Primary Students Unprepared for Computer Writing

Primary students are still being taught to write by and hand above writing on a computer. Teachers spend significantly more time teaching paper-based writing, with teaching keyboarding receiving less instructional time - approximately nine minutes per week.

Skilful computer-based writing is essential for school aged children as it empowers them to communicate, acquire knowledge, critically engage with information, and produce text-based original thoughts.

Moreover, students’ keyboarding skills contribute to their performance when completing national online exams - like NAPLAN and other assessments.

A nation-wide study on computer-based writing instruction in Australian classrooms, led by researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU) in collaboration with colleagues from the Writing for All research group, has shown the attention primary schools are giving to teaching students how to write using a computer.

The research surveyed 340 primary education teachers (Years 1-6) from across Australia about the computer-based writing instruction provided in their classrooms.

“While results showed that teachers found it was important to teach computer-based writing skills, most respondents reported allocating less than one hour per week on computer-based writing practice in their classrooms,” lead author Dr Anabela Malpique from the School of Education at ECU said Dr Malpique explained.

With most primary teachers having little time set aside to teach keyboarding and word processing skills, few reported having knowledge of teaching strategies for students to learn how to plan and revise computer-generated texts. Instead, teachers tend to focus more on spelling.

Research suggests students should be taught typing and word processing skills as soon as they are introduced to computers.

“It is difficult to correct children as they get older if they are not adequately taught the foundations of computer-based writing, including keyboarding skills such as key locations and hand and finger positions,” Dr Malpique explained.

The majority of teachers surveyed (more than 98 per cent) agreed it was important to teach keyboarding and word-processing skills for writing, and that students should be able to type as fast as they can write by hand when completing Year 5.

Many teachers (40 per cent) also shared that keyboarding instruction should be administered by specialised lab teachers, librarians or media specialists in Years 1-3. Around 30 per cent said the responsibility should sit with the classroom teacher.

“Findings from our research suggest that students may have limited typing and computer-based word processing skills due to lack of access to a computer, laptop or portable device with an external keyboard, both within their school environment and in the home,” Dr Malpique said.

“It is very difficult to develop computer navigation and typing skills and write longer texts with only an iPad.”

Only 17.4 per cent of teachers stated that their students had access to a computer device with an external keyboard at school and 69.4 per cent reported that students had access to a digital device within the classroom with only an on-screen keyboard - like an iPad or tablet.

Although teachers understand the importance and are motivated to teach computer-based writing in a digital world, they don’t feel as prepared as they could be.

“Most respondents described not having received formal training to teach computer-based writing and that they felt little confidence to teach students how to create texts using digital devices,” Dr Malpique said.