Date
4-7-2026
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)
Chair
Constance Pearson
Keywords
explicit writing, foundational reading skills, cognitive load, schema, writing process, writing and reading connections, writing process
Disciplines
Curriculum and Instruction
Recommended Citation
Shenk, Jamie, "Teachers’ Perceptions of How Daily Explicit Writing Instruction May Contribute to Early Foundational Reading Skills: A Case Study" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 8057.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/8057
Abstract
The purpose of this single case study was to explore how K-3 elementary teachers’ perceptions of how daily writing instruction contributes to early foundational reading skills. The theories guiding this study were Sweller’s cognitive load study and Bartlett’s schema theory. The central research question was: How do educators perceive connections between an explicit, daily writing approach and its influence on foundational reading skills? A single case study was used for this research in order to focus on K-3 teachers who had completed a one-year study on explicit writing instruction. The participants were 12 K-3 teachers in one Title I school who taught foundational reading skills and had daily writing instruction. Interviews, observations, and document analysis were the data collection strategies used in this study. Using these data sets, a triangulation of the themes, subthemes, and codes revealed the contribution of daily writing instruction to foundational reading skills based on teacher perception. This single case study yielded the results that educators perceived connections between reading and writing, finding them reciprocal skills, but did not perceive connections from their writing instruction to reading, foundational skills. Instead they perceived that these reciprocal skills were built from the foundation of reading skills to assist with writing skills.
