Abstract:
This study explored the perception of students, graduates and supervisors on students' development of general writing skills and academic writing skills through the completion of the master's thesis in teacher education programs in Colombia. In-depth interviews were conducted and online surveys were completed by participants from seven teacher education programs in this mixed methods study. Also, this study examined the process of writing the thesis through the analyses of drafts from three graduates. The findings of this study show how students' development of academic writing skills is grounded on their initial general writing skills and is realized through the appropriation of the thesis genre. This development follows different paths according to students' writing ability. This study argues that there are factors at the personal, supervision, and program levels that contribute to this development. Similarly, the development of these writing skills has an impact on the individual, their teaching, and their academic communities.
