The child,the text and the teacher: reading primers and reading instruction

From the late sixteenth century, in response to the problem of how best to teach children to read, a variety of texts, such as primers, spellers and readers were produced in England for vernacular instruction. This paper describes how these materials were used by teachers to develop, first, a specific religious understanding according to the stricture of the time and, second, a moral reading practice that provided the child with a guide to secular conduct. The analysis focuses on the use of these texts as a productive means for shaping the child-reader in the context of newly emerging educational spaces, which fostered a particular, morally formative relation among teacher, child and text.     

Implementation and effects of explicit reading comprehension instruction in fifth-grade classrooms

In this intervention study, teachers tried to implement four instructional principles derived from the literature on research-based, explicit reading comprehension instruction in their fifth-grade classrooms. The principles focused on relevant background knowledge, reading comprehension strategies, reading-group organization, and reading motivation. Results indicated that during a five-month intervention period, students in the intervention group increased their strategic competence and comprehension performance relative to controls. However, no effect was found on reading motivation. The overall pattern of results is explained in relation to the implementation quality of the four instructional principles, with implementation data indicating that the principles of reading-group organization and reading motivation were particularly difficult for the teachers to translate into classroom practice.     

Business-as-usual reading instruction in 2nd grade: teacher centered and rarely evidence-based

Reading and Writing - The goal of the current study was to gain insight into what elements encompass business-as-usual (BAU) reading instruction and to what extent BAU reading instruction includes...     

高中语文阅读教学中的大跨度思考

在阅读教学中,让学生在较大的时空范围内对开放性问题进行思考,可以培养学生整合、处理信息的能力,培养学生良好的思维品质。     

Teacher knowledge about oral English instruction and teacher profiles: an EFL perspective

Teacher knowledge, as an important cognitive basis of teaching, has attracted tremendous attention in educational research in the last few decades. This study examines whether teachers’ self-perceived knowledge about oral English teaching differs with regard to their professional profiles in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context in China. A sample of 527 teachers from 56 universities in 29 cities across the country responded to a self-report questionnaire. Thirty teachers were interviewed. Teachers’ self-perceived knowledge was assessed by two factors: pedagogical content knowledge about oral English teaching (PCK) and knowledge of students’ oral English characteristics (KOS). The reliability and validity of the instrument are tested and presented. Results showed that EFL teachers generally reported having insufficient PCK and KOS. ANOVA and t-tests revealed no significant knowledge difference among teachers with different teaching experiences, training and overseas exposure. However, teachers’ learning experiences, self-perceived speaking ability and familiarity with teaching methodologies were found to influence teacher knowledge in a significant way. The findings highlight the need for the development of teacher knowledge about oral English teaching in the EFL contexts. Suggestions for further research are provided.     

An investigation of blended learning to support reading instruction in elementary schools

Educational technology research and development - Research is needed to address the possible benefits of blended learning as a form of reading instruction in elementary schools. Blended learning...     

A comparison of undergraduate major and technical knowledge of post-baccalaureate teacher candidates

Abstract

This article focuses on the impact of student undergraduate major (Agricultural Education or other majors) on the technical agricultural knowledge of preservice teachers as measured by a standardized performance test and as perceived by cooperating teachers. Subjects of the study (N=130) had completed the post-baccalaureate teacher credential (certification) program at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California. Animal Science and Agricultural Education majors scored significantly lower on the Plant and Soil Science section of the performance test than did students holding undergraduate degrees in other areas. Differences were also found between major and student teacher knowledge as perceived by cooperating teachers. These findings reveal that there were discrepancies between knowledge as measured by these two evaluative methods. As a result, it was recommended that both evaluation methods examined in this study be continued in an effort to provide essential information on program quality to stakeholders.     

Perceptions and knowledge of preservice and inservice educators about early reading instruction

A major conclusion from research regarding children with poor reading performance is that early, systematic instruction in phonological awareness and phonics improves early reading and spelling skills and results in a reduction of the number of students who read below grade level. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions and knowledge of presevice and inservice educators about early reading instruction. The results indicated that these educators expressed positive attitudes toward explicit and implicit code instruction, with inservice educators more positive about explicit code instruction than preservice educators and preservice educators more positive about implicit code instruction. Preservice and inservice educators demonstrated limited knowledge of phonological awareness or terminology related to language structure and phonics. Additionally, they perceived themselves as only somewhat prepared to teach early reading to struggling readers. These findings indicate a continuing mismatch between what educators believe and know and what convergent research supports as effective early reading instruction for children at risk for reading difficulties. Implications support continuing efforts to inform and reform teacher education. Just prior to publication, the editorial office was informed of the untimely death of the first author, Candace Bos, who died on August 13, 2001.     

Integrating instruction of science,reading, and writing: Goals,teacher development,and assessment

This article describes the interplay of goals, teacher development, and assessment in the context of a yearlong research and development project. The aim of the project was to integrate the teaching of science, reading, and writing processes in a conceptually based, constructivist curriculum for middle school students who read below grade level. A performance-based assessment was designed and implemented to determine the level of student awareness and control over the processes taught during a unit of instruction. Interviews with science teachers and supervisors revealed the important interaction of curricular goals, the performance assessment, and instructional practice.     

Common sense: A form of teacher knowledge

This essay discusses an analytic construct - common sense knowledge - that might be helpful in empirical studies of teacher knowledge. I suggest that we consider whether teacher talk is common sense knowledge, in the sense that Geertz defines the term, and that if it is, that we take it seriously on its own terms and in context, rather than trying to 'fix' it.     

Teachers' knowledge in argumentation: contributions from an explicit teaching in an initial teacher education programme

Many researchers have highlighted the important role of teachers in creating and managing argumentative, as well as the need for teachers, during their training, to have opportunities to develop knowledge about arguments, enabling them to work from the perspective of argumentation. This study investigates to what extent a context of explicit teaching of argumentation contributed to developing this knowledge. The data sources include video records of explicit teaching of argumentation, collection of materials produced and used by pre-service teachers, and field notes. Analysis of the data indicates that the explicit teaching of argumentation influenced the conceptual learning of pre-service teachers concerning the elements interwoven into argumentative practice, especially evidence and justifications, and the development of pedagogical aspects in the context of argument. Although the pre-service teachers had expressed some teaching knowledge of argumentation in classroom discussion situations, the use of this approach in teaching situations still appears to be challenging for these teachers. The findings of this study highlight contributions to the area of teacher education in argumentation in terms of knowledge that is essential to plan and conduct argumentation-based teaching, and also to the structure of the initial teacher training programmes directed at teaching in argumentation.     

Perception of reading instruction and self-regulated learning: A comparison between Chinese students in Hong Kong and Beijing

Based on the theoretical framework of self-regulated learning (SRL), the study aimed to examine whether the proposed relationship between classroom environment and students’ SRL was applicable in the case of Chinese readers. In this study, a questionnaire measuring students’ perception of reading instruction, strategy use, and reading motivation was completed by 1,654 Hong Kong and 2,006 Beijing students from grade 10. By comparing students from two different Chinese cities, the study also attempted to understand the learning attitudes and behaviors of students who share the same Confucian cultural backgrounds but experience different educational environments. The findings of this study indicated that the positive effects of perceived reading instruction on Chinese students’ SRL mainly came from strategy and metacognitive-based instruction, teacher support, and the nature of task. While both Hong Kong and Beijing students demonstrated a positive attitude towards their reading instruction as well as a positive degree of strategy use and reading motivation, significant area differences were found in nearly all measured variables. These findings have been discussed in the light of the contextual environments of the two Chinese cities. The study provides useful insights for understanding Chinese learners and Chinese classrooms from the perspective of SRL.     

A comparison of student teacher learning from practice in university-affiliated schools in Helsinki and Johannesburg

In a comparative study of student teachers in Finland and South Africa, the researchers aimed to capture students’ views of how and what they had learned from practice in two university-affiliated primary schools. With data from survey questionnaires, we found that students in the two customized programmes accentuated different domains of teacher knowledge. The newly established teaching practice school in Johannesburg afforded closer integration of university and school practicum experiences for students than the well-established school in Helsinki. The authors conclude that an innovative teacher education model can be re-invented in a significantly different context and also add new dimensions to the original.     

The use of computer-automated reading in reading instruction

This study evaluates the use of computer-automated reading in reading instruction and illustrates a resource role for school psychologists in providing consultative assistance for computer-assisted instruction. A reading specialist serving as the teacher's aide was taught to write computer programs for automated reading on a personal computer with a speech synthesizer. The teacher selected six beginning-reading books for her remedial reading classes with 1st- and 2nd-grade students. Five 1st-grade and five 2nd-grade students, enrolled in a compensatory education program, were randomly assigned to two experimental groups; five 1st-grade and five 2nd-grade students, enrolled in the same program, were randomly assigned to two control groups. The students in the experimental groups received automated reading with their instruction; the students in the control groups received instruction in the same books, without automated reading. Pre- and posttests of word recognition, phrase reading, and reading comprehension were administered. The random selection of 1st-grade students failed to yield comparable groups, and the contrast of adjusted posttest scores was nonsignificant. Analyses of covariance on the reading criteria for the 2nd-grade groups indicated significant achievement gains for the experimental group.     

Goals,data use,and instruction: the effect of a teacher professional development program on reading achievement

In this paper, we investigated whether student reading comprehension could be improved with help of a teacher Professional Development (PD) program targeting goals, data use, and instruction. The effect of this PD program on 2nd- and 3rd-grade student achievement was examined using a pretest-posttest control group design. Applying propensity score matching, 35 groups in the experimental condition were matched to 35 control groups. Students in the experimental condition (n = 420) scored significantly higher on a standardized assessment than the control condition (n = 399), the effect size being d = .37. No differential effects of the PD program were found in relation to initial reading performance or grade. Different model specifications yielded similar albeit smaller effect sizes (d = .29 and d = .30). At the end of the program, students in the experimental condition were more than half a year ahead of students in the control condition.     

Differentiated instruction in teacher education: A case study of congruent teaching

Teachers are supposed to use forms of differentiated instruction to anticipate the differences among their students. However, the adaptation of teaching to the diversity of the group often takes place with difficulty. Teacher education is blamed for not preparing student teachers adequately for differentiated instruction. Several authors suggest that congruent teaching in teacher education might be an adequate solution to this problem. This case study aims to investigate the (congruent) realization of differentiated instruction in teacher education using ethnographic tools. The results indicate that the observed teacher educator demonstrated limited forms of differentiation, largely without providing meta-commentary. Therefore, she is not a role model on the subject of differentiated instruction in the view of student teachers. These results are discussed in depth, and form a basis for further research and suggestions for practice in teacher education.     

Engagement during reading instruction for students who are deaf or hard of hearing in public schools

An observational study of reading instruction was conducted in general education, resource, and self-contained classrooms, grades 1-4, in public schools. Participants included students who were deaf or hard of hearing and their reading teachers. Results indicated that time engaged in reading and/or academically responding varied significantly by grade level enrolled, reading curriculum grade level, and instructional setting, but not level of hearing loss or presence or absence of concomitant conditions. Students working with reading curriculum one grade level below spent significantly less time in reading instruction and reading than students working on grade level or two levels below. Students in general education settings spent significantly more time in reading instruction and reading silently than students in self-contained settings. The probability that students would engage in reading was significantly increased by several teacher and ecological conditions more likely to be observed in general education settings.