ABSTRACT
This chapter examines issues related to the quality of instructional goals in writing and how students come to understand them in classrooms settings in terms of deeper rather than surface or mechanical features. Our examination of instructional goals in writing is illustrated in a detailed study of 17 writing lessons. The theoretical framing of this examination used two different but converging perspectives: one with its origins and emphases on the development of selfregulatory learning processes both within and among individuals (e.g. Butler and Winne 1995; Zimmerman 2001), and the other with greater emphasis on the development of those learning processes through effective classroom teaching associated with formative assessment (e.g. Black and Wiliam 1998). Considered in combination, these perspectives have the potential to provide teachers with the necessary understanding of the links between the development of demanding learning goals and the instructional messages conveyed through various lesson activities.
