Do sixth-grade writers need process strategies?

Background: Strategy-focussed writing instruction trains students both to set explicit product goals and to adopt specific procedural strategies, particularly for planning text. A number of studies have demonstrated that strategy-focussed writing instruction is effective in developing writing performance. Aim: The present study aimed to determine whether teaching process strategies provides additional benefit over teaching students to set product goals. Sample: 94 typically developing Spanish sixth-grade (upper primary) students. Method: Students received 10 hours of instruction in one of three conditions: Strategy-focussed training in setting product goals and in writing procedures (planning and revision; Product-and-Process), strategy-focussed training in setting product goals (Product-Only), and product-focussed instruction (Control). Students' writing performance was assessed before, during, and after intervention with process measures based on probed self-report and holistic and text-analytic measures of text quality. Results: Training that included process instruction was successful in changing students' writing processes, with no equivalent process changes in the Product-Only or control conditions. Both Process-and-Product and Product-Only conditions resulted in substantial improvements in the quality of students' texts relative to controls, but with no evidence of benefits of process instruction over those provided by the Product-Only condition. Teaching process substantially increased time-on-task. Conclusions: Our findings confirm the value of strategy-focussed writing instruction, but question the value of training specific process strategies