Research led by MSU Professor Gary Troia examined how teachers varied in teaching writing practices — and whether their teaching experiences, preparation, knowledge and beliefs about their ability impacted how they taught.
The work was published in January 2026 by Scientific Studies of Reading. Troia and colleagues utilized observation to assess how teachers worked on writing in the classroom. That’s an important distinction, as there are few observational studies published about writing instruction. There are even fewer studies on fourth and fifth grade teachers, which this study focused on.
Troia’s research colleagues are all Spartan alums:
- Saginaw Valley State University Assistant Professor Julie S. Brehmer, Ph.D. '23 (Special Education);
- University of Southern Maine Assistant Professor Heather L. Reichmuth, Ph.D. ‘22 (Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education);
- and Millikin University Assistant Professor Kaitlin Glause, Ph.D. ‘20 (Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education).
Instruction time and tactics
Most teachers observed in the study used whole-class instruction and individual practice as key features of class time. Specifically, most structured their lessons with short instruction time, then directed the class to spend the remainder of time on individual writing opportunities. Nearly all teachers (93%) used individual writing practice.
Comparatively, collaborative efforts, such as working with peers or in small groups, happened infrequently.
And while most teachers tended to focus on the creation of written material — that is, planning for and drafting text — rather few educators focused on revising and editing those texts or on the conventions of writing such as sentence and paragraph structure or spelling.
This was one of the most surprising findings, according to lead author Troia, especially considering that Common Core State Standards emphasize that students in grades four and five should have some explicit instruction in these areas, including grammar. The scholars don’t analyze why this could be in the paper, but suggest, based on previous studies, that teachers “feel they lack knowledge and perhaps competence regarding this particular aspect of writing, and thus avoid teaching it.”
Another thing teachers avoid: homework.
This was rarely assigned in writing classes, appearing only in observations of about 1 in 10 teachers.
The digital age
Most teachers observed used materials long found in classrooms, whiteboards (or smartboards) and printed source materials.
Yet less than a third used any sort of multimedia materials, and only about 20% of teachers used digital (or computer-based) source materials for students to consult when writing.
“Although teachers and students had access to powerful technology and digital materials in most of the schools in which we observed (not all, however), integrating technology into writing instruction has been a longstanding issue,” Troia explained. “It often is relegated to producing a polished piece of writing using simple word processing affordances. It is also the case that the Common Core State Standards do not emphasize keyboarding until third grade, so students have little time to develop the skills necessary to type fluently on a keyboard to produce texts once they reach late elementary grades.”
Teacher analysis
But what of the educators themselves? Does the teacher — their previous education, their writing knowledge and more — influence their instruction?
The findings suggest yes, addressing a gap in the research literature.
Generally, the researchers found that teachers with more training, knowledge and skills tended to provide lessons of higher quality. The opposite is true for teachers with more limited training, knowledge and skills. Both findings were previously documented in other research, though this study indicates the effects are more pronounced for teachers who have the highest and lowest quality of writing lessons.
This research studies teacher writing ability for the first time.
The research suggests that writing ability can “exert influence on classroom writing instruction practices,” the paper said.
Interestingly, the teachers who had higher writing skills tended to provide less coherent or consistent writing instruction.
Generally, teachers who tended to be more rigid in their writing instruction approaches were more positively influenced by their backgrounds. They were not as “flexible” or “responsive” to student needs, according to the paper, and may have had to rely on their background knowledge and teaching beliefs more than others to gain insight into their students’ writing needs to provide instruction.
And it is here that Troia’s research trajectory will continue. His next planned efforts include focusing on how teachers’ characteristics and instruction impact their students’ growth in writing.