Evaluation of the effectiveness in practise of instruction and measurement-assessment approaches in terms of writing skills in middle school Turkish

This study aims to determine the teachers? views on the frequency of use of the strategies, methods, techniques and tools that can functionally be used in the teaching and measurement-assessment studies for writing skills in teaching of Turkish, and to identify the effect of the teaching of writing program that focuses on the performance assessment model based on the multiple data source on the students? writing performance, writing skills and writing self-efficacies.In the descriptive dimension of this research study, some data collecting tools have been developed in order to determine whether there are meaningful differences among the Turkish language teachers? levels of knowledge about their self-efficacies for teaching and measurement-assessment of the students? writing skills, and their levels of use of tools, methods and techniques for the measurement and assessment of the students? writing skills, and their levels of knowledge about the alternative tools, methods and techniques for the measurement and assessment of the students? writing skills according to various variables. And, based on the classification of service areas by the Ministry of National Education (MEB), this has been applied to a total number of 426 teachers working in Muğla province from the first service area, and in Malatya province from the second service area, and in Kars province from the third service area; thus the existing situation in each has been determined within its own conditions by some descriptive analyses. And in the experimental dimension of the study, in order to identify the changes made by the performance assessment model based on the multiple data source on the students? performances, levels of success and writing self-efficacies before and after the experimental process, performance tasks have been given to 60 students (30 students in the test-group, and 30 in the control-group) attending Elazığ Merkez 60. Yıl Primary School, and the ?Writing Self-Efficacies Scale? developed by the researcher has been applied to these students; and the situation has been determined by use of the students? grades of the performance tasks, test of achievement for writing skills, and the scale itself.The descriptive determinations that aim to identify the Turkish language teachers? competence for teaching and measurement-assessment of the students? writing skills within the scope of this research perform a function which exhibits how the case is. From this on, in terms of ?how the students can improve their writing skills?, it has been considered to be useful to develop a curriculum within the framework of the approaches set forth both in Turkish language curriculum and in the relevant literature, and to identify what kind of a change this developed curriculum provides in the students? writing performance /skills and their self-efficacies awareness for writing at the end of the process. Thus, within the framework of the process-based teaching of writing and the performance assessment model based on the multiple data source proposed in the Turkish language curriculum, a pretest-posttest control group based experimental design based on the quantitative and qualitative data has been developed to determine the change in the students? writing performance, writing skills and self-efficacies before and after the process.As a result of the gathered data about the descriptive research, it has been identified that the Turkish language teachers are mostly ?competent? in using the strategies for preparation to and planning writing, the strategies for the writing process and for the measurement-assessment of the writing tasks; and that they sufficiently use the tools existing in the Turkish language curriculum for evaluating the students? writing skills; and that their level of knowledge about the alternative tools, methods and techniques for the measurement and assessment of the students? writing skills is ?very low?.In the experimental study constructed by taking the general appearance of the descriptive study, only a process-based teaching of writing program has been applied to the control-group students, and to the test-group students, both a process-based teaching of writing program and the one which is based on the multiple data source assessment have been applied. And as a result of the gathered data of the experimental research, it has been identified that the performance assessment model based on the multiple data source has a positive effect on the students? writing performance, skills and self-efficacies. This application is significant in terms of the fact that the students will show a better writing performance and success if the efficient teaching strategies are used in the writing process and if the a model based on the multiple data source is used in the assessment of the process; and that this will reflect positively on the students? awareness for their writing self-efficacies.Key Words: Writing skills, teaching, measurement and assessment, performance assessment, writing self-efficacies.