Two Determinants of Teachers' Holistic Scoring: Prior Knowledge and Ideology Type

Abstract

This study investigated how 8 teachers untrained in holistic scoring rated compositions reflecting different writing processes and knowledge levels. Teachers varied in terms of whether they had high or low knowledge about baseball. In addition, teachers were classified as managing their classrooms in a way that conformed to either an academic or a cognitive-developmental orientation to writing. The findings revealed that cognitive-developmental, high-knowledge teachers rated mixed meaning-processes, high-knowledge narratives highest and reproductive, low-knowledge narratives the lowest. Cognitive-developmental, low-knowledge teachers rated mixed meaning-processes narratives higher than reproductive narratives. Academic, high-knowledge teachers rated reproductive high-knowledge narratives the highest and mixed meaning-processes, low-knowledge narratives the lowest. Academic, low-knowledge teachers rated reproductive, low-knowledge narratives the highest and mixed meaning-processes, high-knowledge narratives the lowest. These findings are discussed in terms of a classroom competence model of writing.