Component processes of early reading, spelling, and narrative writing skills in Turkish: a longitudinal study

The study examined: (a) the role of phonological, grammatical, and rapid automatized naming (RAN) skills in reading and spelling development; and (b) the component processes of early narrative writing skills. Fifty-seven Turkish-speaking children were followed from Grade 1 to Grade 2. RAN was the most powerful longitudinal predictor of reading speed and its effect was evident even when previous reading skills were taken into account. Broadly, the phonological and grammatical skills made reliable contributions to spelling performance but their effects were completely mediated by previous spelling skills. Different aspects of the narrative writing skills were related to different processing skills. While handwriting speed predicted writing fluency, spelling accuracy predicted spelling error rate. Vocabulary and working memory were the only reliable longitudinal predictors of the quality of composition content. The overall model, however, failed to explain any reliable variance in the structural quality of the compositions.     

A Descriptive Survey of the Educational Preparation and Practices of Antenatal Educators in Ireland

Antenatal education is recommended to prospective parents, yet little is known about the educational preparation of the facilitators of this education, or of the educational practices they use. The aim of this study was to investigate the educational preparation and practices of antenatal educators in Ireland. Data were collected using a questionnaire structured on the three components (abilities, opportunities, and means) of Stamler’s theoretical framework of enablement. Eighty-four of the 120 antenatal educators responded (70%), and this included midwives, public health nurses, physiotherapists, and private antenatal educators. Findings describe a picture of varied educational preparation for the antenatal educator with a range of educational practices being used. Within public antenatal classes, large class size was a barrier to providing a participatory educational approach.     

UnSATisfactory: or How the Reading SATs May Mask the Level of Achievement of Young Early Readers

SATs, particularly in Key Stage 1 have always been perhaps the most controversial aspect of the recent curriculum reforms. In this article, Rhona Stainthorp reports her research into the validity and usefulness of the KS1 SATs. Her results make rather worrying reading, suggesting that the reading SATs are very crude measures of children’s reading abilities. As Stainthorp argues, from their results, we actually have no idea how well some children are doing at reading.     

Pygmalion at 50: harnessing its power and application in schooling

ABSTRACT

This special issue marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Pygmalion experiment (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). It offers contributions from across the globe, attesting to universal features of teacher expectancy effects. Reviews of this history underscore controversy, advances, and few intervention studies. Empirical studies emphasise teacher expectancy effects at group, classroom, and school levels, contrast expectation measures, and explore longitudinal and developmental perspectives, advancing the field. Despite headway, I argue that the field’s contested history has stifled its fullest investigation. Conclusions drawn – not replicable, small and dissipating effects, and largely accurate teacher expectations – have underestimated Pygmalion’s power and limited investment in intervention research to promote positive educational prophecies, especially for students placed at the margins. It is time for a greater articulation of the conditions under which expectancy effects are most powerful. It is also time to apply our tremendous knowledge towards the design and evaluation of positive expectancy interventions.     

Literacy as a complex activity: deconstructing the simple view of reading

The Rose Review into the teaching of early reading recommended that the conceptual framework incorporated into the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching – the Searchlights model of reading and its development – should be replaced by the Simple View of Reading. In this paper, we demonstrate how these two frameworks relate to each other, and show that nothing has been lost in this transformation from Searchlights to Simple View: on the contrary, much has been gained. That nothing has been lost is demonstrated by consideration of the underlying complexity inherent in each of the two dimensions delineated in the Simple View. That much has been gained is demonstrated by the increased understanding of each dimension that follows from careful scientific investigation of each. The better we understand what is involved in each dimension, the better placed we are to unravel and understand the essential, complex and continual interactions between each dimension which underlie skilled reading. This has clear implications for further improving the early teaching of reading.     

Correlates of early reading comprehension skills: a componential analysis

This study had three main aims. First, we examined to what extent listening comprehension, vocabulary, grammatical skills and verbal short-term memory (VSTM) assessed prior to formal reading instruction explained individual differences in early reading comprehension levels. Second, we examined to what extent the three common component skills, namely vocabulary, grammar and VSTM explained the relationship between kindergarten listening comprehension and early reading comprehension levels. Third, we examined the relative contributions of word-reading and listening comprehension skills to early reading comprehension in Turkish. For this purpose, 56 Turkish-speaking children were followed from kindergarten (mean age?=?67.7?months) into Grade 2 (mean age?=?90.6?months). The relative role of kindergarten listening comprehension, vocabulary, VSTM and grammatical skills in later reading comprehension tended to vary across time, and they partly explained the relationship between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. Finally, as anticipated, listening comprehension, rather than word-reading , was found to play a more powerful role in children’s reading comprehension levels even during the early primary grades. These results contradicted those reported in English and can be explained by the rapid development of accurate word-reading skills due to the consistency of the grapheme–phoneme relationships of the Turkish orthography.     

The relationship between rapid naming and word spelling in English

A study of the concurrent relationships between naming speed, phonological awareness and spelling ability in 146 children in Years 3 and 4 of state‐funded schools in South‐East England (equivalent to US Grades 2 and 3) is reported. Seventy‐two children identified as having normal phonological awareness but reduced rapid automatised naming (RAN) performance (1 standard deviation below the mean) participated in the study. A group of 74 children was further identified. These children were matched on phonological awareness, verbal and nonverbal IQ and visual acuity, but all members of this group showed normal RAN performance. RAN made a significant unique contribution to spelling performance. Further analyses showed that participants with low naming performance were significantly poorer spellers overall and had a specific difficulty in spelling irregular words. The findings support the view that RAN may be indexing processes that are implicated in the establishment of fully specified orthographic representations.     

Aligning corporate and financial plans in teaching intensive universities

With recent changes in how UK higher education is funded, universities are operating in a context in which finances are uncertain. It is more important than ever that university leaders are able to manage the finances of their organisations in ways which both provide long-term security and allow for investment in strategically important initiatives. Teaching intensive universities must be able to generate income and oversee the allocation of resources in such a way that responds to student pressure to provide high-quality education and improve services. This article explores the benefits, disadvantages and challenges of aligning corporate and financial strategies in order to support delivery of their strategic aims and operational targets. Recommendations are made for well-managed, well-researched risk taking and developing autonomy within academic and professional services units, such that local resource allocation decisions are also in line with the organisation's strategic aims.