Evaluación de la escritura de textos producidos por estudiantes de básica media en las instituciones educativas de la ciudad de Cuenca

Abstract

Writing is a major skill and communicative tool in society, and constitutes a substantial tool in the development of people's cognitive abilities. However, there are serious deficiencies in the teaching of writing. In order to investigate this problem, this research analyzes how teachers evaluate texts written by middle school students in educational institutions in the city of Cuenca. A qualitative approach with a descriptive scope and a phenomenological design was used. The study was carried out during the first quarter of the period 2023-2024 in three educational institutions. Data collection was carried out through semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers and the collection of 80 texts written by middle school students. The main results of the interview revealed that teachers recognize the importance of taking advantage of evaluation instruments in writing, being the rubric and the checklist the most used; and the main criteria to evaluate writing are coherence and cohesion. However, when analyzing the texts, the use of rubrics was not observed, simply the use of a checklist in a trivial manner; educators focus more on spelling and handwriting. Additionally, the feedback provided by teachers is scarce and varies among the texts analyzed; they do not carry out activities, limiting themselves to grading the written text. In conclusion, there is a contradiction between what educators claim and what they actually practice. Teaching practices are not sufficient to help students develop writing skills. The writing process is ignored and feedback is not sufficient to develop the necessary competencies. Although teachers consider the value of writing, their assessment practices are limited and do not help develop proficiency.