The effect of teacher's assistance on the rural learners' writing skills and self-efficacy: a case study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the teacher's assistance on students' self-efficacy and skills in writing. This is a case study approach where three students and a teacher will be chosen from a form four class through purposive sampling. Firstly, this study aims to investigate the level of rural area learners' writing self-efficacy and writing proficiency level. Thus, writing proficiency level will be evaluated based on the holistic marking scheme as outlined by Malaysian Examination Syndicate, and marks through school tests and examinations. Learners' writing self-efficacy will be evaluated using writing self-efficacy scale and classroom observation. Furthermore, this study also aims to explore the rural area learners' skills and self-efficacy in writing after certain amount of assistance given by the teacher. Thus, this study will place a heavy emphasis on the perceptions and actions of form four students and teacher through 24 non-participant classroom observations, 12 interviews with each of the three students and 24 teacher's interviews. This study also will adopt observation for analyzing self-efficacy to understand the participants' self-efficacy phenomena in their learning to write.