Improving writing skills of students in Turkey : A meta-analysis of writing interventions

An important goal of schooling is teaching students how to write. Teachers need access to effective writing practices to meet this goal. For close to 40 years, meta-analyses of writing intervention studies have been used to identify evidence-based practices in writing. Most of the research included in these reviews involved studies conducted in the U.S. and Europe. The current meta-analysis included 77 experimental studies examining the effectiveness of writing interventions conducted in schools in Turkey with 4,891 students in primary grades through college. The writing outcome in all of these studies was quality of students’ writing. The average weighted effect size for teaching writing across all 77 studies was 1.39. The average weighted effect sizes for the five writing treatments tested in four or more studies were 0.92 for peer assistance, 1.55 for pre-writing activities, 1.30 for the process approach to writing, and 1.28 for strategy instruction. Directions for future research and implications for practice are discussed.