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Writing regulation processes in higher education: a review of two decades of empirical research

DOI:10.1007/s11145-017-9808-3
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Anna Sala-Bubaré at Universitat Ramon Llull
Anna Sala-Bubaré
Montserrat Castelló at Universitat Ramon Llull
Montserrat Castelló
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Abstract

In Higher Education (HE), writers need to regulate their writing processes in order to achieve their communicative goals. Although critical for academic success and knowledge construction, writing regulation processes have been mainly researched in compulsory education rather than in HE, with no systematic review focused on this context. The purpose of this article was to build a comprehensive picture of the state of writing regulation research in HE by conducting a systematic analysis of the studies on this topic in the last two decades. Studies’ characteristics were analysed in light of both their theoretical perspective and objectives. Results indicated the three theoretical perspectives and diversity of objectives were equally represented. Some methodological characteristics, such as context of study, were significantly related to theoretical perspectives, while the selection of instruments depended on their objectives. A qualitative analysis of the studies showed that cognitive studies methods’ varied in relation to their objectives, while sociocognitive studies used heterogeneous methods, and sociocultural studies used similar methods regardless their objective. Writing regulation in HE is a growing field with great variety of topics and objectives, yet there are still some underdeveloped issues and research challenges such as integrating emotions in the analysis, looking for more comprehensive methods that account for regulation in situated HE writing contexts, and clarifying the conceptual underpinnings of the perspective of writing regulation adopted in each study.
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Writing regulation processes in higher education:
a review of two decades of empirical research
Anna Sala-Bubare
´
1
•Montserrat Castello
´
1
Published online: 29 November 2017
Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2017
Abstract In Higher Education (HE), writers need to regulate their writing processes
in order to achieve their communicative goals. Although critical for academic
success and knowledge construction, writing regulation processes have been mainly
researched in compulsory education rather than in HE, with no systematic review
focused on this context. The purpose of this article was to build a comprehensive
picture of the state of writing regulation research in HE by conducting a systematic
analysis of the studies on this topic in the last two decades. Studies’ characteristics
were analysed in light of both their theoretical perspective and objectives. Results
indicated the three theoretical perspectives and diversity of objectives were equally
represented. Some methodological characteristics, such as context of study, were
significantly related to theoretical perspectives, while the selection of instruments
depended on their objectives. A qualitative analysis of the studies showed that
cognitive studies methods’ varied in relation to their objectives, while sociocog-
nitive studies used heterogeneous methods, and sociocultural studies used similar
methods regardless their objective. Writing regulation in HE is a growing field with
great variety of topics and objectives, yet there are still some underdeveloped issues
and research challenges such as integrating emotions in the analysis, looking for
more comprehensive methods that account for regulation in situated HE writing
contexts, and clarifying the conceptual underpinnings of the perspective of writing
regulation adopted in each study.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-
017-9808-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
&Anna Sala-Bubare
´
annasb4@blanquerna.url.edu
1
Facultat de Psicologia, Cie
`ncies de l’Educacio
´i de l’Esport Blanquerna, Universitat Ramon
Llull, C/Cı
´ster 34, 08022 Barcelona, Spain
123
Read Writ (2018) 31:757–777
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9808-3
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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