**2.2 Instruments**

The development of the instrument which is the object of this study began by first reviewing the Academic Search Elite databases, which are available at the Central Library of the University of León. Moreover, it was essential to study and review the Royal Decrees, educational programs and guides which establish the syllabi for both infant and primary education. This allows us to collect information about the evaluation criteria in the area of Spanish language in each of the educational stages studied.

Diagnosis of Teachers' Practice in the Teaching of Written Composition 201

Practical opinion: personal Component of the student::

Practical opinion: personal Component of the student: Planning and review Practical opinion: Practice

Practical opinion: Family

Practical opinion: Teacher

Practice - Formal education

Practice - Natural learning

Practice - Classroom:

Practice - Classroom:

Practice - Classroom:

Practice - Classroom: Texts

Practice - Classroom: Skills 1: Never

Personal self-efficacy 1: No self-efficacy

2

4

6

8

Motivation

component.

component

training.

approach:

approach:

Materials

Procedures

Activities

Table 2. Description of the tests in the study of the Role of Teachers Practice

and carry out the protocol with the Spanish language teachers, according to the school years selected in each of these schools. Then, two researchers visited the schools on the agreed

COMPONENT MEASURE

Positive direction (address): 2,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,13,17,18,19,20

7: In complete disagreement 1: In complete agreement

Negative direction (address):

1,3,8,12,14,15,16,21,22 1: In complete disagreement 7: In complete agreement

1: Very in disagreement 6: Very in agreement

2: Several times a year

5: Several times a week

7: Several times a day

3: Little self-efficacy

5: Some self-efficacy

9: High self-efficacy

7: Moderate self-efficacy

3: Monthly 4: Weekly

6: Every day

TEST IN THE STUDY

PRAESPO Practice -

PRAESPE Practice -

PRAESPA Practice -

PRAESAE Practice -

approach

classroom

teaching

General self-efficacy

COMPLETE NAME

opinion

These theoretical bases allowed the researchers to proceed with the collection, translation and modification of the instruments, where appropriate, as well as developing new tools to assess the areas and components that affect the teachers' practice in writing instruction. Once created, they were subjected to validation (reliability, validity, norms, etc.) by the research team.

In this way, we obtained the instrument that evaluates The Role of Teachers Practice in Writing [PRAES], with its corresponding questionnaires: the first focusing on Practice-Opinion [PRAESPO]; the second on the theoretical The Practical approach [PRAESPE]; the third refers to the activity in the classroom, what teachers actually do The Classroom practice [PRAESPA]; and, finally the focus of the last one was on self-efficiency [PRAESAE] (Pacheco et al., 2007).

#### **2.3 Overview of the psychological meanings assessed**

The PRAES is shaped both by the identity of the teacher, and by the four sections or questionnaires related to the components and factors which affect practice (for details, see Table 2). The names for each questionnaire, according to the order of presentation within the PRAES protocol are:

PRAESPO, this refers to the teachers' views regarding the role of the teacher in their practice in writing instruction considering the following components and indicators: the personal student (motivation, planning and review), the practice component , the family component and teachers' training.

PRAESPE, which evaluates teachers' the theoretical orientation in relation to formal teaching and the natural learning process of writing. This instrument was adapted from the Writing Orientation Scale The scale (Graham et al., 2001).

PRAESPA, measures the skills, instructional procedures, activities and materials used by teachers in teaching instruction, and the type of text or the actual texts they use. This instrument was partially built and developed by the team and partly adapted and translated from The Teacher Writing Practices Scale Practice-Teaching (PRAESAE) instrument (Graham et al., 2001). It helps to better understand the type of factors that create both personal and general difficulties for teachers in their teaching, thus determining their self beliefs in the process of teaching writing. This instrument differentiates between selfefficacy and general efficacy. This instrument was developed by the research team, from the Teacher Efficacy Scale for Writing (Graham et al., 2001), adapted according to directives and guidelines for constructing self-efficacy scales (Bandura, 2005).

#### **2.4 Procedure**

The design and plan of the sample consisted of verifying the time taken to apply this protocol in schools in the province of León, as a pilot in order to eliminate the problems and difficulties and adjust it to the research needs. The sample selected on the basis of the criteria explained above, in terms of the participants were teachers who were responsible for students with and without learning disabilities and/or low achievement in infant and early primary education. The next step was the field work itself. It consisted, firstly, of establishing telephone contact with the head teachers of schools to obtain permission to visit

These theoretical bases allowed the researchers to proceed with the collection, translation and modification of the instruments, where appropriate, as well as developing new tools to assess the areas and components that affect the teachers' practice in writing instruction. Once created, they were subjected to validation (reliability, validity, norms, etc.) by the

In this way, we obtained the instrument that evaluates The Role of Teachers Practice in Writing [PRAES], with its corresponding questionnaires: the first focusing on Practice-Opinion [PRAESPO]; the second on the theoretical The Practical approach [PRAESPE]; the third refers to the activity in the classroom, what teachers actually do The Classroom practice [PRAESPA]; and, finally the focus of the last one was on self-efficiency [PRAESAE]

The PRAES is shaped both by the identity of the teacher, and by the four sections or questionnaires related to the components and factors which affect practice (for details, see Table 2). The names for each questionnaire, according to the order of presentation within the

PRAESPO, this refers to the teachers' views regarding the role of the teacher in their practice in writing instruction considering the following components and indicators: the personal student (motivation, planning and review), the practice component , the family component

PRAESPE, which evaluates teachers' the theoretical orientation in relation to formal teaching and the natural learning process of writing. This instrument was adapted from the

PRAESPA, measures the skills, instructional procedures, activities and materials used by teachers in teaching instruction, and the type of text or the actual texts they use. This instrument was partially built and developed by the team and partly adapted and translated from The Teacher Writing Practices Scale Practice-Teaching (PRAESAE) instrument (Graham et al., 2001). It helps to better understand the type of factors that create both personal and general difficulties for teachers in their teaching, thus determining their self beliefs in the process of teaching writing. This instrument differentiates between selfefficacy and general efficacy. This instrument was developed by the research team, from the Teacher Efficacy Scale for Writing (Graham et al., 2001), adapted according to directives and

The design and plan of the sample consisted of verifying the time taken to apply this protocol in schools in the province of León, as a pilot in order to eliminate the problems and difficulties and adjust it to the research needs. The sample selected on the basis of the criteria explained above, in terms of the participants were teachers who were responsible for students with and without learning disabilities and/or low achievement in infant and early primary education. The next step was the field work itself. It consisted, firstly, of establishing telephone contact with the head teachers of schools to obtain permission to visit

research team.

(Pacheco et al., 2007).

PRAES protocol are:

and teachers' training.

**2.4 Procedure** 

**2.3 Overview of the psychological meanings assessed** 

Writing Orientation Scale The scale (Graham et al., 2001).

guidelines for constructing self-efficacy scales (Bandura, 2005).


Table 2. Description of the tests in the study of the Role of Teachers Practice

and carry out the protocol with the Spanish language teachers, according to the school years selected in each of these schools. Then, two researchers visited the schools on the agreed

Diagnosis of Teachers' Practice in the Teaching of Written Composition 203

teacher's practice and training. This type of instrument, based on obtaining the opinion of

The second component, PRAESPE, refers to the theoretical approach followed by teachers at the schools involved in the study, which can be dichotomized into two major clusters along a continuum. At one extreme is formal education and at the other we find natural learning. It is understood that the different teachers are located along the continuum, with some elements of both approaches. This type of component has been studied previously in several

Moreover, the component related to the specific practice undertaken by the teacher in the classroom in the teaching of writing, PRAESPA has to do with elements that include the deployment of skills, the use of specific procedures, the performance of the various activities, the use the appropriate materials or the use of diverse textual genres. Some of

Finally, we look at the self-perception component of efficacy which the teacher holds regarding their performance as a writing instructor/teacher, the PRAESAE. This component refers to the self-perception of the teacher, is related by Bandura (2005), and we followed his

We obtained the estimate of the construct validity using a factor analysis of the principal

The analysis allowed the extraction of five factors or principal components that only partially conform to the structure of the test following the validity of content which was developed from a review of international theoretical and empirical studies. In general, the factors extracted from the analysis did not coincide exactly with the four components of PRAES, although we can say that they were largely close, indicating at least partially an

Firstly, we obtained a factor which has been labeled as general because it includes the saturation of the factorial weights of the total number of PRAES scales. The general factor explains 33.20% of the total variance predicted and is saturated by the weight factor for the PRAESPO, the subtotal of motivation (-.738) and the family subtotal (-.882), plus the PRAESPA with the texts subtotal (.765) and the activity subtotal (.813), as well as the personal self-efficacy subtotal (.569) and the general self efficacy subtotal (.479), although in

Secondly, we obtained a factor which can be called theoretical approach which includes self-saturation of the factor weights of the total number of scales in the PRAESAE. This factor explains 22.49% of the total variance and is saturated by the factor weights corresponding to the PRAESPE, the formal education subtotal (.929) and the natural learning subtotal (-.582) with the PA PRAES with its skills sub-totals (.905) and the materials subtotals (.446), plus the personal self-efficacy totals (.657) and general selfefficacy totals (.580). These lower factorial weights contribute less to this factor's configuration. Thirdly, we obtained a factor we have called opinion, since it includes the saturation factor of the total weights of the various PRAESPO scales. This factor explains

teachers, has been used previously, in part, by Graham et al., (2001).

these aspects have been measured and studied by Graham et al., (2001).

the latter case, as can be seen, the totals are of a lesser magnitude.

guidelines in the construction of that component.

components with a normalized varimax rotation.

studies by Graham et al., (2001).

**Construct validity of PRAES** 

acceptable construct validity.

dates and times for teachers to complete the protocols. The collection of the sample was performed directly by the two researchers in order to ensure the reliability and validity of the instruments in the collection of information. Data collection was conducted over a period of five months. It is necessary to highlight the effort exerted both in the use of persuasion and communication techniques to synchronize more effectively with the agents under study and to develop their awareness regarding research, as well as the physical effort and the costs of work.

Once the field work was completed and all the protocols were collected, a total of 137, the codification and computerization of the data in an Excel data matrix were carried out. This matrix was transformed into a SPSS version 13.0 matrix which is available in the ULE for conducting statistical analysis. Then the preparation of tables, graphs and other data used for the presentation of results and to provide empirical evidence was carried out, including the interpretation of the data and the identification and extraction of conclusions. Furthermore, the limitations and prospects for future study were determined.
