These days, students are often required to bring a device to school to access equitable education. But as they're increasingly using more and more technology, their handwriting is being affected. Some of you might wonder why this is an issue.
When we look at the assessment tools we use, such as end of semester tests or high school exams to allocate an ATAR for university entrance, students must undertake these in handwritten settings to authenticate their knowledge and learning.
These exams run for two to three hours and require students to produce written tasks under timed conditions. If examiners cannot read and assess a handwritten piece, this can affect scores, so handwriting legibility and stamina are crucial to ensure a student's success.
Messy and illegible handwriting has contributed to a surge in VCE students seeking special arrangements in exams, such as typing.
Another issue I've noticed cropping up due to an over-reliance on technology is the effect on grammar and punctuation, with students using online abbreviations within their responses and not knowing how to punctuate sentences correctly, thus affecting clarity of expression.
I also believe there are higher incidences of spelling mistakes because of an over-reliance on spellchecking software.
Loading...These days, in my year 9 English classes, students take notes and usually do all their homework on their computers, rarely needing to engage in handwriting. And it makes sense, because it's so convenient and easy.
But in doing so, students are missing out on many benefits of handwriting.
The benefits of handwriting
Studies have shown that handwriting supports better retention and recall of information.
A 2021 study investigating the cognitive effort of handwriting and typing found that "handwriting led to better recall than typing, particularly with the longest lists of words".
Research studies have also found that the process of handwriting, rather than typing, enhances memory and improves spelling skills.
Students who struggle with handwriting produce shorter pieces and a lower quality of content because they have less opportunity to think creatively. When students build up their handwriting fluency, it frees up their working memory and they can then instead spend more time thinking about how to plan and compose their texts.
This is something I've seen firsthand with students I teach. Students who struggle with handwriting experience a crisis of self-confidence and spend more time procrastinating than writing.
However, when they have the chance to practise a style of writing repeatedly, they develop muscle memory and can produce higher quality texts and manage their time more effectively.
These motor and cognitive benefits can lead to greater academic success.
Loading...While we might think that difficulty with handwriting and expression might not lead to long-term consequences beyond final exams and high school, we can't deny that people still use handwriting in various everyday tasks, such as filling out forms or making handwritten lists, which can be challenging if someone lacks handwriting skills.
Then there is the real possibility that it can affect professional communication. In fields where handwritten documentation, correspondence or notes are required, such as healthcare or legal professions, poor handwriting can lead to errors or misinterpretations.
Even in industries such as retail or hospitality, there is the need to handwrite signs; label stock or inventory; or produce menus. Spelling mistakes and punctuation errors can lead to low consumer confidence.
How to build children's confidence with handwriting
So how do we balance out the use of technology to support students' handwriting practice?
Parents can support their children by creating opportunities for practice at home. Start by providing handwriting tools — notebooks, pencils and erasers — and consider seeking help if your child is struggling significantly, whether from a teacher, occupational therapist or professionals who specialise in handwriting development.
As a parent, I praised my daughter's efforts in writing stories, or when she penned sweet notes to me and her father when she was angling for us to buy her something, or her forays into journaling and daily organisers.
Loading...Teachers can create different learning experiences through collaboration, games or note-making to develop students' handwriting and stamina.
As an English teacher, I used the method of the Writer's Notebook, a tried-and-true method that educators have successfully used for decades.
Teachers integrate these Writer Notebooks into the curriculum at least once a week, using them to teach and practice sentence construction and long-form pieces. These notebooks are used to demonstrate the practice of skills and the development of writing a piece.
My students' first activity of the year is always a letter to the teacher.
First, I write them a letter telling them about myself, my cultural background, the origin or story of my name, my passions and my goals, and they then write a letter to me modelling the same structure.
These letters serve a two-fold purpose. They allow me to develop a rapport with students by getting to know them on a personal level, and they help me identify their writing strengths and areas of development so I can include a goal-setting report in my reply.
As a teacher, I've had the experience of using Writer Notebooks for five years now and can unequivocally testify to their efficacy. I love sharing these at parent-teacher interviews and being able to show the progression from the beginning of the year to the end.
And most importantly, I love seeing the confidence that students themselves display in being able to write under timed conditions and having the writing stamina for exam conditions.
Amra Pajalic is a teacher of 11 years. She is an award-winning author of Sabiha's Dilemma, Alma's Loyalty and Jesse's Triumph, the first three books in her own-voices young adult Sassy Saints Series.