Original scientific paper
The Impact of Educational Levels and Gender on the Quality of Written Expression
Anela Nikčević-Milković
; Sveučilište u Zadru Odjel za nastavničke studije u Gospiću Gospić, Hrvatska
Jasminka Brala-Mudrović
; Sveučilište u Zadru Odjel za nastavničke studije u Gospiću Gospić, Hrvatska
Abstract
The aim of this research is to investigate the quality of students' written texts on three educational levels: a) in lower grades, b) in higher grades of elementary school and c) in high school, as well as by gender. The questionnaires used in the research were: Questionnaire of Writing and Reading (Nikčević-Milković, 2010), Questionnaire of reading and writing behavior (Nikčević-Milković, Jerković and Brala-Mudrovčić, 2016, in publication), Sociodemographic questionnaire and the following criteria for evaluating written works have been applied: the theme's achievement, composition, originality, text-to-speech connection, the richness of vocabulary and style, grammatical and spelling accuracy, readability and neatness, clear text structure. Written expression is the subject of this research, because it is important for the development of student's critical thinking, deep cognitive processing of information, collaborative learning, and mastery of this activity as the strongest indicator of the mastery of language as a whole. It is also the generic ability of a student to whom their full academic achievement depends. The results of the research shows that pupils of lower classes in primary school have the greatest aptitude and interest in reading and writing, most seek help from "outside" when reading and writing, but are most conscientious in this language activities. They write according to plan, model or templates and they are assisted or encouraged from their teachers, write in uniform style and composition and is exclusively sticking to concrete materials. Students in higher grades of elementary school continue to write according to plan, however, they have more and richer vocabulary, their sentences are skillfully and precisely designed and with more details. High school students are completely independent in writing, composition essays are their own, more extensive and elaborate, conspicuous is critical stand on the issues, authors or written works, and the degree of spelling and grammar rules are to the high degree. In higher grades of elementary school and students of secondary schools more used modern and digital media for reading and writing. Girls show better results in reading and writing through the tested vertical education. Young men approached the quality of written essays to the girls in the middle school. This research proves that the basic and compulsory education achieves an increasing level of literacy of Croatian students, as a natural development of cognitive thinking, and the growing demands of the education in vertical
Keywords
language expression; quality of written text; educational level; gender; contemporary media; education for literacy
Hrčak ID:
193879
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2017.
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