what is process approach in education

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Approaches to process writing

What makes an effective piece of writing? Good writers plan and revise, rearrange and delete text, re-reading and producing multiple drafts before they produce their finished document. This is what a process writing approach is about.

• What is process writing?
• Why should teachers be interested in a process approach to writing?
• The changing roles of teacher and students
• What stages are there in a process approach to writing?
• Classroom activities
• The importance of feedback
• Writing as communication
• Potential problems
• Further reading

What is process writing? The process approach treats all writing as a creative act which requires time and positive feedback to be done well. In process writing, the teacher moves away from being someone who sets students a writing topic and receives the finished product for correction without any intervention in the writing process itself. Why should teachers be interested in a process approach to writing? White and Arntd say that focusing on language errors 'improves neither grammatical accuracy nor writing fluency' and they suggest instead that paying attention to what the students say will show an improvement in writing.

Research also shows that feedback is more useful between drafts, not when it is done at the end of the task after the students hand in their composition to be marked. Corrections written on compositions returned to the student after the process has finished seem to do little to improve student writing. The changing roles of teacher and students The teacher needs to move away from being a marker to a reader, responding to the content of student writing more than the form. Students should be encouraged to think about audience: Who is the writing for? What does this reader need to know? Students also need to realise that what they put down on paper can be changed: Things can be deleted, added, restructured, reorganised, etc. What stages are there in a process approach to writing? Although there are many ways of approaching process writing, it can be broken down into three stages: Pre-writing The teacher needs to stimulate students' creativity, to get them thinking how to approach a writing topic. In this stage, the most important thing is the flow of ideas, and it is not always necessary that students actually produce much (if any) written work. If they do, then the teacher can contribute with advice on how to improve their initial ideas. Focusing ideas During this stage, students write without much attention to the accuracy of their work or the organisation. The most important feature is meaning. Here, the teacher (or other students) should concentrate on the content of the writing. Is it coherent? Is there anything missing? Anything extra? Evaluating, structuring and editing Now the writing is adapted to a readership. Students should focus more on form and on producing a finished piece of work. The teacher can help with error correction and give organisational advice. Classroom activities Here are some ideas for classroom activities related to the stages above: Pre-writing

• Brainstorming Getting started can be difficult, so students divided into groups quickly produce words and ideas about the writing.
• Planning Students make a plan of the writing before they start. These plans can be compared and discussed in groups before writing takes place.
• 1. describe it
• 2. compare it
• 3. associate it
• 4. analyze it
• 5. apply it
• 6. argue for or against it.
• Questioning In groups, the idea is to generate lots of questions about the topic. This helps students focus upon audience as they consider what the reader needs to know. The answers to these questions will form the basis to the composition.
• Discussion and debate The teacher helps students with topics, helping them develop ideas in a positive and encouraging way.

Focusing idea s

• Fast writing The students write quickly on a topic for five to ten minutes without worrying about correct language or punctuation. Writing as quickly as possible, if they cannot think of a word they leave a space or write it in their own language. The important thing is to keep writing. Later this text is revised.
• Group compositions Working together in groups, sharing ideas. This collaborative writing is especially valuable as it involves other skills (speaking in particular.)
• Changing viewpoints A good writing activity to follow a role-play or storytelling activity. Different students choose different points of view and think about /discuss what this character would write in a diary, witness statement, etc.
• Varying form Similar to the activity above, but instead of different viewpoints, different text types are selected. How would the text be different if it were written as a letter, or a newspaper article, etc.

Evaluating, Structuring and Editing

• Ordering Students take the notes written in one of the pre-writing activities above and organise them. What would come first? Why? Here it is good to tell them to start with information known to the reader before moving onto what the reader does not know.
• Self-editing A good writer must learn how to evaluate their own language - to improve through checking their own text, looking for errors, structure. This way students will become better writers.
• Peer editing and proof-reading Here, the texts are interchanged and the evaluation is done by other students. In the real world, it is common for writers to ask friends and colleagues to check texts for spelling, etc. You could also ask the students to reduce the texts, to edit them, concentrating on the most important information.

The importance of feedback It takes a lot of time and effort to write, and so it is only fair that student writing is responded to suitably. Positive comments can help build student confidence and create good feeling for the next writing class. It also helps if the reader is more than just the teacher. Class magazines, swapping letters with other classes, etc. can provide an easy solution to providing a real audience. Writing as communication Process writing is a move away from students writing to test their language towards the communication of ideas, feelings and experiences. It requires that more classroom time is spent on writing, but as the previously outlined activities show, there is more than just writing happening during a session dedicated to process writing. Potential problems Writing is a complex process and can lead to learner frustration. As with speaking, it is necessary to provide a supportive environment for the students and be patient. This approach needs that more time be spent on writing in class, but as you have seen, not all classroom time is spent actually writing. Students may also react negatively to reworking the same material, but as long as the activities are varied and the objectives clear, then they will usually accept doing so. In the long term, you and your students will start to recognise the value of a process writing approach as their written work improves. Further Reading Hedge T 1988 Writing Oxford University Press Krashen SD Writing : Research, theory and applications Pergamon Press Kroll B 1990 Second Language Writing : Research insights for the classroom Cambridge University Press Raimes A 1983 Techniques in teaching writing Oxford University Press White R & V Arndt 1991 Process Writing Longman Written by Graham Stanley, British Council, Barcelona

Excellent ideas, thank you.

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The Process Approach

Traditional approaches vs. the process/workshop approach, updating the process approach:.

• Scaffolding Students' Writing
• Benko's Stages of Scaffolding
• COMPETENCY 0003—WRITING ARGUMENTS
• COMPETENCY 0004 - WRITING INFORMATIVE AND EXPLANATORY ESSAYS
• COMPETENCY 0005—WRITING NARRATIVES
• How to Write Vivid Descriptions
• Using Concrete Details for Narratives
• COMPETENCY 0006—RESEARCHING TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE
• COMPETENCY 0007 SPEAKING AND LISTENING
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• What English teachers should know about teaching vocabulary
• What English Teachers Should Know about Teaching Academic Language
• COMPETENCY 0009 Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Most research in writing pedagogy today concludes that the most effective way to teach writing is through a process approach. This approach assumes that a writer needs to be writing for authentic purposes in an extended process that includes prewriting, writing, revising, and editing--though these are done in a recursive manner rather than in discrete steps. As writers work through the writing process, they move through recursive steps that first emphasize fluency (i.e., activities for determining audience and generating ideas), then form (i.e., writing strategies   for organizing and revising ideas) and then correctness (i.e., editing for proper grammar, spelling, diction, etc.).   The last step in the process is publishing, sharing one's finished draft, after which some of the steps of the process may once again be revisited. 

In process-oriented classrooms, students enjoy:

• Teachers who understand and appreciate the basic linguistic competence that students bring with them to school, and who therefore have positive expectations for students' achievements in writing
• Regular and substantial practice at writing.
• Instruction in the process of writing—learning how to work at a given writing task in appropriate phases, including prewriting, drafting, and revising.
• The opportunity to write for real, personally significant puposes.
• Experience in writing for a wide range of audiences, both inside and outside of school.
• Rich and continuous reading experience, including both published writing and the work of peers and teachers.
• Exposure to models of writing in process and writers at work, including both classmates and skilled adult writers.
• Collaborative activities that provide ideas for writing and guidance in revising drafts in progress.
• One-to-one writing conferences with the teacher.
• Inquiry-oriented classroom activities that involve students with rich sets of data and social interaction, and that focus on specific modes of elements of writing.
• Increased use of sentence-combining exercises which replaces instruction in grammatical terminology.
• Mechanics of writing taught in the context of students' own compositions, rather than in separate exercises and drills.
• Moderate marking of the surface structure errors in student papers, focusing on sets or patterns of related errors.
• Flexible and cumulative evaluation of writing that stresses revision.   The teacher's written comments include a mixture of praise and criticism, with praise predominating.
• Writing as a tool of learning in all subjects across the curriculum.

The process approach differs from traditional methods of teaching writing in significant ways, as is seen in the following chart.

Adapted from Emig (1982), in Zemmelman, S., & Daniels, H. (1988). A community of writers. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann. 

In this Common Core era, many teachers and district writing coordinators view the writing process as changed somewhat to reflect the demands that assessments aligned with the Common Core Standards will make.   As can be seen by the diagram below, the teacher provides more direction and support as students work through the process. See Benko's model of scaffolding that follows for more information about what teachers can do to help to motivate students to engage fully with the writing process.

Source: Milner, J.O., Milner, L.M., & Mitchell, J.F. (2012).   Bridging English (5 th ed.).   Boston: Pearson.

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The Value of Process-based Learning

by Beau Kenyon | Mar 17, 2020 | Resources , Tips | 0 comments

“Creativity becomes more visible when adults try to be more attentive to the cognitive processes of children than to the results they achieve in various fields of doing and understanding.”  ― Loris Malaguzzi

Hubspot recently published a short article, entitled, The Art of Asking Open-ended Questions , in which Bill Cates outlines the value of “asking questions starting with ‘why,’ ‘how,’ and ‘what if’.” Cates connects process-based dialogue to Hubspot’s marketing, sales, and service platform, levering process-oriented dialogue to foster learning opportunities with their clients — build trusting relationships that blossom from relevant, personal, and meaningful dialogue.

Meanwhile, the Guggenheim defines ‘process art’ as emphasizing “the process of making art (rather than any predetermined composition or plan) and the concepts of change and transience.” In other words, process-based art explores a meaningful open-ended conversation between an artist and their work. Finally, The National Association for the Education of Young Children characterizes process-based exploration as placing the onus on the child to create, explore, and drive their experience — there are no model examples for the child to emulate and no right or wrong way to explore. Instead, children focus on technique, tools, and materials, while teachers guide children with open-ended questions, asking ‘why?’ ‘how?’ and ‘what if’?

One of the four Reggio Emilia principles states that children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves. This principle taps directly into the wellspring of a child’s creative mind. It also demands that teachers create time and space for children to explore and imagine while building skills, techniques, and (perhaps most importantly) a deep and meaningful relationship with their own learning. To facilitate a safe and meaningful journey, teachers guide with gentle, open-ended questions while offering individualized support along the way.

In this type of process-oriented exploration, creativity does not exist as an “other” or “specialty,” it is embedded in the practice of learning. It is also fundamentally respectful and responsive to preschool-age children and their cognitive development. By age 3, young humans are developing fine motor skills and understanding symbolic representation. In this development stage, children create with more intention, boundless imagination, and a drive to learn across all disciplines. Teachers who attentively observe their students understand which open-ended questions to ask because they are also acutely aware of each student’s cognitive development.

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Process-Based Learning

• First Online: 08 August 2020

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• Jeffrey Baron Levi 2  

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Problem-solving plans are based on the process of learning which involves metacognitive strategies applied to content or curriculum areas. It is about the individual taking control of their own learning so that they can become independent in whatever activity they are involved in. Process-based instruction is defined as instruction aimed at teaching thinking strategies and domain-specific knowledge in coherence. The role of the teacher is to activate students’ mental activities and their development of appropriate self-regulatory strategies for learning new content through modelling, cognitive coaching, guided learning and gradual transfer of control over learning processes to the student.

One of the major issues with process-based instruction or self-regulated learning is whether the skills taught in one situation would generalise or transfer to skills that are dissimilar. According to Meichenbaum and Biemiller (Nurturing independent learners: helping students take charge of their learning. Brookline Books, Cambridge, MA, 1998), the absence of transfer by students of what they have learned is evident even on seemingly similar academic tasks. Unless students are prompted, they generally do not use what they have learned.

My point of difference from the process-based instructional model or Meichenbaum’s talk-aloud model was that I utilise a purely metacognitive strategy that could be applied across any particular content area. Unlike process-based instruction, a metacognitive strategy is content-free and simply involves a problem-solving plan that could be applied to any problem in any content domain.

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Baron Levi, J. (2020). Process-Based Learning. In: The Hairy Bikie and Other Metacognitive Strategies . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46618-3_2

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