Culturally Responsive Self-Regulated Strategy Development in Writing for College Students with Disabilities

Abstract

Students with disabilities and culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students typically struggle more with writing than their non-disabled and English proficient peers. Although the reasons for the challenges are different, students with disabilities and CLD students often face similar difficulties and produce less and lower quality writing. Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) was founded on the cognitive-behavioral theory that students need explicit strategy instruction paired with self-regulation techniques to become proficient writers. SRSD has been identified as an evidence-based practice for students with disabilities. Mostly absent from the research, however, are studies investigating its impact on college students with disabilities and CLD students with disabilities. To address the needs of college students with disabilities and CLD college students with disabilities, SRSD was adapted to add culturally responsive elements and language development. Culturally Responsive and Evidence-based Approach to Excellence, or CREATE, in Writing is the adapted intervention. A mixed methods design was used to investigate the effect of the CREATE in Writing intervention on 10 college students with disabilities, five of whom were CLD, during a two-week writing workshop. This study explored two research questions. 1. For these students, to what degree does CREATE in Writing improve their academic writing in: a. the overall quality? b. the fluency (number of words written)? 2. What are perceptions and experiences of the participants with respect to how they responded to and felt about the writing intervention? The quantitative data included pre and posttest writing to determine changes in quality and fluency and pre and post questionnaires to examine changes in students’ understanding of the expectations of academic writing and perceptions of their writing. The qualitative data included a document analysis, field notes, and interviews. Outcomes indicated that students had statistically significant increases in quality and fluency. In addition, students’ perceptions of the intervention and their writing also improved. The results may not be generalizable to all college students with disabilities and CLD students with disabilities due to the small number of participants and their individual characteristics; however, these positive results suggest that further research should explore CREATE in Writing with this population.