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How to Give Constructive Feedback to Creative Writing

December 14, 2020 //  by  Lindsay Ann //   1 Comment

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Do you wonder how to give constructive feedback on creative writing and poetry pieces created by student writers who have put their heart and soul into them? 

I think all teachers struggle with this question to some extent. It is because we care. 

This can lead to indecisive response to student work. We waste valuable time when we lack a plan for response and worry about the emotional reaction to our feedback.

In this post, I’m all about sharing practical strategies that will teach you how to best give constructive feedback. 

I want you to feel as comfortable responding to creative writing assignments as analysis based writing or argumentative writing assignments so that you can help student writers grow without deflating their fragile egos.

Setting the Stage for Writing Feedback

I think that it’s important to remember the feeling associated with having someone else read our work.

When I was a student, it was always a mixture of anticipation and dread . Would my instructor like what I had written? Would my grade reflect the time and effort I had put into the assignment? 

A couple of things before we discuss how to give constructive feedback…

👉 I think that it’s important to be clear with students upfront about the skills you’re looking for in a creative writing assignment. Frontload with exemplars and use creative writing exercises to practice skills. Then, when it comes time for students to write, they will know what they are expected to do as writers. 

👉 At the same time, it’s important to focus on feedback during the writing process . This allows our response to be as readers rather than as evaluators. 

👉 Finally, I think that it makes a BIG difference when you model your own creative process for students. The more I can show students that writing is messy and imperfect, that I go through the same process as them, the more my classroom dynamic shifts from teacher-centered to student-centered and collaborative. If you’re wondering how to give constructive feedback to students, ask them to give feedback to you first.

Constructive Feedback for Students

When it comes to student feedback, less is more. I’ve blogged about this before, but I’ll say it again (and again) (and…again).

Most students don’t care about our carefully-worded paragraphs. They want to be seen and heard , but they also want to be able to understand what they can do to improve. 

This means that feedback should be direct, specific, and actionable .  This means that we need to respond as readers , not evaluators.  This means that we will leave a manageable amount of feedback to build a student’s momentum.

Strategies for How to Give Constructive Feedback

➡️ Only mark the lines you love the most. Highlight them, underline them, put a star in the margin. Choose a couple of these lines to comment on. What did you notice? What did you like/realize/want to know?

➡️ Focus on the skills taught in class. So, if you taught characterization and concrete details, give feedback specifically on those elements. Ask students to revisit resources/screencasts/examples, etc. to review these skills.

➡️ Focus on moments of clarity and confusion. Where did you, as a reader, make a connection or realize something important? Where were you confused? 

➡️ Yin Yang Feedback

• Find something specific that you liked/enjoyed (and explain why/how ). Maybe it’s a bit of figurative language or a vivid image. Pair this with a suggestion for where the writer can continue to work on this same skill. Essentially, this is like saying, “See, here, you did this thing that I liked and enjoyed…can you do more of that over here?” Or, “As a reader, it seemed to me like your intent was x, y, or z when you wrote _________. I’m wondering if you can make this clearer when _________.
• What is the highest level of skill mastery you can observe? Find an example of success and talk about why/how it was successful. What is the most important skill that still needs to be developed? Find a place where the student can begin working on this skill.
• Where were you most engaged/interested in the story. Leave a quick note about what captured your attention. Where were you least engaged/interested? This type of teacher feedback encourages revision.

➡️ Be curious. Read through the draft and ask questions… only questions . This is a kind of constructive feedback students love to hate (because it makes them think ). I ask my students to respond and revise. This strategy rocks because it establishes feedback as a two-way conversation rather than a one-way lecture. 

➡️ Have students direct your feedback by asking you questions about their work. Alternatively, you can ask students to reflect on how/where they have demonstrated the skills you’ve taught in class (or the goals they’ve set for themselves). Then, you simply read through and respond to their comments, sharing your thoughts and suggestions.

➡️ Use a writer’s workshop model in which you conference with students about their work. You can train students to lead in these conversations if you choose the 1:1 model. Alternatively, you can form writing circles in which you provide students examples of constructive feedback before asking students to take turns reading their work out loud and solicit feedback from group members. You can float between writing groups, joining the conversations as needed.

Final Thoughts

I hope that I’ve helped you learn more about how to give constructive feedback to creative writers. 

As we become purposeful in our responses to students, the benefit is that we streamline our own systems and processes which allows us to feel better about the feedback we are giving and also the amount of time it takes to provide this feedback!

About Lindsay Ann

Lindsay has been teaching high school English in the burbs of Chicago for 19 years. She is passionate about helping English teachers find balance in their lives and teaching practice through practical feedback strategies and student-led learning strategies. She also geeks out about literary analysis, inquiry-based learning, and classroom technology integration. When Lindsay is not teaching, she enjoys playing with her two kids, running, and getting lost in a good book.

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TWO WRITING TEACHERS

A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.

Using a Writing Survey

How do you get to know the writers in your classroom at the beginning of the school year? When I still had my own classroom, I took a writing sample on the first day of school and then scored the sample using our district’s rubric. This first-day assessment gave me a good idea of which students used paragraphs or had good control of mechanics or wrote with detail. As I look back, though, I wonder if this was a sufficient way to really know my students as writers.

For example, if you were to really know me as a writer you might know:

• I write a lot of stories about my daughters
• I need a deadline to actually get words on paper
• I want to write a professional book for teachers
• I tend to write in loud-ish places like my kitchen table or my backyard
• I haven’t used my writer’s notebook in over a year
• I love to write and I hate to write and I love the way this dichotomy makes me feel
• I struggle to find my voice in nonfiction
• I have writing mentors such as Kate DiCamillo, Katie Wood Ray, and my colleagues here at Two Writing Teachers
• I’ve encouraged many of my colleagues to become writers

You would not know any of those things about me as a writer if I simply gave you a writing sample. You would have to talk to me (preferably over coffee) to know me as a writer. I regret not taking the time to understand my students better as writers.

I think it takes many weeks of writing and conversation and sharing to begin to uncover the writing identities of students. There is no quick and easy method. However, a writing survey at the beginning of the school year is  a step in the right direction and can serve as a springboard for conversations to come. Some questions you might ask:

If you had to choose a room to write in, what would it sound like? Would it be silent? Would there be a TV or radio playing in the background?

If you could only write about one thing all year long, what would that be?

Imagine yourself fifteen years from now, a famous published author. What did you write?

Is there anyone whose writing you really admire?

Do you prefer to write with pencil/pen or on a computer?

Have you ever had a bad writing experience?

Do you know any writers?

Where do you think writers get story ideas from?

What does “living like a writer” mean to you?

As I think about using a writing survey in classrooms this year, there are three caveats I will keep in mind:

• There is no substitute for good conversation. This survey will serve as a conversation starter, not as an assessment.
• There will be many students who have no identity as a writer. Many students will be unable to answer some of these questions. That is okay, too – the lack of an answer is all the answer I need.
• The survey could be completed using pen and paper. It could also be completed digitally on a Google Doc or Google Form. A third option would be to use the questions as ‘interview questions’ and complete the survey with each student one-on-one over the first few weeks of school.

Taking the time at the beginning of the school year to learn about students in this way will help me be a more responsive and empathetic writing teacher all year long.

(For more on getting to know your student writers, don’t miss Beth’s thoughtful post  from earlier this week.)

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Published by Dana Murphy

Literacy Coach, Reader, Writer View all posts by Dana Murphy

8 thoughts on “ Using a Writing Survey ”

Love these questions; I’m a huge fan of making time for reflection/metacognitive ‘stuff’ 🙂 Curious if you’d have students glue this survey into their ntbk or whether you’d collect. Thank you!

Great idea to let students keep a copy of the survey. It’d be interesting to have them revisit their answers mid-way through the school year to reflect on how they are changing as writers.

I’m thinking these conversations could easily happen if the first month of school were dedicated to establishing writer’s notebooks (and routines/procedures for writing workshop). There’d be plenty of time for this kind of work so that it didn’t become yet another piece of paper kids were asked to fill out.

Help! I have been searching for some information on appropriate writing assessments for kindergarten. In my district, we are required to do pre and post assessments for each of the units of study. We begin on days 5,6 and 7 and do all three (narrative, informational and opinion). We use a scripted prompt, which is the same one we use for the post-assessments. I just don’t feel in my heart that this is appropriate for brand new kindergartners, as most of them have no idea what we are talking about with all these big words. I have seen them appear disillusioned and frustrated as they attempt to please us by giving us what we are asking. I plan to make an appeal, but I am looking for some thoughts from experts. Thank you in advance for any insight you might give.

Hi, Diane. My district does the same thing with all our units of study. Although we don’t give the prompts consecutively like that, we do use very formal language and directions. I have sympathize with your plight and agree that it can be overwhelming to the primary students. I am not sure how much leeway you have, but some things we have done to make the task more accessible to kids are: -providing them with a student sample prior to the assessment – making an anchor chart of the important things to remember after reading the directions – using demonstration writing to provide an example

Also, check out some of these posts from our archives that have to do with assessment and/or primary writing:

Looking at Student Writing

What’s An On-Demand?

Please keep us posted on how it turns out!

This is a great post! I love these questions for writers and plan to use it in my classroom. You are so right that the blank spaces where students cannot come up with an answer are part of the picture of the student as writer at this moment in time. It gives us a place to start.

I love the idea of a conversation! Many kids may write what they think you want on a survey, but may be more open in a conversation. Earlier this week, there was a post about how a more experienced teacher dissuaded a new teacher from looking at last year’s work,saying something like “I like to get to know them myself”. But if you trust your colleagues, their insights into the kids they spent 180+ days with are invaluable. I will pass this along to my colleagues – thank you!

I think your writing survey is a great idea. The students’ responses will also provide you with information listed above such as paragraphing, mechanics and detail. Used in conjunction with a piece of real writing for the writer’s own purposes, you will have a lovely snapshot of the writer.

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

How Creative Writing Can Increase Students’ Resilience

Many of my seventh-grade students do not arrive at school ready to learn. Their families often face financial hardship and live in cramped quarters, which makes it difficult to focus on homework. The responsibility for cooking and taking care of younger siblings while parents work often falls on these twelve year olds’ small shoulders. Domestic violence and abuse are also not uncommon.

To help traumatized students overcome their personal and academic challenges, one of our first jobs as teachers is to build a sense of community. We need to communicate that we care and that we welcome them into the classroom just as they are. One of the best ways I’ve found to connect with my students, while also nurturing their reading and writing skills, is through creative writing.

For the past three years, I’ve invited students in my English Language Development (ELD) classes to observe their thoughts, sit with their emotions, and offer themselves and each other compassion through writing and sharing about their struggles. Creating a safe, respectful environment in which students’ stories matter invites the disengaged, the hopeless, and the numb to open up. Students realize that nobody is perfect and nobody’s life is perfect. In this kind of classroom community, they can take the necessary risks in order to learn, and they become more resilient when they stumble.

Fostering a growth mindset

One of the ways students can boost their academic performance and develop resilience is by building a growth mindset. Carol Dweck, Stanford University professor of psychology and author of the book Mindset , explains that people with a growth mindset focus on learning from mistakes and welcoming challenges rather than thinking they’re doomed to be dumb or unskillful. A growth mindset goes hand in hand with self-compassion: recognizing that everyone struggles and treating ourselves with kindness when we trip up.

One exercise I find very useful is to have students write a story about a time when they persevered when faced with a challenge—in class, sports, or a relationship. Some of the themes students explore include finally solving math problems, learning how to defend themselves, or having difficult conversations with parents.

I primed the pump by telling my students about something I struggled with—feeling left behind in staff meetings as my colleagues clicked their way through various computer applications. I confided that PowerPoint and Google Slides—tools (one might assume) that any teacher worth a paperweight has mastered—still eluded me. By admitting my deficiency to my students, asking for their help, and choosing to see the opportunity to remedy it every day in the classroom, I aimed to level the playing field with them. They may have been reading three or four grade levels behind, but they could slap a PowerPoint presentation together in their sleep.

For students, sharing their own stories of bravery, resilience, and determination brings these qualities to the forefront of their minds and helps solidify the belief that underlies a growth mindset: I can improve and grow . We know from research in neuroplasticity that when students take baby steps to achieve a goal and take pride in their accomplishments, they change their brains, growing new neural networks and fortifying existing ones. Neurons in the brain release the feel-good chemical dopamine, which plays a major role in motivating behavior toward rewards.

After writing about a few different personal topics, students choose one they want to publish on the bulletin boards at the back of the classroom. They learn to include the juicy details of their stories (who, what, when, where, why, and how), and they get help from their peers, who ask follow-up questions to prompt them to include more information. This peer editing builds their resilience in more ways than one—they make connections with each other by learning about each other’s lives, and they feel empowered by lending a hand.

In my experience, students are motivated to do this assignment because it helps them feel that their personal stories and emotions truly matter, despite how their other academics are going. One student named Alejandro chose to reflect on basketball and the persistence and time it took him to learn:

Hoops By Alejandro Gonzalez Being good takes time. One time my sister took me to a park and I saw people playing basketball. I noticed how good they were and decided I wanted to be like them. Still I told my sister that basketball looked hard and that I thought I couldn’t do it. She said,“You could do it if you tried. You’ll get the hang of it.” My dad bought me a backboard and hoop to play with. I was really happy, but the ball wasn’t making it in. Every time I got home from school, I would go straight to the backyard to play. I did that almost every day until little by little I was getting the hang of it. I also played with my friends. Every day after lunch we would meet at the basketball court to have a game. … I learned that you need to be patient and to practice a lot to get the hang of things. With a little bit of practice, patience, and hard work, anything is possible.

Originally, Alejandro wasn’t sure why he was in school and often lacked the motivation to learn. But writing about something he was passionate about and recalling the steps that led to his success reminded him of the determination and perseverance he had demonstrated in the past, nurturing a positive view of himself. It gave him a renewed sense of investment in learning English and eventually helped him succeed in his ELD class, as well.

Maintaining a hopeful outlook

Another way to build resilience in the face of external challenges is to shore up our inner reserves of hope —and I’ve found that poetry can serve as inspiration for this.

For the writing portion of the lesson, I invite students to “get inside” poems by replicating the underlying structure and trying their hand at writing their own verses. I create poem templates, where students fill in relevant blanks with their own ideas. 

One poem I like to share is “So Much Happiness” by Naomi Shihab Nye. Its lines “Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house / and now live over a quarry of noise and dust / cannot make you unhappy” remind us that, despite the unpleasant events that occur in our lives, it’s our choice whether to allow them to interfere with our happiness. The speaker, who “love[s] even the floor which needs to be swept, the soiled linens, and scratched records,” has a persistently sunny outlook.

It’s unrealistic for students who hear gunshots at night to be bubbling over with happiness the next morning. Still, the routine of the school day and the sense of community—jokes with friends, a shared bag of hot chips for breakfast, and a creative outlet—do bolster these kids. They have an unmistakable drive to keep going, a life force that may even burn brighter because they take nothing for granted—not even the breath in their bodies, life itself. 

Itzayana was one of those students who, due to the adversity in her life, seemed too old for her years. She rarely smiled and started the school year with a defiant approach to me and school in general, cursing frequently in the classroom. Itzayana’s version of “So Much Happiness” hinted at some of the challenges I had suspected she had in her home life:

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness. Even the fact that you once heard your family laughing and now hear them yelling at each other cannot make you unhappy. Everything has a life of its own, it too could wake up filled with possibilities of tamales and horchata and love even scrubbing the floor, washing dishes, and cleaning your room. Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness, help people in need, help your family, and take care of yourself.   —Itzayana C.

Her ending lines, “Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness, / help people in need, help your family, and take care of yourself,” showed her growing awareness of the need for self-care as she continued to support her family and others around her. This is a clear sign of her developing resilience.

Poetry is packed with emotion, and writing their own poems allows students to grapple with their own often-turbulent inner lives. One student commented on the process, saying, “By writing poems, I’ve learned to be calm and patient, especially when I get mad about something dumb.” Another student showed pride in having her writing published; she reflected, “I feel good because other kids can use it for calming down when they’re angry.”

To ease students into the creative process, sometimes we also write poems together as a class. We brainstorm lines to include, inviting the silly as well as the poignant and creating something that represents our community.

Practicing kindness

Besides offering my students new ways of thinking about themselves, I also invite them to take kind actions toward themselves and others.

In the music video for “Give a Little Love” by Noah and the Whale, one young African American boy—who witnesses bullying at school and neglect in his neighborhood —decides to take positive action and whitewash a wall of graffiti. Throughout the video, people witness others’ random acts of kindness, and then go on to do their own bit.

“My love is my whole being / And I’ve shared what I could,” the lyrics say—a reminder that our actions speak louder than our words and do have an incredible impact. The final refrain in the song—“Well if you are (what you love) / And you do (what you love) /...What you share with the world is what it keeps of you”—urges the students to contribute in a positive way to the classroom, the school campus, and their larger community.

After watching the video, I ask students to reflect upon what kind of community they would like to be part of and what makes them feel safe at school. They write their answers—for example, not being laughed at by their peers and being listened to—on Post-it notes. These notes are used to create classroom rules. This activity sends a message early on that we are co-creating our communal experience together. Students also write their own versions of the lyrics, reflecting on different things you can give and receive—like kindness, peace, love, and ice cream.

Reaping the benefits

To see how creative writing impacts students, I invite them to rate their resilience through a self-compassion survey at the start of the school year and again in the spring. Last year, two-thirds of students surveyed increased in self-compassion; Alejandro grew his self-compassion by 20 percent. The program seems to work at developing their reading and writing skills, as well: At the middle of the school year, 40 percent of my students moved up to the next level of ELD, compared to 20 percent the previous year. 

As a teacher, my goal is to meet students where they’re at and learn about their whole lives. Through creative writing activities, we create a community of compassionate and expressive learners who bear witness to the impact of trauma in each others’ experiences and together build resilience.

As a symbol of community and strength, I had a poster in my classroom of a boat at sea with hundreds of refugees standing shoulder to shoulder looking skyward. It’s a hauntingly beautiful image of our ability to risk it all for a better life, as many of my ELD students do. Recognizing our common humanity and being able to share about our struggles not only leads to some beautiful writing, but also some brave hearts.

About the Author

Laura Bean, M.F.A. , executive director of Mindful Literacy, consults with school communities to implement mindfulness and creative writing programs. She has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and presented a mindful writing workshop at Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth Conference in San Diego in 2016.

You May Also Enjoy

How to Help Low-Income Students Succeed

Five Ways to Support Students Affected by Trauma

Can Social-Emotional Learning Help Disadvantaged Students?

How to Help a Traumatized Child in the Classroom

How Teachers Can Help Immigrant Kids Feel Safe

How to Help Students Feel Powerful at School

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Creative Writing Example Rubric

Rubric is a modification of one presented by: University Community Links (n.d.). Hot writing rubric. Retrieved August 19, 2008 from http://www.uclinks.org/reference/evaluation/HOT.html

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During those first days of school, use this creative writing survey to learn more about your new students!

This resource includes a series of questions to help you discover students’ habits, preferences, strengths, and attitudes about writing, reading, and themselves.

Knowing details about your students will help you build relationships more quickly and guide you in developing a course that best fits your students’ needs.

WHAT’S INCLUDED:

• Twenty reflective questions for students
• Teacher tips page
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• The Google Slides version contains text boxes for student responses. Due to copyright laws, the content is NOT editable for teachers.

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Teaching creative writing in primary schools: a systematic review of the literature through the lens of reflexivity

• Open access
• Published: 17 June 2023
• Volume 51 , pages 1311–1330, ( 2024 )

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• Georgina Barton   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2703-238X 1 ,
• Maryam Khosronejad 2 ,
• Mary Ryan 2 ,
• Lisa Kervin 3 &
• Debra Myhill 4  

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Teaching writing is complex and research related to approaches that support students’ understanding and outcomes in written assessment is prolific. Written aspects including text structure, purpose, and language conventions appear to be explicit elements teachers know how to teach. However, more qualitative and nuanced elements of writing such as authorial voice and creativity have received less attention. We conducted a systematic literature review on creativity and creative aspects of writing in primary classrooms by exploring research between 2011 and 2020. The review yielded 172 articles with 25 satisfying established criteria. Using Archer’s critical realist theory of reflexivity we report on personal, structural, and cultural emergent properties that surround the practice of creative writing. Implications and recommendations for improved practice are shared for school leaders, teachers, preservice teachers, students, and policy makers.

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Introduction

Creative writing in schools is an important part of learning, assessment, and reporting, however, there is evidence globally to suggest that such writing is often stifled in preference to quick on-demand writing, usually featured in high-stakes testing (Au & Gourd, 2013 ; Gibson & Ewing, 2020 ). Research points to this negatively impacting particularly on students from diverse backgrounds (Mahmood et al., 2020 ). When teachers teach on-demand writing typical pedagogical traits are revealed, those that are often referred to as formulaic (Ryan & Barton, 2014 ). When thinking about creative writing, however, Wyse et al. ( 2013 ) noted that it involves the absence of structure and teaching creative writing requires an ‘open’ pedagogical approach for students to be given imaginative choice. By this, they mean that teachers need to consider less formulaic ways to teach writing so that students can experience different opportunities and ways to write creatively. They argued that if students are not given the flexibility to experiment through writing then their creativity might be stifled. Similarly, Barbot et al. ( 2012 ), who carried out a study with a panel of 15 experts of creative writing, posited that creative writing is when students draw on their imagination and other creative processes to create fictional narratives or writing that is ‘unusually original’. They also noted that creative writing is important for the development of students’ critical and creative thinking skills and ways in which they can approach life in creative ways.

Creative writing is defined in various ways in literature. Wang ( 2019 ) defined creative writing as a form of original expression involving an author’s imagination to engage a reader. Other definitions of creative writing involve the notion of children’s imagination, choice, and originality and much research has explored the concept of creativity within and through the writing process.

While creative writing is defined in various ways, and the many ways that it is treated in literacy education, this article is not concerned with the nature of the term per se. Rather, it focusses on research about creative writing and creativity in writing to understand how research unpacks the personal and contextual characteristics that surround creative writing practices. To this aim, we adopt a broad definition of creative writing as a form of original writing involving an author’s imagination and self-expression to engage a reader (Wang, 2019 ). Creative writing is important for children’s development (Grainger et al., 2005 ), allowing them to use their imagination and broaden their ability to problem-solve and think deeply. Creativity in writing refers to specific aspects within a writing product that can be deemed creative. Some examples include the use of senses and how a writer might engage a reader (Deutsch, 2014 ; Smith, 2020 ).

International research on teaching writing has indicated a loss in innovative or creative pedagogical practices due to the pressure on teachers to teach prescribed writing skills that are assessed in high-stakes tests (Göçen, 2019 ; Stock & Molloy, 2020 ), often resulting in specific trends including teaching a genre approach to writing (Polesel et al., 2012 ; Ryan & Barton, 2014 ). A comprehensive meta-analysis by Graham et al ( 2012 ), designed to identify writing practices with evidence of effectiveness in primary classrooms, found that explicitly teaching imagery and creativity was an effective teaching practice in writing. In addition, a review of methods related to teaching writing conducted by Slavin et al. ( 2019 ) included studies that statistically reported causal relationships between teacher practice and student outcomes. Common themes in Slavin et al’s ( 2019 ) quest for improving writing included comprehensive teacher professional development, student engagement and enjoyment, and explicit teaching of grammar, punctuation, and usage. While they did not specifically cite creativity, motivating environments and cooperative learning were important characteristics of writing programs.

This systematic literature review aims to share empirical international research in the context of elementary/primary schools by exploring creativity in writing and the conditions that influence its emergence. It specifically aims to answer the question: What influences the teaching of creative writing in primary education? And how can reflexivity theorise these influences? The review shares scholarly work that attempts to define personal aspects of creative writing including imagination, and creative thinking; discusses creative approaches to teaching writing, and shows how these methods might support students’ creative writing or creative aspects of writing.

Writing is a complex process that involves students making decisions about word choice, sentence, and text structure, and ways in which to engage readers. Such decisions require a certain amount of reflection or at times deeper reflexive judgments by both teachers and students. Consequently, we draw on Archer’s ( 2012 ) critical realist theory of reflexivity to guide our review as research shows that reflexive thinking in practice can improve writing outcomes (Ryan et al., 2021 ). Archer ( 2007 ) highlights how reflexivity is an everyday activity involving mental processes whereby we think about ourselves in relation to our immediate personal, social, and cultural contexts. She suggests we make decisions through negotiating the connected emergences of personal properties (PEPs) related to the individual, structural properties (SEPs) related to the contextual happenings and cultural properties (CEPs) related to ideologies, each of which is influenced by the other developments. These decisions influence, and are influenced by, our subsequent actions. In applying reflexivity theory to writing (see Ryan, 2014 ), we cannot simply focus on the writing product, but should also interrogate the process of writing, that is, the influences on decision-making and design which are enabled or constrained through pedagogical practices in the classroom. Writing practices and outputs are formed through the interplay of personal, structural, and cultural conditions. Student decisions and actions about writing ensue through the mediation of personal (e.g. beliefs, motivations, interests, experiences), structural (e.g. curriculum, programs, testing regimes, teaching strategies, resources), and cultural (e.g. norms, expectations, ideologies, values) conditions. Therefore, teachers play an important role in facilitating the interplay of these conditions for their students and recontextualising curricula and policy (Ryan et al., 2021 ). For example, by enabling students’ agency and creating an authentic purpose for writing, teachers can balance the personal conditions of students (such as their motivation and interest) against the structural effects of the curriculum requirements. Using a reflexive approach to investigating the literature on creative writing we aim to reveal the personal, structural, and cultural conditions surrounding the study and the practice of creative writing. We argue that it is through the understanding of these conditions that we can theorise how a. students might make their writing more creative and b. how teachers might establish classroom conditions conducive to creativity.

The approach taken for this paper was guided by the PRISMA method (Moher et al., 2009 ) for conducting systematic literature reviews (see Table 1 ).

Our electronic search involved several databases: researchers’ library online catalogue, EBSCO host ultimate, ProQuest, Eric, Web of Science, Informit, and ScienceDirect. Using the following search terms: creativ* AND (‘teaching methods’ OR pedagog*) AND writing AND (elementary OR primary) to search titles and abstracts as well as limiting the search to peer-reviewed articles written in English within a 10-year timeframe (2011–2020), we initially retrieved 172 articles. Information about all 172 articles was input into a data spreadsheet including author, article title, journal title, volume and issue number, and abstract. Once completed, these articles were divided into two equal groups and two researchers were assigned to review the articles for relevancy against the following inclusion criteria:

Studies were peer-reviewed empirical research published in English;

Participants were primary students and/or teachers;

Students were not specifically English as a Second or Additional Language/Dialect learners (samples of culturally and linguistically diverse students in primary classrooms were included);

Studies were not carried out in curriculum areas other than English; and

Studies did not have a specific focus on digital technologies in the classroom.

For this systematic review, we were interested in the ways in which teachers thought about, understood, and taught the ‘creative’ aspect of writing.

The 25 studies that met the inclusion criteria were synthesised to review what influences the improvement of creative writing in primary education. We analysed the papers for how creative writing and/or creative aspects in writing were viewed as well as how teachers might best support students to develop reflexive capacities to improve the creative aspects of writing. We also identified any personal, structural, and/or cultural emergences that might impact on the effectiveness of students’ creative writing. Two of the authors read the entire articles and identified four main categories of research which were (1) understanding creative writing; (2) creative thinking and its contribution to writing; (3) creative pedagogy; and (4) what students can do to be more creative in their writing. These were cross-checked by the entire research team. Some of the papers fit more than one of these themes. In the next section, each theme is introduced and defined and then the articles that fall within the theme are reviewed.

Overall a total number of 25 articles had overlapping themes that included various personal and contextual aspects. Figure  1 shows what we have identified as the key themes under each category. In the next sections, we represent papers based on their main theme.

The personal, structural, and cultural conditions surrounding creative writing

Personal emergent properties

A total number of 13 articles were about what students can do to be more creative in their writing (Mendelowitz, 2014 ; Steele, 2016 ) and how teachers’ and students’ personal characteristics relate to the development of creative writing. These articles were mainly focussed on the personal emergent aspects of writing (Alhusaini & Maker, 2015 ; Barbot et al., 2012 ; Cremin et al., 2020 ; DeFauw, 2018 ; Dobson, 2015 ; Dobson & Stephenson, 2017 , 2020 ; Edwards-Groves, 2011 ; Healey, 2019 ; Lee & Enciso, 2017 ; Macken-Horarik, 2012 ; Ryan, 2014 ). The personal aspects identified in our review were (1) personal views about creative writing, (2) creative thinking, (3) writer identity, (4) learner motivation and engagement, and (5) knowledge and capabilities.

Personal views about creative writing

From our systematic review, we identified three articles exploring views about what creative writing is, and more specifically the role that it plays and the elements that make creative writing, in primary classrooms. One of these studies was focussed on the views and experiences of experts in writing (Barbot et al., 2012 ), whereas the other two investigated students’ perspectives and experiences (Alhusaini & Maker, 2015 ; Healey, 2019 ). Barbot et al’s ( 2012 ) work, for example, recognised that creative writing involves both cognitive and metacognitive abilities. This was determined by the expert panel of people whose work related to writing including teachers, linguists, psychologists, professional writers, and art educators. The panel were asked to complete an online survey that rated the relative importance of 28 identified skills needed to creatively write. Six broad categories were identified as a result of the responses and the rank given to each factor by the expert groups (See Table 2 ). They acknowledged that these features cross over various age groups from children to professional writers.

Findings suggested that each independent rater weighted different key components of creative writing as being more or less important for children. Overall, the findings showed.

a global ‘consensus’ across the expert groups indicated that creative writing skills are primarily supported by factors such as observation, generation of description, imagination, intrinsic motivation and perseverance, while the contributions of all of the other relevant factors seemed negligible (e.g. intelligence, working memory, extrinsic motivation and penmanship). (p. 218)

One factor that was ranked as critical by most respondents, but underemphasised by teachers, was imagination. Teachers’ work in classrooms around creative writing is complex due to the difficulty in defining imagination (Brill, 2004 ). Teachers also under-rated other aspects related to creative cognition.

Another study that explored students’ creativity in writing was conducted by Alhusaini and Maker ( 2015 ) in the south-west of the United States. Participants included 139 students with mixed ethnicities including White, Mexican American, and Navajo. This study involved six elementary/primary school teachers judging students’ writing samples of open-ended stories. To assess the work a Written Linguistic Assessment tool, which was based on the Consensual Assessment Technique [CAT] (Amabile, 1982 ) was implemented. According to Baer and McKool ( 2009 ), The CAT involves experts rating written artefacts or artistic objects by using their ‘sense of what is creative in the domain in question to rate the creativity of the products in relation to one another’ (p. 4). Interestingly, Alhusaini and Maker ( 2015 ) found the CAT to be effective in relation to interrater reliability. The authors do not share what the Judge’s Guidelines to Assess Students’ Stories entail. They mention the difference between technical quality and creativity and note that assessors were able to distinguish the differences between the two, but the reader is not made aware of the aspects of each quality. Overall, the study revealed that one of the most challenging problems in the field of creativity and writing is trying to measure creativity across cultures by using standardised tests. Such studies could have implications for other students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as teachers become more aware of cultural nuances in constituting ‘creative’ in creative writing.

The final study we identified in this category was by Healey ( 2019 ). Healey employed an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and explored how eight children (11–12 Years of age) experienced creative writing in the classroom. He shared how children’s writing experiences were based on ‘the affect, embodiment, and materiality of their immediate engagement with activities in the classroom’ (p. 184). Results from student interviews showed three themes related to the experience of writing: the writing world (watching, ideas from elsewhere, flowing); the self (concealing and revealing, agency, adequacy); and schooled writing (standards, satisfying task requirements, rules of good writing). The author stated that children’s consciousness shifts between their imagination (The Writing World) and set assessment tasks (Schooled Writing). Both of these worlds affect the way children experience themselves as writers. Further findings from this work argued that originality of ideas and use of richer vocabulary improved students’ creative writing. Vocabulary improvement included diversity of word meanings, appropriate usage of words, words being in line with the purpose of the text; while originality of ideas featured creative and unusual (original) ideas—which in many ways is difficult to define.

Overall, when concerned with personal views and attitudes in creative writing, the two studies by Healey ( 2019 ) and Barbot et al. ( 2012 ) show contrasting findings about ‘imagination’ captured through the view of students and teachers, respectively. While Healey’s ( 2019 ) study suggests that children shift between their imagination and set assessment tasks in creative writing, Barbot et al. ( 2012 ) highlight the lack of attention to imagination among their participated teachers. Although these results cannot be generalised, they highlight the significance of understanding personal emergent properties that both students and teachers bring to the classroom and the way that they interact to affect the experience of creative writing for learners. From this theme, we suggest the importance of educators acknowledging students’ imagination through their definition of creative writing as well as providing quality time for students to choose what they write through imaginative thought. We now turn to creative thinking and related pedagogical approaches to teaching creative writing from the research literature.

Creative thinking

We identified two articles that were focussed on creative thinking and its contribution to writing (Copping, 2018 ; Cress & Holm, 2016 ). Copping ( 2018 ) explored writing pedagogy and the connections between children’s creative thinking, or a ‘new way of looking at something’ (p. 309), and their writing achievement. The study involved two primary schools in Lancashire, one in an affluent area and one in an underprivileged area. Approximately 28 children from each school were involved in two, 2-day writing workshops based on a murder mystery the children had to solve. Findings from this study revealed that to improve students’ writing achievement (1) a thinking environment needs to be created and maintained, (2) production processes should have value, (3) motivation and achievement increase when there is a tangible purpose, and (4) high expectations lead to higher attainment.

Cress and Holm’s ( 2016 ) study described a curricular approach implemented by a first-grade teacher and their class comprised 13 girls and 11 boys. The project known as the Creative Endeavours project aimed to develop creative thinking by (1) creating an environment of respect with a positive classroom climate. (2) offering new and challenging experiences, and (3) encouraging new ideas rather than praise. The authors argued that through peer collaboration and the flexibility to choose their own projects, children can become more authentically engaged in the writing process. The children wrote about their experiences and their choices, and reflected upon the projects undertaken. In this study, it was revealed that the children showed diversity in their writing assignments including presentation through sewing, photography, and drama. While there were only two papers in this particular theme, their findings are supported by systematic reviews (Graham et al., 2012 ; Slavin et al., 2019 ) that emphasise not only new ways of exploring a range of concepts for learning but also the creation of motivating environments for improving writing (Copping, 2018 ). In addition to the significance of positive and encouraging learning environments, these two studies suggest that setting ‘high expectations’ or ‘challenging experiences’ are conducive to creative thinking however, teachers would need to set appropriate, reflexive conditions for this to occur.

Writer identity

Studies in this category revolve around choice and learner writer identity. The study carried out by Dobson and Stephenson ( 2017 ) focussed on developing a community of writers involving 25 primary school pupils from low socio-economic backgrounds. The project was offered over 2 weeks and featured a number of creative writing workshops. The authors applied the theoretical frameworks of practitioner enquiry and discourse analysis to explore the children’s creative writing outputs. They argued that the workshops, which promoted intertextuality and freedom for the children as writers, enabled a shifting of their ‘writer’ identities (Holland et al., 1998). Dobson and Stephenson ( 2017 ) showed that allowing students to make decisions and choices in regard to authentic writing purposes supported a more flexible approach. They recommend stronger partnerships between schools and universities in relation to research on creative writing, however, it would be important for these relationships to be sustainable.

The second paper on this theme is by Ryan ( 2014 ) who noted that writing is a complex activity that requires appropriate thinking in relation to the purpose, audience, and medium of a variety of texts. Writers always make decisions about how they will present subject matter and/or feelings through all of the modes. Ryan ( 2014 ) suggested that writing is like a performance ‘whereby writers shape and represent their identities as they mediate social structures and personal considerations’ (p. 130). The study analysed writing samples of culturally and linguistically diverse Australian primary students to uncover the types of identities students shared. It found that three different types of writers existed—the school writers who followed teacher instructions or formulas to produce a product; the constrained writers who also followed instructions and formulas but were able to add in some authorical voice; and the reflexive writers who could show a definite command of writing and showed creative potential. Ryan ( 2014 ) argued that teachers’ practices in the classroom directly influence the ways in which students express these identities. She stated that when students are provided choices in writing, they are more able to shape and develop their voices. Such choices would need to include quality time and support to be reflexive in the decisions being made by the students.

The Teachers as Writers project (2015–2017) was conducted by Cremin, Myhill, Eyres, Nash, Wilson, and Oliver. In a recent paper ( 2020 ), the team reported on a collaborative partnership between two universities and a creative writing foundation. Professional writers were invited to engage with teachers in the writing process and the impact of these interactions on classroom teaching practices was determined. Data sets included observations, interviews, audio-capture (of workshops, tutorials and co-mentoring reflections), and audio-diaries from 16 teachers; and a randomised controlled trial (RCT) involving 32 primary and secondary classes. An intervention was carried out involving teachers writing in a week long residence with professional writers, one-on-one tutorials, and extra time and space to write. They also continued learning through two Continuing Professional Development (CPD) days. Results showed that teachers’ identities as writers shifted greatly due to their engagement with professional authors. The students responded positively in terms of their motivation, confidence, sense of ownership, and skills as writers. The professional authors also commented on positive impacts including their own contributions to schools. Conversely, these changes in practice did not improve the students’ final assessment results in any significant way. The authors noted that assuming a causal relationship between teachers’ engagement with writing workshops and students’ writing outcomes was spurious. They, therefore, developed further research building on this learning.

Knowledge and capabilities

The role of knowledge and capability is central to the articles in this category. In Australia, Macken-Horarik ( 2012 ) reported on the introduction of a national curriculum for English. This article drew on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) by investigating the potential of Halliday’s notion of grammatics for understanding students’ writing as acts of creative meaning in context. Macken-Horarik ( 2012 ) argued that students needed to know deeply about language so that they could make creative decisions with their writing. She outlined that a ‘good enough’ grammatics would assist teachers in becoming comfortable with ‘playful developments in students’ texts and to foster their control of literate discourse’ (p. 179).

A project carried out by Edwards-Groves in 2011 highlights the role of knowledge about digital technologies in writing practices. 17 teachers in primary classrooms in Australia were asked to use particular digital technologies with their students when constructing classroom texts. Findings showed that an extended perspective on what counts as writing including the writing process was needed. Results revealed that collaborative methods when constructing diverse texts required teachers to rethink pedagogies towards writing instruction and what they consider as writing. It was argued that technology can be used to enhance creative possibilities for students in the form of new and dynamic texts. In particular, it was noted that teachers and students should be aware that digital technologies can both constrain and/or enable text creation in the classroom depending on a number of variables including knowledge and understanding, locating resources and logistical issues such as connectivity and reliability.

In addition, Mendelowitz’s ( 2014 ) study argued that nurturing teachers’ own creativity assisted their ability to teach writing more generally. She noted several ‘interrelated variables and relationships that still need to be given attention in order to gain a more holistic understanding of the challenges of teaching creative writing’ (p. 164). According to Mendelowitz ( 2014 ), elements that impacted on these challenges include teachers’ school writing histories, conceptualisations of imagination, classroom discourses, and pedagogy. Documenting teachers’ work through interviews and classroom observations by the researcher, the study found that teachers need to be able to define imagination and imaginative writing and know what strategies work best with their students. She noted that the teacher’s approaches to teaching writing ‘powerfully shaped by the interactions between their conceptualisations and enactments of imaginative writing pedagogy’ (p. 181) and that these may either limit or create a space for students to be more creative with their writing.

Such Personal Emergent Properties show that individual attributes of both teachers and students are important in learning creative writing. The next section of the paper explores the articles that shared various structural and cultural properties.

Structural emergent properties

In the subset of structural emergent properties, we mainly identified pedagogical approaches for creative writing that explored primary school learning and teaching (Christianakis, 2011a ; Christianakis, 2011b ; Coles, 2017 ; DeFauw, 2018 ; Hall & Grisham-Brown, 2011 ; Portier et al., 2019 ; Rumney et al., 2016 ; Sears, 2012 ; Steele, 2016 ; Southern et al., 2020 ; Yoo & Carter, 2017 ). These pedagogical approaches were aimed at addressing issues related to personal emergent properties such as motivation and engagement, and confidence in writing. The two categories of writing pedagogies were those that engaged professional authors and artists in teaching about creative writing, and the approaches that involved play(ful) activities, and use of visual arts, and drama.

Engaging professional authors and artists

Interestingly, many of the studies used literary forms and/or professional creative authors to spike interest and motivation in the students. Coles’ ( 2017 ) study, for example, used a garden-themed poetry writing project to support 9–10-year-old children’s creative writing in a London primary school. The 5-week project partnered with a professional creative writing organisation that facilitated the Ministry for Stories (MoS) writing centres across the USA. The study found that the social relationships created through this partnership allowed for a more inclusive and socially generative model of creativity. This meant that teachers should not just include creative aspects in assessment rubrics but rather recognise that creativity is encouraged through imagination and working with others. The researchers found improvements in the children’s participation in classroom writing activities as well as diversity in the ways they expressed their writing. The approach valued ‘rich means of expression rather than a set of rules to be learnt’ (p. 396). They also acknowledged issues associated with school–community partnerships including the sustainability of the practice.

Similarly, Rumney et al. ( 2016 ) found that using creative multimodal activities increased students’ confidence and motivation for writing. The study implemented the Write Here project with over 900 children in 12 primary and secondary schools. The study involved the children visiting local art galleries to work with professional authors and artists. Case studies were presented about pre-writing activities, the actual gallery work and post-gallery follow-up sessions. It aimed to improve students’ social development and literacy outcomes through diverse learning activities such as visual art and play in different contexts such as art galleries and classrooms. Like Coles’ ( 2017 ) study, this project showed that creative activities (e.g. talking about and acting out pictures; using story maps; backwards writing and planning) engaged students more than just teaching skills.

In addition, DeFauw’s ( 2018 ) study had student-centred learning and leadership at the core when working with a children’s book author for one year. The collaboration involved three face-to-face sessions with the author as well as online communication through blog posts. Data included recorded interactions, readings and pre and post interviews with teachers ( n  = 9), students ( n  = 36), and the author. The partnership showed that students’ interest was activated and sustained due to the situational context as well as the extended time given to students to interact with the author. The project improved students’ interest in and motivation to write as a result of engaging with authors and hearing about their own experience and writing strategies. It also found that teachers gained more confidence to support students’ exploration of writing in more creative ways. The creative pedagogies were also used in addressing issues related to creative writing outcomes for students, including teachers’ lack of confidence about pedagogies (Southern et al., 2020 ). Through a creative social enterprise approach, the authors facilitated professional development and learning involving artist-led activities for students. The program called Zip Zap had been implemented in schools in Wales and England, and data were collected through focus groups with teachers, students, and parents/carers. Observations of some of the professional development workshops were also video recorded. Third space theory was used to describe the collaborative practice between educators and artists that supported students’ creative writing outcomes. It was noteworthy that involving ‘creative’ practitioners largely focussed on the specific strategies that could be used in classrooms, to which our next section now turns.

Play(ful) activities, visual arts, and drama

Much research explores how to best support students who find writing difficult. Sears’ research ( 2012 ) is a case in point. The author shared how visual arts may be an effective way to improve struggling students with writing. They argued that the visual arts can provide ways of ‘accessing and expressing [student] ideas and ultimately opening a world of creative possibilities’ (p. 17). In the study, six third-grade students engaged with drawing and painting as pre-writing strategies, leading to the creation of poems based on the artworks. The students’ final poems were assessed and showed improved knowledge of all 6 technical categories in writing: ideas, organisation, fluency, voice, word choice, and conventions. The author also argued that students’ motivation to write increased as a result of the visual art activities.

A study by Portier et al. ( 2019 ) investigated approaches to teaching writing that were motiving and engaging for students. Involving 10 northern rural communities in Canada, the project implemented collaborative, play(ful) learning activities alongside sixteen teachers and their students. Interestingly, the study, like many others in our review, found a disconnect ‘between the achievement of curricular objectives and the implementation of play(ful) learning activities’ (p. 20); an approach valued in early childhood education. The students were supported through action research projects in creating texts with different purposes. Students’ motivation as well as samples of work were analysed and showed that student interest areas and collaborative approaches benefited both teachers and students. Further research on how reflexive thinking might have influenced these benefits is recommended.

Similarly, Lee and Enciso ( 2017 ) highlighted the importance of motivation and engagement in their study. In a collaboration with Austin Theatre Alliance, Lee and Enciso ( 2017 ) investigated how dramatic approaches to teaching, such as through expanded imagination and improvisation, can improve students’ story writing. They argued that the students’ motivation to write was also increased. The study was carried out through a controlled quasi-experimental study over 8 weeks of story-writing and drama-based programs. 29 third-grade classrooms in various schools, located in an urban district of Texas, were involved. The study also pre- and post-tested the students’ writing self-efficacy through story building. The study found that students were more able to use their cultural knowledge such as ‘culturally formed repertoires of language and experience to explore and express new understandings of the world and themselves…’ (p. 160) for creative writing purposes but needed more quality resources to support opportunities such as the Literacy for Life program. A most important finding was that for children who experience poverty, drama-based activities developed and led by teaching artists were extremely powerful and allowed the students to express themselves in entertaining ways. We do note that ‘entertainment’ and or engagement might mean different things for different students so reflexive approaches to deciding what these are would be necessary.

Steele’s ( 2016 ) study also looked at supporting teachers’ work in the classroom. Involving 6 out of 20 teacher workshop participants in Hawaii, this exploratory case study utilised observations, interview, and portfolio analyses of teacher and student work. Findings from the study showed that some teachers relished moving away from everyday ‘typical’ practice and increased student voice and choice. Other teachers, however, found it difficult to take risks and hence respond to student needs and ideas.

Dobson and Stephenson’s ( 2020 ) study focussed on the professional development of primary school teachers using drama to develop creative writing across the curriculum. The project was sponsored by the United Kingdom Literacy Association and ran for two terms in a school year. Researchers based the research on a collaborative approach involving academics and four teachers working with theatre educators to use process drama. Data sets included lesson observations, notes taken during learning conversations, and interviews with the teachers. The findings showed that three of the four teachers resisted some of the methods used such as performance; resulting in a lack of child-centred learning. The remaining teacher could take on board innovative practice, which the researchers attributed to his disposition. The study argued that these teachers, while a small participant group, needed more support in feeling confident in implementing new and creative approaches to teaching writing.

The final study, identified as addressing creative pedagogies for creative writing, was carried out by Yoo and Carter ( 2017 ) as professional development for teachers. Data included teacher survey responses and field notes taken by the researchers at each workshop (note: number of workshops and participants is unknown). The program aimed to investigate how emotions play a role in teachers’ work when teaching creative writing. The researchers found that intuitive joint construction of meaning was important to meet the needs of both primary and secondary teachers. A community of practice was established to support teachers’ identities as writers (see also Cremin et al., 2020 ). Findings showed that teachers who already identified as writers engaged more positively in the workshop.

These studies presented some approaches for teachers to consider how to teach creative writing. For example, the need to value unique spaces for students to write, including authentic connections with people and places outside of school environments was shared. Further, the need for quality stimuli and time for writing was acknowledged. Several other studies identified that blended teaching approaches to support student learning outcomes in the area of creative writing is important for schools and teachers to consider. We do acknowledge there may be other methods available to support students in creative writing, however, understanding what types of SEPs are impacting on teaching creative writing is an important step in determining improvements in schools.

Cultural emergent properties

Christianakis ( 2011a , 2011b ) wrote two papers about children’s creative text development with an emphasis on the cultural aspects. The first was an ethnographic study across 8 months with a year five class in East San Francisco Bay. The study included audio recording the students’ conversations and analysing over 900 samples of work. In the classroom, students were involved in a range of meaning-making practices including those that were arts-based and multimodal. The conversations with the students involved the researcher asking questions such: tell me more about this drawing, how did you come up with the idea? or why did you make this choice? The study found that there was a need for schools to reconceptualise the teaching of writing ‘to include not only orthographic symbols, but also the wide array of communicative tools that children bring to writing’ (p. 22). The author argued that unless corresponding institutional practices and ideologies were interrogated then improved practice was unlikely.

Christianakis’ ( 2011b ) second article, from the same project, explored more specifically the creation of hybrid rap poems by the children. She explicated how educators needed to negotiate and challenge dominant practices in primary classroom literacy learning. Like many studies before, a strong recommendation was to be more inclusive of youth popular cultures and culturally relevant literacies for students to be more engaged in creative writing practices. For Christianakis, culturally relevant literacies meant practices that embraced diversity in class and race and accounted for, and challenged, the dominant hegemonic curriculum that ‘privileges a traditional canon’ (p. 1140).

In summary, we found several themes under PEPs that could be considered for further research including those outlined in Table 3 below.

Discussion and implications for classroom practice

From this systematic literature review, several positions were exposed about the personal, structural, and cultural influences (Archer, 2012 ; Ryan, 2014 ) on teaching creative writing. These include limited teacher and student knowledge of what constitutes creative writing (Personal Emergent Properties [PEPs]), and no shared understanding or expectation in relation to creative writing pedagogy in their context (Cultural Emergent Properties [CEPs]). The negative impact of standardised testing and trending approaches on how teachers teach writing (CEP; Structural Emergent Properties [SEPs]) could also be considered (see AUTHORS 1 and 3, 2014 for example). In addition, teachers’ poor self-efficacy in terms of teaching creative writing (PEP); a paucity of quality professional development about teaching and assessing creative writing (SEP); and issues related to the sustainability of creative approaches to teach writing (SEP; CEP) need to be considered by leaders and teachers in schools. Our literature review advances knowledge about creative writing by revealing two interconnected areas that affect creative writing practices. Findings suggest that a parallel focus on personal conditions and contextual conditions—including structural and cultural—has the potential to improve creative writing in general. Below, we share some implications and recommendations for improved practice by focussing on both (1) personal views about creative writing and (2) the structural and cultural aspects that affect creative writing practices at schools.

Focussing on personal views about creative writing

School leaders and teachers must clearly define what creative writing is, what key skills constitute creative writing.

From our search it was apparent that schools and their educators often do not have a clear idea or indeed a shared idea as to what constitutes creative writing in relation to their own context. Without a well-defined focus for creative writing students may find it difficult to know what is required in classroom tasks and assessment. In addition, when planning for creative writing in school programs, teachers should consider flexible learning opportunities and choice for their students when developing their creative writing skills. Such flexibility should also involve choice of topic, ways of working (e.g. peer collaboration, individual activities etc.), and open discussions led by students in the classroom as shown throughout this paper. It would also be important for leaders and teachers to interrogate current approaches to teaching writing which we argued in the introduction to be formulaic and genre based.

Improve teacher self-efficacy, confidence, and content knowledge in teaching writing

Many of our studies showed that teachers who lacked confidence about writing themselves had less knowledge and skills to teach writing than those that may have participated in projects encouraging ‘teachers as writers’. Further, improved knowledge of grammar (as highlighted in Macken-Horarik’s, 2012 work); talk about writing in the classroom and other spaces (Cremin et al., 2020 ) and the writing process (see Ryan, 2014 ) could assist teachers in becoming more confident to take risks in the classroom with their students. Above all being playful about writing through extended conversations and practices is required.

Focussing on the structural and cultural resources

Improve training and further professional development and learning about teaching and assessing creative writing.

In order for the above personal attributes to be improved, further professional development and learning are required. Many of the papers presented throughout this review demonstrated the powerful impact of immersive professional learning for teachers. Working alongside professional authors, researchers, drama practitioners, visual artists, poets, for example, provided positive opportunities for teachers to learn about writing but also to feel more confident to teach it without imposing strict boundaries on students. We argue for professional development to be both formal and informal including such approaches as coaching and mentoring in the classroom. Demonstrated practice alongside the teacher is also recommended. This, in turn, would address the ongoing issue of creative writing being stifled for students in the classroom context.

Consider sustainability of creative pedagogic approaches and spaces for creative writing in curriculum planning

Many of the studies throughout this paper shared creative approaches to teaching writing but there were concerns that some of these methods may not be sustainable. It is important for school leaders to support the work of teachers in relation to teaching creative writing. We acknowledge that there is increasing uncertainty and scrutiny surrounding teachers’ everyday work (Knight, 2020 ), however, continued engagement in learning about and participating in creative pedagogy for writing is highly recommended. In addition, the studies suggested the provision of appropriate and authentic spaces in which students could creatively write and these often included spaces outside of the normal classroom environment and arts-based approaches implemented in such spaces. Teachers should be encouraged to collaborate and take risks rather than follow predetermined strategies for every lesson. A whole of school practice can be developed with important conversations about the ideologies that inform the school’s approach to writing.

Schools should not stifle creativity in the classroom due to the infiltration of standardised and/or trending approaches to teaching and assessing writing

It is evident that pedagogical approaches to teaching writing have been stifled by more formulaic methods aiming to meet expectations of standardised tests despite other evidence showing the benefits of more productive, engaging, and creative approaches to teaching writing as highlighted above. This can be particularly the case for students from non-dominant backgrounds where writing about cultural and life experiences through innovative practices has been proven to empower their voices (Johnson, 2021 ). The research shows that when students are offered rigid structures of texts, no choice of genres, and indeed word lists, their own decisions about writing are diminished (Ryan & Barton, 2013 ). It has been proven that students’ engagement and motivation to write can increase when they are able to write directly from their own experience or in social groups. It is therefore recommended that school leaders and teachers reconsider their ideologies about writing and explicitly indicate the importance of real-world purposes for writing—not just formulised, quick writing as usually included in external tests—but also those that encourage students’ growth in imagination, creativity, and innovative thought.

This systematic review used a lens of reflexivity to situate writing as a process of active and creative design whereby students make conscious decisions about their writing, with guidance from their teachers. As explained, we see creative writing as writing that engages a reader and, therefore, requires knowledge of authorial voice and appropriate word choice. This involves reflexive decisions relating to personal, structural, and cultural emergent properties. Predominant in the literature was the striking influence of CEPs or the values and expectations ascribed to writing, which in turn influence the strategies and resources (SEPs) and the experiences and motivations of students and teachers in the classroom (PEPs). Writing is about more than a series of perfectly formed sentences in a recognisable structure, which dominates conceptions of writing through high-stakes testing globally. It is about engagement with the expressive self, emergent identities, and relationships to places and people and above all communicating to and/or entertaining a reader. Without quality education in creative writing, society is at risk of losing an art form that is important for cultural practice and expression (Watson, 2016 ).

We do foresee several limitations with such a review, largely related to the positive nature of the studies in relation to creative approaches to teaching writing as well as the relatively small numbers of participants in some of the studies. Most of the studies reported favourably on the approaches taken by teachers to influence student motivation towards writing with limited comments about adverse effects. In terms of contributions, the notion that students need to draw on creative thought and ideas when writing means that teachers and leaders must think about diverse ways to teach writing. We argue, on the basis of the findings, that inquiry-based and reflexive professional learning projects about creativity are crucial for primary classrooms: what creativity means in different contexts and for different writers; how it is enabled; and the decisions and actions that emerge when creative and reflexive design guide our approach to classroom writing. Without quality knowledge and understanding of what creative writing is and how it is taught, we would be at risk of diminishing students’ self-expression and ability to communicate meaning to others in literary forms.

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Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. The project that informed this systematic review was on the teaching of writing and funded by the Australian Research Council. The views expressed here are in no way reflective of the ARC.

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Barton, G., Khosronejad, M., Ryan, M. et al. Teaching creative writing in primary schools: a systematic review of the literature through the lens of reflexivity. Aust. Educ. Res. 51 , 1311–1330 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-023-00641-9

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AWP Releases Its 2015 Survey of Creative Writing Programs

March 25, 2016.

Summarizing responses to AWP’s 2014–15 survey from 515 administrators at both undergraduate and graduate programs of creative writing, this report reflects the continued growth and evolution of programs, which now feature characteristics and tracks that were nonexistent or rare in the early development of creative writing as an academic discipline. AWP’s online Guide to Writing Programs catalogs 972 programs. Only 13 programs (most of them newly established) comprised AWP when our association began operations in 1967. As the programs grew in number, curriculum and areas of specialization became more various. Today, both faculty and students work in a wider range of literary genres, and more types of classes complement creative writing workshops and seminars in literature. The student population has also grown more diverse. Most residential graduate programs have now operated for more than twenty years, and the typical low-residency graduate program has operated for more than ten years.

Growth. The most robust growth in programs was reported among the undergraduate programs. Over the past five years, AA programs grew from 0.4 students to 13.5, BA from 12.3 to 22.0, and BFA from 20.0 to 30.0. Growth at the graduate level was modest in comparison to undergraduate programs. Full-residency MFA programs grew from 26.3 to 29.0 total enrolled students, low-residency MFA from 22.0 to 28.5, and PhD from 17.8 to 19.5. Only MA programs grew smaller, from 16.0 students to 11.5.

Enrollments. By program type, BFA, AA, and BA programs are most likely to report a net increase in total student enrollment over the previous year, as a net of 35%, 31%, and 30% in each category of these programs report a substantial or slight increase. 30% of full-residency MFA programs noted slight or substantial increases in enrollment, while 28% of them noted slight or substantial decreases in enrollment. A larger percentage of low-residency programs, 46%, reported slight or substantial increases in enrollment, while 34% reported slight or substantial declines in enrollment.

Applications & Selectivity. Regarding the number of applications received from prospective students, each category of programs had more programs that reported gains than those that reported declines. The largest margins between programs reporting gains and those reporting losses are as follows: BFA (+39%), PhD (+35%), and AA programs (+33%). They are also up for BA (+27%) and full-residency MFA programs (+17%), and they are up slightly for MA and low-residency MFA programs. Selectivity has risen most for PhD (+38%), MFA low- (+33%) and full-residency programs (+34%). It has risen slightly for AA (+10%), BA (+9%), and BFA programs (13%) and declined for MA programs (-11%).

Student Demographics by Race . Across all types of creative writing programs, the proportion of white students is a mean of 75% overall, with an average of 9.2% black non-Hispanic, 6.3% Hispanic, 4.1% Asian, 0.5% American Indian/Alaskan Native/Pacific Islander, and 4.5% mixed-race.

Minority Student Recruitment. The majority of full-residency MFA programs (67%) use fellowships for minority recruitment along with tuition waivers (57%) and stipends (52%). 30% use additional teaching assistantships, and 28% use incentives from the dean’s office.

Median Age. Among full-residency MFA students 27.3 is the median age, 35.4 for low-residency MFA students, and 30.0 for PhD students.

Graduate Student Assistantships. The mean among full-residency MFA programs indicates that 16.7 of enrolled students were awarded teaching assistantships. Since full-residency programs have a mean of 31 enrolled students, slightly more than half of the students enrolled in the average full-residency program receive teaching assistantships, while another two to three students receive research assistantships. For MFA and PhD programs, the budget of graduate assistantships increased among more programs of each type than those that suffered budget cuts. 42% of full-residency MFA programs report slight or substantial increases in their budgets for assistantships. 18% of low-residency MFA programs and 50% of PhD programs also report increases in their assistantship budgets. Decreases in assistantship budgets were reported at 15% of full-residency MFA programs, 3% of low-residency MFA programs, and 27% of PhD programs.

Tenured Positions. At public colleges and universities, across all levels of higher education, programs saw a decline in tenured and tenure-track faculty from 6.1 faculty members five years ago to 5.2 at the time of this survey. At private institutions, program tenure-track faculty grew from 3.8 five years ago to 4.6. For residential MFA programs, the numbers of tenured faculty held relatively steady, from 5.9 five years ago to 6.0 currently. The majority of graduate programs report no change in number of current tenured faculty compared to the previous year.

Career Credentials. 67% of residential MFA programs have no preference between faculty with MFAs and faculty with PhDs (as the record of publication is the most important credential). 67% of PhD programs strongly prefer faculty with PhDs rather than MFAs. 27% of full-residency MFA programs prefer their faculty to hold the MFA, and the largest portion of their faculty hold the MFA: 3.5 among their 6.6 tenure-track faculty members, while 1.3 hold the PhD but no MFA, 0.9 have both PhD and MFA degrees, and another 0.9 hold an MA. AA programs express a slight net preference for PhDs while BA and MA programs express a stronger net preference for PhDs, and BFA programs express a slight net preference for MFAs.

Faculty Work Load. Tenure-track creative writing faculty annually teach, in AA programs, 2.5 writing classes and 4.0 other courses; in BFA programs, 4.0 and 2.9; in residential MFA programs, 3.2 and 0.9; in low-residency programs, 3.0 and 1.7; and in PhD programs, 2.4 and 1.8. At the graduate level, in addition to teaching, a faculty member typically serves as an advisor to 3 to 4 theses.

Workshop Class Size. The average class size varied by program type: 14.5 students for AA programs; 14.6 BA; 13.5 BFA; 11.5 MA; 10.2 full-residency MFA; 6.5 low-residency MFA; and 9.5 PhD.

New Areas of Specialization. Programs show greater diversity in genres taught. Screenwriting, playwriting, hybrid forms, digital or graphic narrative, writing for young adults, and children’s books have joined poetry, fiction, and nonfiction as areas of specialization.

Trends. The survey indicates greater variety in the courses offered by the creative writing program. Programs now are more likely to complement writing workshops and courses in literature with these courses: literary editing (27%) and publishing (25%) were most common, followed by pedagogy or the teaching of creative writing (15%) and graphic and digital storytelling (12%), and literary citizenship (6%).

Professional Development for Students. A majority of graduate programs offer their students coursework in academic job searches, vita preparation, pedagogy, publication, editing and non-academic careers: 69% of full-residency MFA programs and 79% of low-residency MFA programs.

Administration

More Program Autonomy. More MFA programs have greater autonomy. In the 1990s, almost all MFA programs operated as part of an English department. Now, 8% of MFA programs operate as stand-alone units that report to a college, while 12% operate in another setting outside the English department. 10% of PhD programs operate in another setting as well.

Program Directors. The typical program director is a faculty member who receives a reduction in annual course teaching load of 1 to 2 courses per year as well as extra compensation. The graduate program director has served 5 to 6 years in the role. He or she is a faculty member in 96% of the programs. Full-residency MFA programs pay the program director an additional $2,367.

Tuition. The majority of graduate programs reported slight increases in tuition compared to the previous year: 67% of residential MFA programs and PhD programs and 74% of low-residency programs. The majority of undergraduate programs reported slight increases as well: AA 63%, BA 76%, and BFA 68%. The total cost of degree (tuition and fees) was reported as $20,180 for full-residency MFA programs and $31,184 for low-residency programs.

Program Finances. Low-residency programs were most likely to see slight increases in their budgets. The following portions of programs reported such increases: AA 24%, BA 16%, BFA 24%, MA 24%, full-residency MFA 25%, low-residency MFA 41%, and PhD 20%.

Faculty Salaries. Responses to our requests for specific financial data in key areas were too few for us to report representative data. Program directors, generally, did not show familiarity with their programs’ annual operating budgets, salaries of their creative writing faculty, or the size of endowments that serve the creative writing program only. As a result, our data sets in these particular areas are problematic. Open-ended comments suggest that budgetary matters are mainly the purview of the Department Chair and not the Program Director.

Response Rate. The general response of 515 administrators provided a representative sample for each type of program. More than half of all of AWP’s MFA, BFA, and AA programs responded to the survey. Please see the table of detailed findings for the breakout of response rates on page 72. Please also see our website’s Guide to Writing Programs for more detailed information on our programs.

Future AWP Surveys. AWP has committed to a rotation of annual surveys. In the fall of 2016, we will survey students and alumni of creative writing programs; in 2017, faculty; in 2018, individual members of AWP; in 2019, graduate programs; and in 2020, undergraduate programs.

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• Creative Writing (BA) Portfolio Process
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About Creative Writing at ASU

The Creative Writing Program encourages all interested students, regardless of their field of study, to join our community of writers through

• beginning and intermediate workshops in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction,
• diverse special topics courses, 
• internships with Hayden’s Ferry Review, ASU’s national literary journal, 
• and by participating in the many exciting writing events held on campus. 

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Interested students who have already taken the beginning and intermediate workshops in their genre of specialty, and who are committed to continuing their study of Creative Writing, have an opportunity to develop their skills in supportive, highly focused workshops through the Creative Writing Concentration. 

Please note that acceptance into the Creative Writing Concentration is restricted. Students must submit a portfolio for review and be offered a seat in the advanced workshops.

Students interested in pursuing more than one genre at the 400-level must check with their academic advisor to ensure that the necessary courses will fit their degree plan. Dual-genre students must submit two portfolios—one in each genre—to be considered for admittance into advanced coursework in both areas. 

Students pursuing the Creative Writing Concentration must either have selected as their major the bachelor's in English with a concentration in creative writing upon being admitted to ASU or, after entering the university, meet with an English advisor to change to this major and concentration. Non English-majors will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

• To complete the concentration, English majors completing the concentration in creative writing must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher in their major.
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• Transfer students must seek advisement as to whether they will be able to successfully fulfill the creative writing concentration requirements.
• PLEASE NOTE:  Students admitted to begin 400-level coursework through Portfolio Review will start their coursework in the following semester. Workshop classes cannot be taken simultaneously.  
• Students are only allowed to apply for the creative writing concentration twice during their time at ASU.

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Your portfolio should include:

• COVER SHEET
• Poetry Sample: 5 poems
• Fiction Sample: 1 piece of fiction of at least 5 double-spaced pages and not longer than 10 double-spaced pages
• Creative Nonfiction Sample: 1 piece of creative nonfiction of at least 5 double-spaced pages and not longer than 10 double-spaced pages 
• Discuss your interest in the relevant genre
• What do you hope to gain from the creative writing concentration
• Submit an essay on a single poem, short story, or short creative nonfiction work, focusing on an element of craft you identify in the piece, how that craft element works within the piece, and how this aspect of craft is pertinent to your own writing.
• Please provide textual examples (quotations) from the creative piece in your essay and make sure to closely read/explain their relevance. 
• A link will be provided each semester to students enrolled in the major and/or registered for the prerequisite creative writing workshops each term to submit for Portfolio Review. Specific submission dates will be included. 
• Fall: October-November
• Spring: March-April  

English with Creative Writing BA (Hons)

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This programme allows you to take a range of innovative creative writing modules – including screenwriting and writing for gaming - to complement the study of English writing throughout the world. You will graduate with a wide range of creative and applied professional skills.

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We recognise that there will be differences of opportunity varying by school and college. As not all students will have the opportunity to sit AS Level exams, it is unlikely we will include AS Level grades in any offer we choose to make. Where students have completed an AS Level subject, we will consider this as part of the holistic assessment of the application and it could be used to form part of our final decision at Confirmation stage.

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If you do not qualify for direct entry, you may wish to take a foundation programme first. These programmes are designed to prepare students for entry to City's undergraduate courses.

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A typical offer for an Access applicant would be:

• Access to HE course with 60 credits overall to include 45 credits at Level 3 with 24 Level 3 credits at Distinction and 21 Level 3 credits at Merit.
• The Access qualification should be supplemented by at least a grade 6 (B) in Mathematics and grade 4 (C) in English Language at GCSE.

The Zimbabwe GCE A Level is considered on a grade for grade basis with GCE A Levels.

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Tot Nghiep Pho Thong Trung Hoc (Upper Secondary School Graduation Certificate) students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

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Certificate of Complete General Secondary Education.

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Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the US equivalent required.

The equivalents provided are intended as a guide only and individual applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis.

The following A-level equivalences to Advanced Placements will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = Advanced Placements 555
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Thanawaya (General Secondary Education Certificate Examination)- students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

Secondary certificate.

Mathayom Suksa 6 (Senior High School Leaving Certificate) students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE)

Senior High School Leaving Certificate students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

Junior College Diploma

The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Switzerland

Federal Maturity Certificate/Maturitatzeugnis/Cantonal Maturity Certificate. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

International Students from within the European Economic Area (EEA) may need to apply for a Student visa or entry clearance to come to the UK to study if they do not have EU Settlement Status.

• Students on courses of less than six months.

Avgångsbetyg / Slutbetyg från Gymnasieskola. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Sri Lankan General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level).

Considered equivalent to UK A-levels on a like for like basis.

Título de Bachillerato (LOGSE)

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the Polish equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to Título de Bachillerato (LOGSE) will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = 8
• A-level AAB = 7.8
• A-level ABB = 7.6
• A-level BBB = 7.4
• A-level BBC = 7.2
• A-level BCC = 7.

Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

South Korea

Korean High School Diploma students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

South Africa

The National Senior Certificate will be accepted for direct entry to certain undergraduate courses normally

Maturitetno spričevalo (Matura Certificate). The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Vysvedčenie o maturitnej skúške (Secondary School Leaving Certificate). The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Singapore-Cambridge GCE A-levels considered equivalent to UK A-levels on a like-for-like basis.

Polytechnic Diploma students considered for year 1 or year 2 entry on a case-by-case basis depending on subjects taken and CGPA.

Please contact Admissions to confirm your eligibility and the requirements for your course of interest.

Secondary School Leaving Diploma/Matura. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Saudi Arabia

Thanawaya (General Secondary Education Certificate) - students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

The Rwanda Advanced Certificate of Education (A-level)

The Attestat o Srednam Obrazov

Diplomă de Bacalaureat. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Diploma/Certificado Nível Secundário de Educação. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the rquirements for your course of interest.

Swiadectwo Dojrzałości / Matura.

The following A-level equivalences to Swiadectwo Dojrzałości / Matura will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = Swiadectwo Dojrzałości / Matura 80% average from 3 extended subjects
• A-level AAB = Swiadectwo Dojrzałości / Matura 78% average from 3 extended subjects
• A-level ABB = Swiadectwo Dojrzałości / Matura 76% average from 3 extended subjects
• A-level BBB = Swiadectwo Dojrzałości / Matura 74% average from 3 extended subjects
• A-level BBC = Swiadectwo Dojrzałości / Matura 72% average from 3 extended subjects
• A-level BCC = Swiadectwo Dojrzałości / Matura 70% average from 3 extended subjects.

Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC).

Thanawaya (General Education Diploma) - students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

Vitnemål fra den Videregående Skole (VVO). The exact requirements MAY differ between courses.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the Norwegian equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to Vitnemal will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = 5
• A-level AAB = 4.5
• A-level ABB = 4.5
• A-level BBB = 4
• A-level BBC = 4
• A-level BCC = 3.5

Senior School Certificate/West African Senior School Certificate

Netherlands

Voorbereidend Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs (VWO). The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

The Moroccan Diplôme du Baccalauréat/Attestation du Baccalauréat

Titulo Académico de Bachiller / Diploma de Bachiller / Bachillerato General - students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

The CIE A Level sat in Mauritius is considered on a grade for grade basis with GCE A Levels sat in the UK.

Advanced Matriculation and Matriculation Certificate Examination are comparable to A Levels with the same grading system as UK A levels.

STPM / UEC.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the Malaysian equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to STPM will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = STPM AAA
• A-level AAB = STPM AAB
• A-level ABB = STPM ABB
• A-level BBB = STPM BBB
• A-level BBC = STPM BBC
• A-level BCC = STPM BCC.

The following A-level equivalences to UEC will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = UEC AAAAAA
• A-level AAB = UEC AAAABB
• A-level ABB = UEC AABBBB
• A-level BBB = UEC BBBBBB
• A-level BBC = UEC BBBBCC
• A-level BCC = UEC BBCCCC.

Diplôme de Fin d'Etudes Secondaires. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Brandos Atestatas (Certificate of Maturity). The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Lebanese Baccalaureate - students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

Atestats par visparejo videjo izglitibu (Certificate of General Secondary Education). The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses.

Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE)

Certificate of Completed Secondary Education.

Thanawaya (Certificate of General Secondary Education) - students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

Kotogakko Sotsugyo Shomeisho (Upper Secondary School Leaving Certificate) students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

Senmonshi (vocational degree), Jun-Gakushi (associate degree) and Tanki Daigaku Shuryo Shoshois (Junior College Certificate of Graduation) considered for direct entry on a case-by-case basis. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Diploma di Esame di Stato.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the Italian equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to Diploma di Esame di Stato will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = Diploma di Esame di Stato 85%
• A-level AAB = Diploma di Esame di Stato 84%
• A-level ABB = Diploma di Esame di Stato 80%
• A-level BBB = Diploma di Esame di Stato 78%
• A-level BBC = Diploma di Esame di Stato 76%
• A-level BCC = Diploma di Esame di Stato 74%.

Irish Leaving Certificate. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Surat Tanda Tamat Belajar Sekolah Menengah Umum Tingkat Atas (Senior Secondary School Certificate of Completion) students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

Diploma III & IV students considered for year 1 entry on a case-by-case basis. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the Indian equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to HSC XII will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = CBSE & ICSE Exam Board HSC XII 80%
• A-level AAB = CBSE & ICSE Exam Board HSC XII 78%
• A-level ABB = CBSE & ICSE Exam Board HSC XII 76%
• A-level BBB = CBSE & ICSE Exam Board HSC XII 74%
• A-level BBC = CBSE & ICSE Exam Board HSC XII 72%
• A-level BCC = CBSE & ICSE Exam Board HSC XII 70%

Stúdentspróf. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Érettségi. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the Hong Kong equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to HKDSE will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = HKSDE 555 (excluding Liberal Studies and Chinese)
• A-level AAB = HKSDE 555 (excluding Liberal Studies and Chinese)
• A-level ABB = HKSDE 554 (excluding Liberal Studies and Chinese)
• A-level BBB = HKSDE 554 (excluding Liberal Studies and Chinese)
• A-level BBC = HKSDE 544 (excluding Liberal Studies and Chinese)
• A-level BCC = HKSDE 544 (excluding Liberal Studies and Chinese).

Greek Apolytirion. Please note that exact requirements may differ between courses.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the Greek equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to Greek Apolytirion will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = 18/20 plus; 18/20 in two PanHellenics
• A-level AAB = 18/20 plus; 17/20 in two PanHellenics

German Abitur.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the German equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to Abitur will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = Abitur 1.8
• A-level AAB = Abitur 2.0
• A-level ABB = Abitur 2.2
• A-level BBB = Abitur 2.4
• A-level BBC = Abitur 2.6
• A-level BCC = Abitur 2.8.

French Baccalaureate.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the French equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to French Baccalaureate will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = French Baccalaureate 15/20
• A-level AAB = French Baccalaureate 14/20
• A-level ABB = French Baccalaureate 13/20
• A-level BBB = French Baccalaureate 12.5/20
• A-level BBC = French Baccalaureate 12/20
• A-level BCC = French Baccalaureate 11.5/20.

Gümnaasiumi loputunnistus with the Riigieksamitunnistus (Secondary School Leaving Certificate with the State Examination Certificate).

Certificate of Nile International Secondary Education

Hojere Forberedelseseksamen (HF). The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Czech Republic

Vysvědčení o maturitní zkoušce / Maturita (Secondary School Leaving Certificate). The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses.

Apolytirion. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

The following A-level equivalences to Apolytirion will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = 19 (91 – 95)
• A-level AAB = 18.5 (88 – 90)
• A-level ABB = 18 (86 – 90)
• A-level BBB = 18 (86 – 90)
• A-level BBC = 17.5 (83 – 85).

Maturalna svjedodzba (Matura Certificate). The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Bachiller Académico/Technico

Senior High School Certificate students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course.

Gaokao students with exceptional grades considered for direct entry on a case-by-case basis. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Grade 12 high school graduation certificate / diploma. Please note that exact requirements may differ between provinces.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the Canadian equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to Canadian year 12 Diplomas will typically be applied:

• A-level AAA = 85% average across 5 best Grade 12 subjects
• A-level AAB = 80% average across 5 best Grade 12 subjects
• A-level ABB = 77% average across 5 best Grade 12 subjects
• A-level BBB = 75% average across 5 best Grade 12 subjects
• A-level BBC = 72% average across 5 best Grade 12 subjects
• A-level BCC = 70% average across 5 best Grade 12 subjects.

The Cameroonian GGCE is normally considered like for like with UK A levels.

Diploma Za Sredno Obrazovanie.

Please refer to the UK entry requirements for this course, check for any prerequisites such as compulsory or preferred subject areas, and use the following as an indication of the Bulgarian equivalent required.

The following A-level equivalences to Diploma Za Sredno Obrazovanie will typically be applied:

• A-level ABB = Diploma Za Sredno Obrazovanie 5.3 average and 5 in state exams
• A-level BBB = Diploma Za Sredno Obrazovanie 5.0 average and 4 in state exams
• A-level BBC = Diploma Za Sredno Obrazovanie 4.5 average and 4 in state exams
• A-level BCC = Diploma Za Sredno Obrazovanie 4.0 average and 4 in state exams
• A-level CCC = Diploma Za Sredno Obrazovanie 4.0 average and 4 in state exams.

Brunei-Cambridge GCE A-levels considered equivalent to UK A-levels on a like for like basis.

• Certificado de Conclusao de Ensino Médio
• Certificado de Conclusao de Segundo Grau

Botswana National qualifications

Diploma van Secundair Onderwijs/Certificat d'Enseignement Secondaire Supérieur.

General Secondary Education Certificate.

Reifeprufungszeugnis/Maturazeugnis. The exact requirements from the above qualification differ between courses. Please contact Admissions to confirm the requirements for your course of interest.

Titulo de Bachiller.

The Baccalaureat de l'Enseignement Secondaire

Diplome e Matures Shteterore (Diploma of State Matura). Students must successfully complete a recognised foundation course. Alternatively, IB, A Levels, or other European system will be considered.

If you are unable to find your country equivalents in the above list, City will consider other international qualifications on a case by case basis.

Please contact the Admissions team for more details.

English language requirements

If your first language is not English, we will require evidence of English language proficiency. Minimum requirements are:

English language programmes

Don’t meet the English language requirements? INTO City, University of London offers English language programmes to help prepare you for study at university. These intensive and flexible courses are designed to improve your English ability for entry to degree courses.

Why choose this course?

in London for student satisfaction in English studies three years in a row (NSS Survey 2022-2024)

Study in the heart of London, a global hub of literary creativity.

Explore your artistic side and learn how to write fiction and creative non-fiction, and for films, television and games.

• Course overview

Teaching and assessment

Fees and funding, how to apply, english with creative writing ba (hons) degree course overview.

This course is subject to approval for 2025 entry.

This programme builds on our international reputation in creative writing, media and the creative industries.

Your first year is shared with BA English. Throughout your degree you will study the written word across time and space, from Shakespeare to popular music, comic books to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

By the end of your studies, you will be able to communicate in different professional and critical forms, using the written and spoken word.

You will also develop a set of specialised and applied skills in contemporary forms of creative writing, from short stories and literary journalism to screenplays and game dialogue. You’ll graduate with a compelling portfolio of sample writings.

• Immerse yourself in world literature and study in Central London, which has inspired so many iconic stories.
• Learn how to write in a range of genres and voices, including screenplays, poetry, short stories, narrative non-fiction and gaming narrative.
• Develop applied creative skills in communication, persuasion, individuality, writing for different audiences, and awareness of different creative industry markets.
• Learn from a team of expert lecturers who are passionate about creativity and the written word.

Course content

Develop your own creative and professional skills while immersing yourself in the study of English in this three year-degree.

Year 1: Develop a thorough grounding in reading, writing, academic and creative skills. Encounter a range of texts from around the world, explore how creative writing represents issues like social justice, and develop your own skills in storytelling.

Year2: Take core modules in creative short fiction and screenplay writing. Deepen your understanding of writing in English by choosing from a range of modules focusing on global and English literature, publishing, writing for media and communications, and advertising.

Year 3: Take core modules in writing for gaming and long-form journalism. Choose from a range of options including contemporary approaches to writing in English, media, marketing and publishing. Cap your degree with an optional creative writing project.

Study abroad

As an Undergraduate student you can undertake a period of study abroad whilst completing the programme.

This is possible through the Exchange Programme, a year of study at one of our European and/or international partner universities via a sandwich year, which is undertaken between completing Programme Stage 2 and entering Programme Stage 3, extending the degree to four years.

The resulting degree title awarded would be: BA English with Study Abroad.

We have strong links with Universities such as:

• Curtin University
• University of Queensland
• Queensland University of Technology.

North America

• University of British Columbia
• Concordia University
• Northeastern University
• Toronto Metropolitan University.
• Koç University.

Your modules will be delivered using a combination of:

• Practical workshops
• Interactive sessions
• Small seminars
• Personal tutorials

Lectures will provide you with commentary and explanation of key content areas. Most modules also offer small seminars and workshops, where you can develop your understanding of key texts and ideas through discussion and debate as well as hone your practical and professional skills. This versatility of approach will not only facilitate discussion but allow you to generate your own content, with different readerships, forms and functions in mind.

Assessment methods

Your programme will be assessed via a range of coursework and practical assignments, which may include:

• Professional, reflective, and creative assignments and portfolios
• Group assignments, including projects, performances, and presentations
• Live showcase events.

Fees for year 2025/26

To be confirmed

International

The fees indicated are for undergraduate entry in the 2025/26 academic year only. Fees for future years may be subject to an inflationary increase in the region of 5%.

Funding options

Explore up-to-date information about funding options, available financial support and typical living costs .

• Fee waivers are available for this course.
• Means tested support is available for 2025/26 entry.

Additional expenses

Some of our degrees may involve additional expenses which are not covered by your tuition fees.  Find out more about additional expenses .

You will graduate with a unique blend of intellectual and creative skills.

Our employability-focused curriculum strongly emphasises the practical application of your skills in a professional context. You’ll have the opportunity to take a work placement module or year, apply for a year’s study abroad, or undertake shorter and intensive work placements.

Delivered through world-class teaching dedicated to enhancing your job prospects, this course prepares you for a range of possible career options, including:

• creative writing
• writing for film, television and other media including games
• advertising and marketing
• library and archival professions
• civil service.

More information on the Careers support available at City is available on our website.

Placement opportunities

As an English student at City, you will have the opportunity to take a second-year elective module, ‘Work Placement’. You may also apply to take a sandwich year between years two and three of your degree. Our careers team will help you secure a placement in the areas that meet your future ambitions.

Previous students have taken their placements in a wide range of sectors, including:

• Publishing (Penguin)
• Teaching Assistant (Secondary)
• Marketing (Intern at 11 Investors recruitment group)
• Theatre work (Chickenshed)
• Charity work (Oxfam books).

Applications for degree courses must be made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

You can apply through your school or college using the Apply system, which enables you to submit your application directly to the  UCAS website .

You can apply to up to five universities or institutions on the form. The UCAS code for City, University of London is C60 .

Please take care to enter the correct course code when applying, particularly for subjects with a Foundation year or with BEng (Hons) and MEng (Hons) or BSc (Hons) and MSci (Hons) options.

UCAS has implemented an 'invisibility of choices' policy so that, on the initial application and while you are receiving decisions, each institution can see only their entry and not those of other institutions you have chosen. This ensures that your application for a course at City is considered solely on your academic and personal qualities.

You should submit your completed application form to UCAS with a £27.50 application fee.

For enquiries about the admissions process at City, please contact our Admissions Office

Complete the Admissions enquiry form .

Call: +44 (0)20 7040 8716.

When to apply

Your application for entry in September 2025 should arrive at UCAS between September 2024 and 31 January 2025. Applications that arrive after 31 January 2025 will be considered only at City's discretion.

Contacting UCAS

Website: www.ucas.com

Address: Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), Rosehill, New Barn Lane, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL52 3LZ

• from inside the UK 0871 468 0468
• from outside the UK +44 (0)871 468 0468

For callers with hearing difficulties:

• from inside the UK use the Text Relay service on 18001 0871 468 0468
• from outside the UK dial +44 151 494 1260 (text phone) and then ask the operator to dial 0871 468 0468.

Our students

BA (Hons) English student Ruth’s insights

Ask a student

Want to find out more about student life? Chat with our student ambassadors and ask any question you have

Your studies are supported by a team of committed and enthusiastic teachers and researchers, experts in their chosen field. On occasion we also work with external professionals to enhance your learning and appreciation of the wider subject.

Dr Hetta Howes

Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature

• Department of Media, Culture and Creative Industries

Dr Minna Vuohelainen

Dr Sarah Jilani

Lecturer in English

What's happening

Nov  06

Postgraduate Open Evening

Join us at our Postgraduate Open Evening to learn more about our postgraduate courses and discover all the benefits of studying at City, University of London.

Wednesday, 6 th November 2024 , 17:00 – 19:00

Location: Northampton Square

Audience: Prospective students

Wednesday, 10 th January 2024

Stories shape our world as concretely as infrastructure

Dr Dominic Davies publishes new book The Broken Promise of Infrastructure, which investigates the cultural politics of infrastructure in Britain.

Friday, 10 th March 2023

‘Working with Words’ opens up career possibilities for English students

Careers-focused module boosts BA English students’ employability at City.

Related courses

Journalism ba (hons).

Train for a career in journalism with this hands on degree. Develop the skills you need to become a print, broadcast or online journalist, alongside research and critical thinking skills.

Award: Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Duration: 3 years (4 years with placement or study abroad year)

History BA (Hons)

Our fascinating three-year History BA Hons degree invites you to explore the events, force and ideas that have shaped modern and international history.

Useful links

• School of Communication & Creativity
• Creative writing and publishing at City, University of London
• English at City, University of London

Contact details

Undergraduate enquiries.

+44 (0)20 7040 8716

Admissions enquiries

WRITING SKILLS QUESTIONNAIRE

(taken from A Community of Writers by Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff)

Directions: You will benefit most from this questionnaire if you fill it out three times--at the beginning, middle and end of the course. This way you'll be able to see more about what changes are taking place. (The second and third times you use this form, you may want to cover your previous answers.)

When you complete the questionnaire at the beginning of the course, fill in the left-hand column of the blanks. In the middle of the course, use the middle column and at the end of the course, use the right-hand column of blanks.

Use Y, N, and S, for "Yes," "No," and "Sometimes." If you don't know the answer--which may often happen at the start of the course--use a question mark.

ATTITUDES TOWARD WRITING

COLLABORATION

AWARENESS AND CONTROL OF WRITING PROCESS

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) awareness and use. A prospective cross-sectional survey of U.S. medical students

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations USC Institute of Urology and Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California United States of America, AI Center at USC Urology, USC Institute of Urology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Project administration, Validation, Writing – original draft

Roles Formal analysis, Project administration, Writing – original draft

Affiliation Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Roles Investigation, Methodology, Project administration

Affiliations USC Institute of Urology and Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California United States of America, AI Center at USC Urology, USC Institute of Urology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Roles Investigation, Project administration

Affiliation California University of Science and Medicine, Colton, California, United States of America

Affiliation Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroid, Michigan, United States of America

Affiliation UT Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, Texas, United States of America

Affiliation Texas A&M School of Medicine, Bryan, Texas, United States of America

Affiliation Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, United States of America

Affiliation University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine, Kansas City, Missouri, United States of America

Affiliation Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America

Affiliation Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota, United States of America

Affiliation Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, Illinois, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

• Conner Ganjavi, 
• Michael Eppler, 
• Devon O’Brien, 
• Lorenzo Storino Ramacciotti, 
• Muhammad Shabbeer Ghauri, 
• Issac Anderson, 
• Jae Choi, 
• Darby Dwyer, 
• Claudia Stephens, 

• Published: September 5, 2024
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000596
• Reader Comments

Generative-AI (GAI) models like ChatGPT are becoming widely discussed and utilized tools in medical education. For example, it can be used to assist with studying for exams, shown capable of passing the USMLE board exams. However, there have been concerns expressed regarding its fair and ethical use. We designed an electronic survey for students across North American medical colleges to gauge their views on and current use of ChatGPT and similar technologies in May, 2023. Overall, 415 students from at least 28 medical schools completed the questionnaire and 96% of respondents had heard of ChatGPT and 52% had used it for medical school coursework. The most common use in pre-clerkship and clerkship phase was asking for explanations of medical concepts and assisting with diagnosis/treatment plans, respectively. The most common use in academic research was for proof reading and grammar edits. Respondents recognized the potential limitations of ChatGPT, including inaccurate responses, patient privacy, and plagiarism. Students recognized the importance of regulations to ensure proper use of this novel technology. Understanding the views of students is essential to crafting workable instructional courses, guidelines, and regulations that ensure the safe, productive use of generative-AI in medical school.

Author summary

The study examines how medical students in the US are using a popular artificial-intelligence program called ChatGPT. ChatGPT can assist with various tasks such as answering questions, helping with writing assignments, and even aiding in diagnosis and treatment planning. The study found that most medical students are familiar with ChatGPT and have incorporated it into their academic journey, finding it particularly beneficial for studying, writing, and clinical rotations. Students are hopeful about the future integration of ChatGPT and similar models with existing study resources. However, students noted common flaws with ChatGPT use, including the risk of bias and inaccuracy. There are also worries about privacy if ChatGPT collects information from patient data provided. Therefore, students are calling for clear rules and guidelines to ensure responsible and ethical use of this technology. Additionally, the study highlights that if ChatGPT becomes a paid service, it might limit access for some students, raising concerns about affordability and equity. In summary, ChatGPT has proven to be a valuable tool for medical students, but there are important issues to address to ensure a smooth integration in medical education.

Citation: Ganjavi C, Eppler M, O’Brien D, Ramacciotti LS, Ghauri MS, Anderson I, et al. (2024) ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) awareness and use. A prospective cross-sectional survey of U.S. medical students. PLOS Digit Health 3(9): e0000596. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000596

Editor: Omar Badawi, Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Received: October 18, 2023; Accepted: July 29, 2024; Published: September 5, 2024

Copyright: © 2024 Ganjavi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Data used in this study are provided in the supplemental materials , and data used to generate the figures are included in the submission.

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The usage of generative-AI (GAI) technologies like large language models (LLMs) has dramatically increased in the last year since the launch of ChatGPT in Nov 2022 [ 1 ]. ChatGPT’s ability to process data and generate clear and understandable responses has led to its adoption by millions worldwide [ 2 ]. Among specialty fields looking to harness this new technology, medicine has been at the forefront of developing and discussing new ways to use GAI in research and its potential application patient care [ 3 ].

Medical education is another potential application for this technology [ 4 ]. ChatGPT has managed to pass the USMLE Step 1–3 exams and can generate its own exam questions for study support given proper prompting[ 5 ], suggesting its possible role in academic support. In terms of medical student support on clinical rotations, ChatGPT has been shown to produce high-quality clinical letters and suggest differential diagnoses and follow-up tests [ 6 ]. ChatGPT can edit manuscripts, cover letters and grant proposals and brainstorm research topics [ 7 ] ‐ all useful applications for medical students.

However, the ethical usage of ChatGPT in education must be considered. The technology is not perfect, often with inaccuracies, hallucinations, biases, and risk of plagiarism [ 8 , 9 ]. While there have been publications on ChatGPT usage in education [ 10 , 11 ], the opinions and current use of the technology by medical students in real-world settings has not been studied.

The objective of this study was to compile information about the use of ChatGPT and LLMs among medical students across North America. It seeks to understand the students’ awareness of ChatGPT, its current applications in medical schools, perceptions of its limitations, potential uses, and ethical considerations surrounding this popular technology through an open electronic survey.

Survey development

The study methodology was adapted from two surveys [ 12 , 13 ]. Two study members, (CG and ME), after an internal audit among the study authors, modified questions from the survey on ChatGPT in urology and developed novel questions using a two-round iterative process [ 14 ]. After each round, the current version of the survey was reviewed by GEC and edited to ensure clarity. A final version of the survey was tested by study authors to ensure proper functionality with the survey platform. Logical question structuring was applied to the survey to prevent respondents from answering questions that were not applicable based on previous answers.

The survey was divided into 7 parts (details reported in S1 File ) :

Part 1 –Demographics

Part 2 –Awareness and Use of ChatGPT/LLMs in Medical School

Part 3 –ChatGPT/LLMs Use in Studying and Technology Integration

Part 4 –ChatGPT/LLMs Use in Clinical Rotations

Part 5 –ChatGPT/LLMs Use in Academic Writing Research

Part 6 –Ethical Concerns and Regulation of ChatGPT/LLMs

Part 7 –Respondent Contact

Survey administration

Survey Monkey Plus ( www.surveymokey.com ) was used. This survey is a sample of convenience as it was open to all students pursuing a medical degree in the United States. The survey was deployed on May 4, 2023 for 14 days through social media, medical student group chats, and student collaborators. Many of these collaborators had established leadership roles at their respective institutions, most commonly as members of the Organization of Student Representatives (OSR), the official student liaisons to the AAMC. There were a variable number of items per page and 15 total pages of the questionnaire in total. Participants who completed the survey were required to answer all questions. The survey was voluntary, and there were no incentives offered for completing it. Participants were able to modify their answers at any point. The survey was terminated if the respondent had not heard of ChatGPT/LLM, which was asked after collecting demographic and background information. An additional deployment of the survey will be sent to responders who gave permission to be contacted at 12 month follow up.

Ethics statement

This study was determined exempt and no more than minimal risk to human participants by the University of Southern California IRB (ID: UP-23-00888). Formal written consent, including clear instructions describing the aims of the survey and participation criteria, was obtained prior to the beginning of the survey.

Data analysis and reporting

Data was analyzed on an anonymized basis and data access with identifiable information is limited to the authors of the study. Reported results refer to the number of complete responses, consisting of those who replied to all the survey questions or the relevant logic question within the survey. Descriptive data are reported as means and standard deviations for continuous variables, while numbers and percentages are used for categorical variables. Chi-squared testing was used for inferential analysis of categorical data. Charts and tables are used when appropriate to bolster the interpretability of the data. Data analysis was done using Tableau, JMP and SPSS. The data is reported following the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) ( S2 File ) [ 15 ]. The first page of the survey provided basic information and an estimated completion time. Details about the questions and their responses are reported in the supplementary materials ( S3 File ).

Demographic data

During the study period, 638 medical students initiated the survey questionnaire, of which 415 completed it (65.0% completion rate). Mean completion time was 9 minutes. Most respondents were female (61.7%) and between 25–34 years old (55.2%). The highest proportion of respondents were in their first year (M1: 35.4%), followed by third year (M3: 28.4%), second year (M2: 26.5%), and fourth year (M4: 9.2%). Regarding specialty interest, most (55.4%) were interested in internal medicine or medicine sub-specialties, while 35.9% were interested in surgery or surgical sub-specialties, 23.1% were interested in primary care, and 39.8% are interested in other specialties (pediatrics, EM, etc.). At least 28 medical schools were represented in the responses based on voluntary contact information provided. Demographic data is consolidated in Table 1 .

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000596.t001

Awareness and understanding of ChatGPT/LLMs

Of those students participating, 69.7% were somewhat or very familiar with AI use in healthcare, while only 46.8% of participants were somewhat or very familiar with using AI in medical school. Using chi-squared analysis, there was a significant difference in use of ChatGPT based on school year, with M1s having the most user experience at 59.0% (p = 0.048) ( Fig 1A ). There was also a significant difference in familiarity with ChatGPT based on school year, with M1s being the most familiar and M3s being the least familiar (p = 0.003) ( Fig 1B ). Further, specialty interest also had a statistically significant impact on use of ChatGPT, with those interested primarily in medicine subspecialties most likely to use it (68.9%) while those desiring pediatrics (21.4%) and primary care (35.7%) were less likely to have used it (p = 0.049) ( Fig 1C ). Age was not statistically associated with use of (p = 0.44) or familiarity with (p = 0.56) ChatGPT.

Of the 415 participants, 17 (4.1%) were excluded from further analysis since they had no knowledge of or exposure to ChatGPT or other LLMs. Among those aware of ChatGPT, most were introduced to the technology via social media (39.5%) or friends/relatives (36.7%). Shortly after the release of ChatGPT in Nov 2022, 21.9% of respondents had been exposed to ChatGPT in some way. By February 2023, more than half of the students had been exposed to it. Of those who read scientific editorials on ChatGPT usage, 36.5% had an improved view of the technology while 49.0% did not have their view changed.

The use and familiarity with ChatGPT among respondents was analyzed based on grade in medical school and desired specialty using Chi Squared statistical testing. P-values: 1a (p = 0.048), 1b (p = 0.003), 1c (p = 0.049).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000596.g001

Overall use in medical school

With regards to ChatGPT use in medical school, 52.0% have used ChatGPT specifically for med-school related tasks, while 61.3% overall have utilized the AI for a non-medical school purpose. Most (60.1%) affirmed ChatGPT’s usefulness in medical school, while a small minority (12.6%) did not think that LLMs could play an important role in their medical school experience. Among survey respondents, 38.4% report already having used it for studying, 29.4% for academic brainstorming, 26.4% for asking non-content questions related to medical school, and 23.4% used it for academic writing assistance. A more extensive list of uses is displayed in Fig 2A . When used for these tasks, 49.8% of respondents reported that using LLMs helped them save time.

The size of the bubble refers to the percentage of respondents.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000596.g002

Use in studying and technology integration

Of the 38.4% of medical students that used it for studying, 100% asked it specific content questions directly to ChatGPT, 63.4% asked it to provide high yield information on a broad topic, 24.8% used it to summarize lecture outlines/slides, 24.2% asked it to create multiple choice practice questions, 20.9% used it to generate novel clinical case scenarios, and 9.8% used it to generate Anki© cards. Sixteen percent of respondents used ChatGPT for studying on a weekly basis, while 5.5% used ChatGPT in their daily studying routine.

Anki© was commonly used among respondents, with 86.2% reported using it and 66.5% using it every day. Of those who use Anki©, 4.7% have asked ChatGPT to generate Anki© cards and 13.4% used ChatGPT to elaborate and clarify difficult concepts encountered on other Anki© cards. Moreover, 53.0% of students would use ChatGPT to generate Anki© cards if there were tutorials available instructing people how to do so. When asked if ChatGPT could ever supplant Anki© as a medical education resource, 11.3% agreed while 50.8% disagreed.

Of the students using ChatGPT to generate multiple choice practice questions, 73.8% said they were at least somewhat useful. Further, if there were resources available instructing students on the optimal way to prompt ChatGPT to generate reliable questions, 55.0% of survey respondents would utilize them.

12.8% of respondents used ChatGPT to summarize school-provided lecture outlines/slide decks. Of these students, more than 90% found it at least somewhat useful. Of respondents who have attended lecture since the release of ChatGPT, 15.7% used ChatGPT to look up or clarify information during lecture. Further, 8.2% of students who attended lecture confirmed they knew of at least one instance of a professor/instructor using ChatGPT to augment their teaching materials. Of those teachers who used ChatGPT in the classroom, 25% used it to develop patient case scenarios and 18.8% used it to develop multiple choice questions.

Use during clinical rotations

Among students who have completed a clinical rotation (42.2%) since the launch of ChatGPT, 22.5% have utilized ChatGPT during their clerkship. Of those who used ChatGPT on rotations, 73.7% prompted the chat bot for information regarding diagnosis and treatment options, 52.6% asked about pharmacology-related questions, and 26.3% used it to bolster follow-up care planning and patient education. Students utilized ChatGPT with varying frequency on rotations with 39.3% reporting weekly use and 10.5% reporting daily use. Students with recent clerkship experience believed that ChatGPT could be useful on rotations, with 39.3% reporting it could be somewhat useful and 18.5% reporting it was either very useful or extremely useful. In contrast, 42.3% did not view ChatGPT as useful during clinical rotations. Regarding the aspects of clinical that could benefit from the use of ChatGPT, 66.1% of students believe it could assist with writing notes, 59.5% think it could help with patient education, 44.6% think it could help guide treatment, and 38.7% think it can help with diagnosis. Regarding clinical notes, 4.8% report having used ChatGPT to help write or edit patient notes, with 75% using ChatGPT to craft their differential diagnosis based on patient signs/symptoms, 75% using it to outline sections of a write-up, and 62.50% using it to develop an assessment and plan.

Among respondents, 58.9% utilized paid resources like Amboss to look up clinical information on clinical rotations. Other commonly used resources include UpToDate (92.3%) and Anki (31.0%). If ChatGPT was demonstrated to be reliable and accurate, 57.7% of respondents would stop paying for resources like Amboss for accessing clinical information during clerkships. However, if ChatGPT was no longer free to access, 60.8% of all students indicated that they would not pay to continue using the tool while 26.9% were unsure.

Research and academic writing

Among all survey respondents, 78.1% are involved in research during medical school and 27.4% have used ChatGPT during the research process. ChatGPT assisted the student researchers by: proof reading and editing grammar (59.6%), conducting literature reviews (35.8%), writing research articles or grant proposals (33.0%), generating study hypotheses (24.9%), managing citations (23.9%), analyzing data (8.3%), and translating text into different languages (1.8%). Most respondents (89.9%) indicated that ChatGPT improved their research productivity.

With regards to academic writing broadly, students utilized ChatGPT for outlining papers (45.9%), checking grammar (43.1%), summarizing text (42.20%), generating novel project ideas (41.3%), generating manuscript or essay text (32.1%), looking up citations (28.4%), and translating text into different languages (4.6%). Overall, 87.2% of respondents found ChatGPT at least somewhat effective at assisting academic writing. Further, 57.0% agree that ChatGPT will revolutionize the way scientific and academic writing is produced, while 14.3% disagree.

Limitations of ChatGPT/LLMs

Of those who have used ChatGPT or other LLMs, 75.0% reported limitations when using the tools including: lack of specificity of responses (56.5%), inaccurate responses (53.4%), variability/inconsistency of responses (28.5%), unclear responses (12.7%), accessibility issues (12.7%), and biased responses (10.9%) ( Fig 2B ). These trends were similar when used specifically for studying (71.8% experienced limitations) and clinical rotations (57.4%), with a similar breakdown of specific limitations. When all respondents were asked about their level of trust in ChatGPT’s ability to provide reliable information, the majority (50.0%) reported average trust, followed by 29.9% reporting below average or far below average trust. Most respondents (56.9%) believe that ChatGPT should not be used in patient care currently given the lack of response validation by experts.

Ethical considerations and regulation

When probed about potential ethical concerns that arise from the use of ChatGPT and LLMs in patient care and research, respondents were most concerned about patient data confidentiality when using the technology (87.4%) followed by plagiarism and risks to academic integrity (81.9%), lack of human oversite in decision making (77.4%), perpetuating biases through AI (75.9%), patient safety (61.8%), and environmental damage (21.4%) ( Fig 2C ). When asked about HIPAA compliance, 62.1% said that ChatGPT was not HIPAA compliant and input of patient identifiers into ChatGPT would constitute a HIPAA violation, while 32.2% were unsure about the HIPAA compliance of the technology. Regarding rules and regulations for the proper use and disclosure of ChatGPT, 91.7% said that clear regulations must be put in place and violators should be subject to penalties (60.8%). Regulations endorsed included ethical and legal oversight (82.2%), clear guidelines for use (81.7%), ensuring the AI is trained on accurate clinical guidelines (78.9%), and regular audits of AI systems (73.1%).

This prospective cross-sectional electronic survey provides a nation-wide snapshot of the medical student perspective on ChatGPT/LLMs. Most medical students are familiar with ChatGPT, and many who have utilized ChatGPT endorse its usefulness in medical school. Students recognize GAI’s potential in supporting studying, clinical rotations, and student research, but would like more resources on how to better integrate the technology with existing tools. While there is substantial use of this technology in medical school, students have observed limitations and recognize ethical issues and barriers of trust that need to be overcome before more widespread adoption. Students support regulation and guidelines on the use of ChatGPT/LLMs to improve trust and reduce the potential harms of this technology.

Respondent demographics demonstrated an accurate representation of American medical schools with regards to age and specialty interest [ 16 ]. Medical students earlier in their education were more likely to engage with the survey. Interestingly, M1s were more likely to be familiar with and use ChatGPT than upperclassmen. Junior medical students may be more open to new technologies since they have not cemented a medical school workflow. They also have more time to integrate this technology into their education.

Overall, 96% of survey respondents heard of ChatGPT, and a quarter of respondents were exposed to ChatGPT soon after it was released, demonstrating its viral nature. This is not unique to medical students, as ChatGPT set records as the fastest growing application [ 1 ]. Interestingly, more students reported using ChatGPT for non-medical than medical purposes. Perhaps students are aware of reported inaccuracies and “artificial hallucinations” in LLMs and are hesitant to use it for medical purposes [ 3 , 7 ]. Another possible explanation is a technology early adoption phase with limited awareness of how generative-AI can assist in medical education [ 17 ].

Over half of survey respondents have used ChatGPT for medical school-related tasks (ie, access to information, assistance in academic writing/editing), tasks reported in previous studies [ 18 , 19 ]. Interestingly, those interested in internal medicine subspecialties were more likely to use ChatGPT, demonstrating that this technology may not appeal equally to all medical students. Additionally, most thought ChatGPT could be useful in medical education, a sentiment echoed in other fields [ 20 ]. Students used ChatGPT to ask medical questions; utilization of readily accessible and easy to comprehend resources like Google and Wikipedia have been shown to be the most frequently used sites by medical students, even though content was rated less reliable compared to other resources [ 21 ]. Given ChatGPT’s user-friendly, chatbot format [ 11 ], students may similarly adopt this technology, as studies have shown ChatGPT to be superior to Google in relaying general medical knowledge [ 22 ]. In the future, respondents would be eager to use ChatGPT for other medical student specific tasks, such as developing practice multiple choice questions or Anki© cards, if there was instructional information on how to do so most effectively.

Conversations on how LLMs can be integrated into clinical practice medical education are ongoing [ 4 , 23 ]. In this survey, respondents agreed that ChatGPT could replace costly medical school study resources through an emphasis on personalized learning, but is less likely to replace specialized study tools like Anki©. Generative-AI technology is currently becoming integrated into existing technologies like Microsoft Office applications. LLMs have the potential to be optimized for industry specific tasks [ 24 ], we can perhaps imagine a future where it becomes integrated into pre-existing medical education and clinical platforms.

Survey results suggest ChatGPT is more positively viewed for non-clinical tasks (note writing, studying/summarizing class notes, editing grammar for research) than direct patient care. It is possible that students view using ChatGPT for studying as lower stakes compared to using it for clinical rotations, as there are likely still questions regarding its trust and credibility. Half of respondents agree that since outputs have not been validated, ChatGPT should not be use in a clinical care setting yet. Studies have already begun assessing the accuracy and reliability of using ChatGPT for a variety of academic and medical related tasks, such as performance on the United States Medical Licensing Exams [ 5 ], ability to write accurate patient letters [ 6 ], automate clinical notes [ 25 ], and disseminate health related inquiries [ 26 ]. Most respondents believe note writing and patient education could benefit from the use of ChatGPT if shown to be accurate and reliable, so more studies are needed.

When asked whether ChatGPT has improved research productivity, 90% responded affirmatively, and the majority believe it will revolutionize the way academic writing is done, and about one-quarter reported using it to generate hypothesis for research studies. ChatGPT has been shown to generate novel research topics [ 27 ], however it has also been shown to fabricate primary research citations [ 28 ]. Given that 25% of respondents have used the technology for citation management in their research, open conversations in both the classroom and research lab on the uses and limitations of ChatGPT is essential and has been proposed [ 29 ].

Despite the excitement, 75% of respondents experienced issues or limitations with using ChatGPT, and there remain questions regarding its ethical use. Medical students recognize bias in AI algorithms, privacy and confidentiality of patient’s data, risk of plagiarism/loss of academic integrity as potential issues. The majority believe stakeholders (university policies, etc.) should make regulations and rules for the proper use and disclosure of ChatGPT. There are current conversations and ongoing efforts to introduce guidelines for the ethical use of this technology in all facets of healthcare [ 30 ].

Survey respondents have already reported that professors and lectures have used ChatGPT to create content for their classes, and this trend is likely to increase as the technology becomes more widely accepted. This must be watched with caution, as ChatGPT is not trained on the most recent information and may provide biased, incomplete, or incorrect content that requires verification and oversight by experts [ 9 ].

Many students would not use ChatGPT if it was no longer free, a possibility mentioned by the founder of OpenAI [ 31 ]. As educational tools become increasingly digitized, issues of affordability and availability will require attention to ensure that all students can benefit. There are already overlooked causes of financial stress for medical students, such as board prep materials [ 32 ]. If GAI technology like ChatGPT become part of the “gold standard” for medical student learning, the adoption of these tools has the potential to increase financial stress and disparities for students if not offset by school funding.

Limitations

The respondents to the survey were primarily recruited via social media and through student-led groups, which could potentially bias respondent selection towards those more proactive with new technologies. Further, this study was conducted with US medical students and results may not apply to medical schools in countries with different educational systems or limited access to generative-AI technology. The potential factors impacting medical students who were unaware of ChatGPT/LLMs was not investigated in this study, however these factors are likely to change rapidly given the rapid adoption and advancement of LLM models [ 1 , 33 , 34 ]. The impact of ChatGPT use on learning outcomes was not assessed given the recent adoption of this technology. A future study comparing academic metrics among those who utilize and do not utilize ChatGPT would be valuable for guiding medical education integration. This survey represents a snapshot of the current use of ChatGPT by medical students at six months after the release of ChatGPT. Therefore, a future deployment of the survey at twelve months following initial administration will monitor changes in usage of ChatGPT by medical students. The survey reflects the early adoption phase of this novel technology, and we suspect there will be changes in views and use as it develops further.

In this prospective cross-sectional national survey, a significant portion of medical students are acquainted with the benefits of ChatGPT/LLMs in their academic and clinical journey. They not only recognize the potential of this technology in enhancing their studies, clinical rotations, and research but also express a keen interest in guidance for its seamless integration with existing tools. However, alongside its advantages, students are quick to point out certain limitations. Ethical dilemmas, trust barriers, and the need for a regulatory framework are among their primary concerns, suggesting a balanced perspective on the technology’s role in medical education.

Supporting information

S1 file. survey section breakdown by question topic..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000596.s001

S2 File. Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) completion for medical student survey.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000596.s002

S3 File. Raw survey responses by medical students with percentage breakdowns included for each question.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000596.s003

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Richard Watanabe PhD for his biostatistical expertise and support during the review process.

ChatGPT 4.0 was used to correct the grammar of introduction and discussion of the present paper. The prompt was validated by CG and GEC. The authors take full responsibility of the edited text.

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Impact of automated writing evaluation system and revision processes on college students’ writing skills in english as a foreign language course  †.

1. Introduction

2. literature review, 2.1. automated writing evaluation (awe), 2.2. revision process, 2.3. assistive technology for writing, 3. methodology, 3.1. participants, 3.2. instruments and setting, 4.1. efficacy of revision process, 4.2. influence of revision on students’ writing performance, 5. discussion and conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Share and Cite

Hung, R.-T.; Chang, K.-H.; Chen, K.T.-C.; Chuang, Y.-S. Impact of Automated Writing Evaluation System and Revision Processes on College Students’ Writing Skills in English as a Foreign Language Course. Eng. Proc. 2024 , 74 , 52. https://doi.org/10.3390/engproc2024074052

Hung R-T, Chang K-H, Chen KT-C, Chuang Y-S. Impact of Automated Writing Evaluation System and Revision Processes on College Students’ Writing Skills in English as a Foreign Language Course. Engineering Proceedings . 2024; 74(1):52. https://doi.org/10.3390/engproc2024074052

Hung, Ruei-Teng, Kai-Hsin Chang, Kate Tzu-Ching Chen, and Yun-Sin Chuang. 2024. "Impact of Automated Writing Evaluation System and Revision Processes on College Students’ Writing Skills in English as a Foreign Language Course" Engineering Proceedings 74, no. 1: 52. https://doi.org/10.3390/engproc2024074052

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First-day-of-school surveys: get to know students.

With these tools, educators can start building a positive classroom climate on day one. Student surveys get teachers up to speed quickly regarding young people’s learning preferences, strengths and needs. Questionnaires also can provide a sense of students as individuals.

Use or adapt the survey questions below to suit your grade-level and classroom needs:

Lower Grades

• Elementary-level students can complete a Student Profile Form Template with help from their parents or guardians.
• Perfect for the primary grades, the My Favorite Things worksheet can be filled out by younger learners.

Upper Grades

• EducationWorld’s 10-question Back-to-School Survey is great for students in grades 3-8.
• Student Survey 1
• Student Survey 2
• Larry Ferlazzo, in this blog post , offers a link to a simple high school-level questionnaire.
• From California State University Science Education Professor Norman Herr, this student questionnaire could be adapted for all grades.
• See pages 30-38 of Macomb (MI) Intermediate School District’s New Teacher Academy Handbook [archived version] for elementary-, middle- and high-school surveys.
• Prefer a conversation/class discussion to a survey? See Suite 101’s First Day of School Introduction Activities [archived version] . These conversation-starters can be adapted for various grades.

Article by Celine Provini , EducationWorld Editor Education World ®                       Copyright © 2013, 2017 Education World

Last updated on 05/19/2017

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Sign up for our free weekly newsletter and receive top education news, lesson ideas, teaching tips and more! No thanks, I don't need to stay current on what works in education! COPYRIGHT 1996-2016 BY EDUCATION WORLD, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COPYRIGHT 1996 - 2024 BY EDUCATION WORLD, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. SchoolNotes.com The Educator's Network 100+ Survey Questions For High School Students Struggling to understand the world of high school students’ perspectives and experiences? Look nowhere else! A thorough set of over 100 survey questions created especially for high school students has been developed by us. This collection includes both humorous and light-hearted suggestions as well as serious and thought-provoking ones.  Prepare to delve deeply into the thoughts of high school kids and obtain insightful knowledge that will help you make better decisions and foster a more welcoming and pleasurable learning environment for everyone. Insights from the next generation: A comprehensive survey for high school students What time do you typically wake up for school?      Do you have a set morning routine? How do you usually travel to and from school? Do you feel that your classes are challenging enough? Do you feel that your homework load is too heavy? Do you feel that your teachers are supportive and helpful? How often do you seek help from teachers? Do you feel that you receive enough support and guidance from your school counselors? How often do you feel stressed about schoolwork? How do you typically manage stress related to school? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for physical activity? Do you feel that your school provides enough healthy food options? How often do you eat school-provided meals? Do you feel that your school provides enough mental health resources and support? How do you typically manage mental health struggles? Do you feel that your school provides enough resources and support for college and career readiness? Have you witnessed any bullying or harassment at school? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for community service and volunteering? How do you typically spend your weekends? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for cultural and diversity education? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for creative expression (e.g. art, music, theater)?  Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for leadership development? How do you typically manage time and prioritize tasks? Do you feel that your school provides enough technology resources and support? How often do you experience technical difficulties with school technology? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for hands-on learning experiences? How often do you participate in field trips or other off-campus learning experiences? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for travel and cultural immersion? Have you ever participated in a study abroad program or exchange program? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for career exploration and internships? How often do you communicate with your school administration or principal about school-related issues? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for student leadership and governance? How often do you participate in student government or other student leadership activities? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for peer tutoring or academic support from older students? How often do you participate in peer tutoring or academic support programs? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for guest speakers or educational events? How often do you attend guest speakers or educational events at your school? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for language learning and proficiency? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for financial literacy education? Have you ever participated in a financial literacy program or workshop? How often do you use your school’s library or media center? Do you feel that your school provides enough resources and support for research and project-based learning? How often do you participate in research or project-based learning activities? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for environmental education and sustainability initiatives? Have you ever participated in an environmental education or sustainability initiative at your school? How often do you participate in school clubs or organizations? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for social justice and advocacy education? Have you ever participated in a social justice or advocacy campaign or initiative at your school? How often do you communicate with your school’s guidance counselor about academic and personal issues? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for student-led initiatives and projects? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for stress relief during the school day? How often do you take mental health breaks during the school day? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for peer mentorship and support? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for collaborative learning and group projects? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for advanced or specialized learning? How often do you use technology during class (e.g. computers, tablets, smartboards)? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation education? Have you ever participated in an entrepreneurship or innovation program or initiative at your school? How often do you participate in group discussions during class? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for experiential learning and hands-on activities? Have you ever participated in a job shadow or internship program outside of school? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for global and cross-cultural education? How often do you participate in debates or other public speaking activities? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for leadership development outside of student government? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for interdisciplinary learning (e.g. combining subjects like science and art)?  Have you ever participated in a school-sponsored athletic or sports team? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for creative writing and storytelling? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for learning about mental health and wellness? Have you ever participated in a mental health or wellness program or initiative at your school? How often do you participate in hands-on learning activities in science class? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation outside of the classroom? How often do you use technology to collaborate with classmates on school assignments? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for learning about different cultures and religions? Have you ever participated in a cultural or religious awareness program or initiative at your school? How often do you communicate with your peers and classmates outside of school? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for learning about different career paths and industries? Have you ever participated in a career exploration program or initiative at your school? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for learning about the arts (e.g. music, theater, visual arts)? Have you ever participated in an arts-related program or initiative at your school? How often do you use the internet to research information for school assignments? Do you feel that your school provides enough opportunities for learning about personal finance and budgeting? Have you ever participated in a personal finance or budgeting program or initiative at your school? How do you prefer to study or learn new material? Do you feel that the workload at school is manageable? What challenges do you face in balancing schoolwork and personal commitments? How often do you seek academic help or tutoring outside of regular class hours? Are you satisfied with the availability of resources and materials provided by the school? Do you feel that the school adequately prepares you for future career or college opportunities? What kind of support systems or resources would you like to see implemented at school? How often do you feel engaged and motivated in your classes? Are you comfortable participating in class discussions and expressing your opinions? What role does technology play in your learning experience? Do you feel that your school promotes a diverse and inclusive environment? Do you have access to and utilize the school library and its resources? What kind of support or resources would you like to see for college or career planning? How often do you feel stressed or overwhelmed by school-related pressures? Are you satisfied with the cafeteria food and overall dining options at school? How often do you engage in physical activities or sports at school? Do you feel that there is a sense of community and school spirit among the student body? Are there enough opportunities for student leadership and involvement in decision-making processes? How do you feel about the level of diversity in the curriculum and educational materials? What type of educational field trips or outings would you like to see more of? Are you satisfied with the availability and functionality of school facilities and infrastructure? How often do you use online educational platforms or resources outside of school hours? How well do you feel your teachers understand and support your individual learning needs? Are you encouraged to explore and pursue your personal interests and passions at school? How often do you collaborate with peers on group projects or assignments? Do you feel that the grading system at your school accurately reflects your knowledge and abilities? Are you aware of and actively involved in any community service or volunteer programs offered by the school? What kind of communication channels or platforms would you prefer for receiving school updates and announcements? Are you satisfied with the level of technology integration in your classrooms? How often do you feel challenged intellectually in your classes? Are you aware of the school’s policies and programs related to academic integrity and honesty? How often do you engage in creative or artistic activities at school? Are there sufficient opportunities for cultural and diversity education at your school? Are you aware of and involved in any student clubs or organizations at school? How can they help? Survey questions for high school students can be a powerful tool for several reasons. These surveys can help identify areas where additional support or resources are needed. For example, asking questions about mental health, bullying, or academic stress can shed light on the well-being of students and highlight areas that require attention and intervention. Similarly, gathering feedback on educational experiences, extracurricular activities, and support systems can inform school administrators and educators about areas of improvement and help shape a more positive and inclusive learning environment. Survey questions can also aid in understanding student preferences and interests, informing decisions regarding curriculum development, extracurricular offerings, and career guidance . By understanding their aspirations, interests, and learning styles, educators can tailor their approaches to better engage and motivate students, enhancing overall educational outcomes. Furthermore, surveys can be used to assess the effectiveness of existing programs and initiatives, providing feedback on what is working well and what needs adjustment. By collecting data over time, trends and patterns can be identified, enabling schools to make data-driven decisions and continuously improve their practices. 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Additionally, surveys can be used to assess the effectiveness of existing programs and initiatives, enabling schools to make data-driven decisions and continuously improve educational practices. By giving students a voice and incorporating their perspectives, surveys foster a sense of inclusivity and empower them to actively shape their educational experiences. Having a 10+ years of experience in teaching little budding learners, I am now working as a soft skills and IELTS trainers. Having spent my share of time with high schoolers, I understand their fears about the future. At the same time, my experience has helped me foster plenty of strategies that can make their 4 years of high school blissful. Furthermore, I have worked intensely on helping these young adults bloom into successful adults by training them for their dream colleges. Through my blogs, I intend to help parents, educators and students in making these years joyful and prosperous. 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Using a Writing Survey I think it takes many weeks of writing and conversation and sharing to begin to uncover the writing identities of students. There is no quick and easy method. However, a writing survey at the beginning of the school year is a step in the right direction and can serve as a springboard for conversations to come. Some questions you might ask: Teaching and Assessing Creative Writing in High School In this interview, Lauralee has graciously offered to share some of the valuable lessons she has grasped early on about teaching and assessing creative writing at the high school level. Keep reading to discover what she has to say about building teenagers' confidence, making assessment meaningful, and obtaining student buy-in. (PDF) ENHANCING STUDENTS' CREATIVE WRITING SKILLS: AN ... Appendixes contain writing prompts; a writing checklist; a writing rubric; student, parent, and teacher surveys; writing goals; and a parent reflection form.) 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