis by piecewise structural equation modelling gave clear evidence...
Scientific Studies of Reading, 2016
It has been hypothesised that students with dyslexia struggle with writing because of a wordlevel... more It has been hypothesised that students with dyslexia struggle with writing because of a wordlevel focus that reduces attention to higher level textual features (structure, theme development). This may result from difficulties with spelling and/or from difficulties with reading. 26 Norwegian upper secondary students (M = 16.9 years) with weak decoding skills and 26 age-matched controls composed expository texts by keyboard under two conditions: normally and with letters masked to prevent them reading what they were writing. Weak decoders made more spelling errors and produced poorer quality text. Their inter key-press latencies were substantially longer pre-word, at word-end, and within-word. These findings provide some support for the word-level focus hypothesis, although we found that weak decoders were slightly less likely to engage in word-level editing. Masking did not affect differences between weak decoders and controls indicating that reduced fluency was associated with production rather than monitoring what they had produced.