Teachability of Reflective Processes in Written Composition

Reflective thought, as sustained in writing, is ottributed to two-way communication between o content problem space and a rhetorical problem space. An instructional experiment involving sixth-graders aimed at helping them sustoin such a two-way process independently, in place of the more typical onewoy process of generating content and writing it out. Instruction included modeling of thinking aloud, both by instructors and students, use of cues to stimulate self-questioning during planning monologues, and direct strategy instruction emphasizing dialectical synthesis of conflicting ideas. lncreosed numbers of reflective statements in thinking-aloud protocols and rated reflectiveness of compositions indicate gains were made at the level of reflection on individual ideas.