THE ROLE OF CATTELL–HORN–CARROLL (CHC) COGNITIVE ABILITIES IN PREDICTING WRITING ACHIEVEMENT DURING THE SCHOOL‐AGE YEARS

Writing is a complex academic task—it involves numerous mental processes. Given the necessity for developing writing skills from elementary to secondary school, this study aimed to investigate the role of broad cognitive abilities derived from the Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) theory of intelligence in predicting skills associated with writing achievement. The normative sample from the fourth edition of the Woodcock–Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities and the Woodcock–Johnson Tests Academic Achievement were used to examine the relationships between broad CHC abilities and academic achievement in writing. The findings of this study suggest that the broad CHC abilities Comprehension‐Knowledge, Processing Speed, and Fluid Reasoning are especially important predictors of basic writing skills and written expression during the school‐age years. In general, changes in the strength of the association between cognitive abilities and academic achievement in writing are observed over time, as the cognitive demands involved in the writing increase in complexity in later grades.     

Towards a Pedagogy of Short Story Writing

The article reports on a small‐scale short story writing project. It details the development of the project and shares the emerging findings. The aim of the project was to enhance the quality of students' writing while developing teachers' practice in the teaching of short story writing. The project team comprised the author and four secondary teachers of English. The approach to story writing outlined here was influenced by the example of gaming, where players immerse themselves in a secondary world, confront situations which demand problem‐solving skills, progress through a number of stages, and find satisfaction in completing the game. The project explored the link between talking and thinking and the value given to putting forward tentative ideas, raising questions and solving problems in a collective manner, in a whole‐class teaching situation. The teachers used guided classroom talk to explore each stage in the composition of a story. They challenged students into better ways of thinking or more elaborate forms of explanation. The teachers asked ‘what if’ questions to open up possibilities for the young writers. The teachers also had to judge when best to seize the moment and move the students towards writing. A key issue for the project was to explore the extent to which the structured approach helped to liberate the imagination of the students and improve the quality of their writing.