Abstract:

The “writing across the curriculum” movement has inspired teachers worldwide to support language policies that encourage transfer between courses in secondary education. The classroom application of these policies depends on teachers’ beliefs for teaching writing in their discipline. In this study, we focus on the design and implementation of scales to measure teachers’ beliefs about the teaching of writing in their content area. An exploratory factor analysis suggests a three-factor structure confirmed by a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis: self-efficacy, task significance and role perception. Goodness of fit indices reveal a good fit of the model. In addition, differences between subgroups in the sample of secondary school teachers (n=338) are explored (teacher experience, school type, gender and discipline). Analysis results show different perceptions for task significance and role perception depending on teachers’ teaching disciplines (Languages, Sciences and Social studies) with significantly higher scores in teachers of Languages, followed by Social studies and finally Sciences. Implications for future research and professional development are discussed.

Keywords:

Writing across the curriculum, secondary education, teacher beliefs.