This study examined associations between classroom-level reading fluency, comprehension, interest in reading, and teaching practices. In classrooms with mostly child-centred methods, children showed better reading fluency, comprehension, and higher interest, whereas in classrooms with predominantly teacher-directed practices, children had lower reading comprehension at the end of grade 1.

Authors: Eve Kikas, Eija Pakarinen, Piret Soodla, Kätlin Peets & Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen

Source: Kikas, E., Pakarinen, E., Soodla, P., Peets, K. & Lerkkanen, M.-K. (2018). Associations between reading skills, interest in reading, and teaching practices in first grade. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 62(6), 832-849. DOI: 10.1080/00313831.2017.1307272

This study examined associations between classroom-level reading fluency, comprehension, interest in reading, and teaching practices. Participants were 466 children from 21 classrooms. Teachers were more likely to use teacher-directed methods in classrooms where children had poorer initial reading fluency. In classrooms with mostly child-centred methods, children showed better reading fluency, comprehension, and higher interest, whereas in classrooms with predominantly teacher-directed practices, children had lower reading comprehension at the end of grade 1.

• It is widely accepted that teaching practices influence children’s learning and development.
• Numerous studies show the positive effects of child-centred (learner-centred) teaching practices on children’s academic skills and motivation; however, some studies have found beneficial effects from teacher-directed practices on the development of basic academic skills.
• Teachers do not uniquely influence children’s academic and motivational development, but children also affect the practices teachers use.

Child-centred and teacher-directed teaching practices

• Child-centred and teacher-directed practices differ in the degree to which teachers allow children to actively construct their knowledge (vs. teach basic skills), include children in various discipline-related decision processes (vs. set the rules), and engage in creating a positive social climate via individual support.
• While teacher-directed practices value frequent feedback on academic tasks, child-centred practices emphasize the importance of emotional support and encouragement.
• There are benefits of child-centred practices across the academic, motivational, and social domains of functioning at the individual as well as the classroom level.
• There is also evidence that teacher-directed practices can be beneficial in kindergarten and primary school, and/or for students with poorer academic skills when learning basic academic skills such as letter knowledge, decoding, and numeracy skills.
• However, there is evidence that teacher-directed practices may hinder motivation, including interest.

The influence of student characteristics on teaching practices

• Teachers are continuously required to make decisions about their instruction, classroom management, and support while considering the needs of students and the aims of teaching.
• For instance, Vygotsky (1978) emphasized that the most effective learning takes place in the zone of proximal development (ZPD); thus, teachers should modify their methods and tasks to correspond to children’s skill levels.
• Not only individual, but also collective student characteristics can influence the kinds of practices teachers use.
• However, which practices teachers use with individual children vs. the whole classroom may differ depending on teachers’ knowledge and beliefs.

The study

The aim of the present study was to examine associations between classroom-level reading fluency, comprehension, and interest in reading and teaching practices in first-grade classrooms.

Research questions:

1. Do classroom-level initial reading fluency and interest predict child-centred teaching practices, and do these practices in turn predict children’s reading skills and interest at the end of the school year?
2. Do classroom-level initial reading fluency and interest affect teacher-directed teaching practices, and do these practices affect children’s reading fluency, text comprehension, and interest at the end of the first school year?

The participants were 466 children (233 girls and 233 boys) from 21 first-grade classrooms from seven public schools with Estonian as the principal language. In Estonia, children usually attend schools based on proximity. All 21 first-grade teachers were female.

Conclusions

• The results showed that child-centred practices were related to higher reading skills and interest in reading at the end of grade 1.
• An effect was found for collective student characteristics on teacher-directed practices: in classrooms where children had poorer initial reading fluency, teachers relied more frequently on teacher-directed practices.
• Teacher-directed practices were in turn related to poorer reading comprehension at the end of grade 1.
• Child-centred teaching practices were associated with children’s better reading skills and interest in reading at the end of first grade, even after controlling for the initial levels of children’s reading fluency and interest.
• Thus, in classrooms where teachers generally encourage children’s active construction of knowledge, emphasize the discussions about rules and activities, and provide emotional support, children’s specific skills such as reading fluency and comprehension improve.
• It is possible that teachers who use child-centred methods expose children more frequently to varied types of texts and give children more possibilities to choose what to read, but also discuss the reading material and thereby promote children’s interest in reading.
• Teachers may prefer teacher-directed methods with children who have poorer academic skills because they believe in the effectiveness of such practices and it may make it easier for them to manage classroom situations.
• However, no beneficial effect of teacher-directed practices on reading fluency was found, and teacher-directed methods were related to lower-level reading comprehension at the end of first school year.
• Teachers should be encouraged to rely on child-centred teaching practices in the beginning of school when trying in improve children’s reading skills and interest in reading.
• This study also informs us about the negative effects of teacher-directed practices on reading comprehension and interest.
• These practices do not satisfy children’s basic needs for belongingness and autonomy, and instead seem to be inhibiting the development of more complicated skills like reading comprehension.
• Teachers should try to create classroom environments where children feel that their teachers are supportive and encouraging and that they are regarded as active participants in the teaching process.
• It is important for educators to make sure that young teachers are provided with a set of practical skills to best nurture children’s academic, motivational, and emotional needs and that they are not left alone when challenges arise in the classroom.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the reading and spelling skills of Finnish children in grades 1 and 2 receiving part-time special education from special education teachers for reading and spelling difficulties (RSD) and for RSD with other learning difficulties. The results showed that the reading and spelling skills of students with RSD lagged behind age level and that students with overlapping difficulties exhibited even slower development. Small group education and a moderate amount of part-time special education (approximately 38 h per year) predicted faster skill development.

Authors: Leena K. Holopainen, Noona H. Kiuru, Minna K. Mäkihonko & Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen

Source: Holopainen, L.K., Kiuru, N.H., Mäkihonko, M.K. & Lerkkanen, M.-K. (2018). The role of part-time special education supporting students with reading and spelling difficulties from grade 1 to grade 2 in Finland. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 33(3), 316-333. DOI: 10.1080/08856257.2017.1312798

The aim of the study is to evaluate the reading and spelling skills of Finnish children in grades 1 and 2 receiving part-time special education from special education teachers for reading and spelling difficulties (RSD) and for RSD with other learning difficulties. Of 152 children involved in the study, 98 received part-time special education for RSD, and 54 did not have RSD and did not receive special education. The results showed that the reading and spelling skills of students with RSD lagged behind age level and that students with overlapping difficulties exhibited even slower development. Small group education and a moderate amount of part-time special education (approximately 38 h per year) predicted faster skill development, whereas individual and large amount of special education (more than 48 h per year) were related to slower skill development and broader difficulties.

• Reading acquisition primarily requires performance of the alphabetic principle formed by letter-sound knowledge and phonemic skills, followed by maintenance of the detected phoneme in short-term memory to a synthesis of all read phonemes and finally a recognition of word meaning after generating the phoneme sequence.
• Orthographic complexity also affects reading and spelling (RS) development.
• The acquisition of spelling procedures is also affected by the orthographic consistency of the language as well as features of the oral language and the linguistic structure complexity.
• The process of learning to read and spell is challenging for 5% to 18% of school-age children depending on the criteria chosen to define reading and spelling difficulties (RSD).
• Moreover, evidence suggests that about 40% of school-aged children with one developmental disorder will also suffer another developmental disorder.

Effective reading instruction for students with RSD

• Explicit and systematic instruction.
• Foundational skills such as phonemic awareness and phonics/word study are essential elements of instruction.
• Higher processing skills such as fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension are essential from the beginning of reading instruction.
• Students who have difficulties benefit from smaller group instruction (five or fewer students).

Overview of support systems for RSD

• Many studies show that students fail to progress in reading in different support settings, and even when gains in reading achievement are made, there is little evidence that these students meet grade-level expectations after years of special education services.
• According to Swanson (2008), reading instruction for students with LD is generally of low quality and includes little to no explicit instruction in phonics or comprehension strategies.
• The common belief is that students with RSD need instruction as a slower pace and not a greater amount of instruction.
• Students with RSD benefit from intensive interventions, and many of these students require such interventions for multiple years.

Finnish educational system

• Finnish comprehensive school starts at age seven.
• One school year includes 38 weeks.
• There is also one year of pre-primary education for six-year-old children (kindergarten) which creates a foundation (e.g. for literacy skills).
• Systematic phonics-based teaching of reading begins in grade 1.
• The development of syllable reading is important for reading fluency because two, three, four, and more multi-syllable words are frequent, and the number of one-syllable words is limited.
• In basic education, students do not need a formal diagnosis to receive special educational services.
• The most common form is part-time special education given by a special education teacher.
• It is a form of educational support in which students are in general education classes receiving support for 1 to 2 h per week from a special education teacher.
• Typically, it is put into practice in a small group (3 to 4 students at the same time) or individually.
• Usually, special education teaches reading and spelling simultaneously with phonics-based methods, motivating students by board games or computer programs.

The study

This study examined the development of RS skills among Finnish children in grades 1 and 2 who receive part-time special education for RSD from special education teachers.

Research questions:

1. Are there differences in the RS skills development of students in grades 1 and 2 who a) receive part-time special education for RSD and b) have no RSD and do not receive special education support? Is mean-level skill development different between children with only RSD and those with overlapping difficulties?
2. To what extent do the amount and the form of special education and the presence of only RSD or RSD and overlapping difficulties predict RS development among children who receive special education for RSD?

The participants of this study were 152 children (63 girls, 89 boys). In the present study, 98 children were identified as at risk for RSD already in kindergarten and received part-time special education for RSD in grade 1. Out of these children, 56 received special education only for RSD. For the present study, 54 intensively followed control children with no RSD risk from the same classrooms as the risk for RSD children and who received no special education were randomly selected. The special education teachers were asked to rate the students who had received part-time special education during the first grade. Students RS skills were assessed during the autumn of grade 1 (T1), the spring of grade 1 (T2), and the spring of grade 2 (T3).

Conclusions

• The results showed that students with RSD lagged their age level in reading skills during the follow-up period, but after two years, the control group had not achieved better spelling skills than those with RSD.
• Students with only RSD partly attained age-level RS skills, whereas students with other difficulties exhibited clearly slower development.
• Small-group interventions (3 to 4 students) and a medium amount of part-time special education predicted faster development in the RS skills of RSD students.
• With some students, the difficulties are broader and more persistent and they need more intensified or long-lasting support; 1 to 2 h a week at first grade is not enough.

This study investigated special educational needs (SEN) teachers’ assessment practices and the accuracy of their ratings of the students’ skill levels in reading fluency and reading comprehension. Results showed that SEN teachers used several assessment practices simultaneously but mostly relied on observations. Only two-thirds of low-performing students having difficulties in fluency or comprehension were identified.

Authors: Riitta Virinkoski, Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Kenneth Eklund & Mikko Aro

Source: Virinkoski, R., Lerkkanen, M.-K., Eklund, K. & Aro, M. (2020). Special education teachers’ identification of students’ reading difficulties in grade 6. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, DOI: 10.1080/00313831.2020.1833241

This study investigated special educational needs (SEN) teachers’ (n = 29) assessment practices and the accuracy of their ratings of the students’ (n = 55) skill levels in reading fluency and reading comprehension. Results showed that SEN teachers used several assessment practices simultaneously but mostly relied on observations. The correlations between the teacher ratings and test scores were significant but moderate in fluency and weak in comprehension. Only two-thirds of low-performing students having difficulties in fluency or comprehension were identified.

• In addition to classroom teachers, special educational needs (SEN) teachers and remedial reading teachers play an essential role in evaluating students’ needs for reading support, identifying literacy difficulties, and providing individualised targeted support.
• This study focuses on Finnish SEN teachers and students receiving part-time special education in the sixth grade.
• Some students’ reading difficulties (RD) may not manifest themselves in the early school years but might emerge later and become persistent.
• Although identification of students’ RD during primary school has been widely studied, research on teachers’ assessment of RD and the accuracy of their assessments before students transition to lower secondary school (i.e. at the end of Grade 6 in the Finnish educational system) is still limited.

Teachers’ assessment practices

• Teachers use formative (or informal) assessments to collect data on student’s current skills or to improve student’s learning by implementing more personalised instruction.
• Assessment tools can be defined as high-stakes or low-stakes.
• The former is connected to the final assessment of how much the student has learned at a certain assessment point, usually in the end of an instructional segment (such as a semester).
• The latter refers to low-stakes continuous instruction comprising assessments before and during instruction.
• Generally, teachers’ assessment practices can be divided into tests, curriculum-based measures (CBMs), and qualitative assessments.
• Direct measures refer to tests.
• The accuracy of teachers’ ratings of reading fluency and comprehension through observation is low in comparison to the identification of low student reading performance using CBMs and standardised achievement tests.
• CBMs can be used in general, remedial, and special education to monitor students’ progress in overall school performance, for example.
• Using CBMs in conjunction with standardized procedures to track students’ reading development can lead to higher identification accuracy of struggling readers as well as improvements in reading achievement.

Assessment of reading fluency and comprehension

• One key factor in learning to read fluently is automatic word recognition, which develops through consistent practice, repetition, and reading a wide range of various texts.
• Reading fluency comprises decoding accuracy and automaticity, both of which are connected to reading comprehension.
• One common definition of reading fluency includes reading accuracy and rate, and reading fluency is usually operationalised as the number of correctly read items within a time limit.
• Reading comprehension requires word recognition (i.e. decoding), language comprehension, inference making, and information integration.
• Some examples of common measures to assess reading comprehension are silent reading tasks, either written or oral retell tasks, and picture matching tasks.

Associations between teacher ratings and test scores

• Sensitivity of an assessment tool (i.e. its accuracy in identifying students with problems) has usually been considered important so that support can be allocated to those students who need it most.
• Specificity refers to the accuracy of an assessment tool to correctly identify students who are not at risk.
• An acceptable level of classification accuracy for sensitivity is 90% or above and for specificity 80% or above.
• Despite relatively high overall correlations between teachers’ ratings and students’ actual test scores, teachers may systemically over- or underestimate students’ performances.
• Students with low academic performance are usually judged less accurately than typically performing students.

The study

The aim of the study was to investigate SEN teachers’ assessment practices and the accuracy of their ratings of reading fluency and reading comprehension in grade 6, before students’ transition to lower secondary school.

Research questions:

1. What kinds of assessment practices do SEN teachers use to evaluate students’ reading performances, and how do they rank different practices?
2. To what extent are SEN teachers’ ratings of sixth-grade students’ reading fluency and reading comprehension skills associated with students’ test scores for the same skills?
3. How accurate are SEN teachers’ perceptions of their students’ reading fluency and reading comprehension skill levels (low performing or typically performing) compared to the students’ test scores?

Teacher sample included 29 (90% male) SEN teachers. Student sample included 55 (65% male) sixth-grade students. Data collection was carried out during the spring term of grade 6.

Conclusions

• The most important assessment practices for SEN teachers were qualitative, such as observations and discussions.
• Achievement tests were not among the most important assessment practices, although they were widely used by the teachers, together with some other tools.
• All teachers used several assessment practices in parallel, but they mainly preferred indirect, qualitative assessment practices.
• Assessments based solely on observation are often inaccurate; instead, using various assessment practices together can improve the accuracy, especially when the standardized procedures are combined with CBMs.
• The correlation between the teachers’ rating and the test scores for reading fluency was moderate, but the correlation for reading comprehension was weak.
• The moderate and weak correlations between the teachers’ rating and the test scores found in this study are substantially lower, compare to those reported in many former studies.
• Teachers’ judgments of both reading fluency and reading comprehension were quite inaccurate compared to the test scores.
• The findings indicate that at least 30% of the sixth-grade students struggling with RD were unidentified.
• Specificity rate of reading fluency was rather high but below the optimal rate, indicating that 30% of the typically performing students were unidentified.
• Concerning reading comprehension, most students were incorrectly identified as low achievers, even though their test scores indicated typical performance.
• Teachers need reliable assessment tools throughout primary grades to monitor students’ reading progress systematically and continuously.
• Support decisions based mainly on teachers’ own perceptions and observations of students’ performances can lead to inaccurate assessments.
• One solution for better judgment accuracy could be a structured assessment tool designed for special education purposes enabling teachers to rank-order students’ reading performances and compare the rankings with reading test scores.

The aim of the study was to investigate what kinds of assessment practices classroom teachers and special educational needs (SEN) teachers use in assessing first grade students’ pre-reading skills (letter knowledge and phonological skills). Most classroom teachers used qualitative assessment and SEN teachers also relied on tests. The findings underline the importance for developing more specific and reliable assessment tools for pedagogical purposes.

Authors: Riitta Virinkoski, Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Leena Holopainen, Kenneth Eklund & Mikko Aro

Source: Virinkoski, R., Lerkkanen, M.-K., Holopainen, L., Eklund, K. & Aro, M. (2018). Teachers’ ability to identify children at early risk for reading difficulties in grade 1. Early Childhood Education Journal, 46(5), 497-509. DOI: 10.1007/s10643-017-0883-5

The aim of the study was to investigate what kinds of assessment practices classroom teachers and special educational needs (SEN) teachers use in assessing first grade students’ pre-reading skills (letter knowledge and phonological skills). The data from two Finnish longitudinal studies were used: JLD sample (class teachers, n = 91; SEN teachers, n = 51; 200 students) and First Steps sample (class teachers, n = 136, SEN teachers, n = 34; 598 students). Most classroom teachers used qualitative assessment, and SEN teachers also relied on tests. Although teacher ratings correlated with the test scores, some children in need of extra support for their early reading development according to test scores remained unidentified. The findings underline the importance for developing more specific and reliable assessment tools for pedagogical purposes.

• Teachers play a key role in identifying the need for early support in reading skill development because they generally observe the first signs of reading difficulties (RD).
• The main purpose of teachers’ evaluations of students should be to produce accurate knowledge of the students’ skills in order to plan tailored instruction and support when necessary.
• Particularly, children with poor pre-reading skills who are potentially at risk for reading difficulties (RD) should be identified as early as possible.
• Prior studies have shown that screening batteries and standardized achievement tests predict those at risk for reading failure better than teachers’ evaluations based on, for example, rating scales, whereas teachers’ evaluations have tended to produce high false-negative rates.

Assessment of pre-reading skills by teachers

• To ensure accurate identification, the screening batteries should cover several skill areas related to developing reading skills, such as phonological skills, orthographic and letter knowledge, word reading ability, vocabulary, and syntactic ability.
• However, the accuracy of screening measures differs with respect to sensitivity and specificity.
• Sensitivity refers to the degree of true positives, meaning how accurately the measure identifies students at high risk for RD.
• Specificity refers to the degree of true negatives, or how accurately the measure identifies students at low risk for RD.
• Teachers’ assessment practices can be divided into three categories: tests comprising screening or individual test batteries (performance-based assessment), curriculum-based measures (CBM), and qualitative assessments such as observations in the classroom.
• CBM may be used to monitor students’ progression in an entire school or classroom, to track an individual’s progress toward end-of-year benchmarks or individualised education program goals.
• Teachers’ decisions seem to be sometimes based on situational or other irrelevant factors (e.g. gender, behaviour) instead of solely performance assessments.

Correspondence between teacher ratings and test scores

• In most studies, the correlations between teacher ratings and test scores have varied between 0.40 and 0.70.
• Teachers may, however, systematically over- or underestimate student performance.
• Flynn and Rahbar (1998) developed a theory-based screening instrument for teachers to assess reading competency, and their results suggest that teachers’ predictions of children at risk for RD can be improved by using rating instruments that include research-validated antecedents of reading with behavioural descriptions of low and high achievement.
• The best predictors of a pre-schoolers’ or kindergarteners’ later reading achievement when the child has a familial history of dyslexia have proven to be measures that require processing printed material together with oral language proficiency measures and performance-IQ measures.
• Compared to teacher ratings, standardized tests more accurately identify students who are potentially at risk for RD in future.

Learning to read in Finnish

• Finnish children attend kindergarten at age six, and reading instruction begins at age seven when they enter first grade.
• Upon entering school, letter knowledge seems to be one of the best predictors of reading and spelling accuracy in the Finnish language.
• The Finnish orthography is almost purely phonemic: the grapheme-phoneme correspondences are regular and symmetrical at the level of the single letter, and early reading instruction in Finnish almost uniformly rests upon synthetic phonics.
• Finnish students who struggle with reading do not typically have problems with reading accuracy but do experience persistent problems with reading fluency.
• In the case of RD, the forms of support are remedial teaching during or after school by the class teacher, part-time special education given by the SEN teacher individually or in small groups during school days, or co-teaching by the class teacher and the SEN teacher during normal literacy lessons.

The study

The aim of the study was to investigate teachers’ evaluation practices, and the sensitivity and specificity of their assessments or pre-reading skills, especially of children with the lowest achievement, and how the teacher ratings corresponded to the reading test scores at the beginning of the first grade.

Research questions:

1. Which assessment practices do class teachers and SEN teachers use to assess pre-reading skill (e.g. letter knowledge, phonological skills) at the beginning of grade 1?
2. Are teacher ratings associated with test scores in pre-reading skills?
3. How accurately do the teachers identify students’ pre-reading difficulties to test scores, and what are the sensitivity and specificity rates of their assessments?

The data for this study were drawn from two Finnish longitudinal studies: the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (JLD) and the First Steps study. The JLD data comprised 91 class teachers, 51 SEN teachers and 200 first-grade students. The First Steps data comprised 136 regular classroom teachers, 34 SEN teachers and 598 children.

Conclusions

• The results first showed that the class teachers mostly used one single assessment practice, whereas the SEN teachers often used a combination of several assessment practices.
• Second, it turned out the correlations between teacher ratings and test scores were mostly weak or moderate.
• For the JLD sample, there were differences between the accuracy of the class teachers’ and the SEN teachers’ ratings, and in the First Steps sample, the specificity rate was particularly low.
• Because most class teachers used only qualitative assessment, the collaboration between class teachers and SEN teachers on assessment issues is desirable, if not necessary.
• Early identification and intervention in specific deficit areas can improve students’ reading skill levels immediately as well as prevent later difficulties.
• The findings suggest that more attention should be paid to teacher training as well as developing reliable assessment tools for teachers.

The aim of the study was to analyse literacy instruction activities and their association with the reading performance of first graders in Estonia and Finland, two countries that have similar orthographies and education systems but differ in the onset of formal reading instruction. The results showed that there were more similarities than differences between the countries in literacy instruction activities. The results highlight the importance of responsiveness to students’ needs in early school years literacy instruction.

Authors: Jenni Ruotsalainen, Piret Soodla, Eija Räikkönen, Anna-Maija Poikkeus, Eve Kikas & Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen

Source: Ruotsalainen, J., Soodla, P., Räikkönen, E., Poikkeus, A.-M., Kikas, E. & Lerkkanen, M.-K. (2020). Literacy instruction activities and their associations with first graders’ reading performance in two transparent orthographies. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2020.1742093

The aim of the study was to analyse literacy instruction activities and their association with the reading performance of first graders in Estonia and Finland, two countries with similar orthographies and education systems but who differ in the onset of formal reading instruction. The results showed that there were more similarities than differences between the countries in literacy instruction activities. However, the slopes of reading performance development among Finnish beginning readers sharply differed from those of other readers in both countries with respect to the content of literacy instruction. The results highlight the importance of responsiveness to students’ needs in early school years literacy instruction.

• Reading proficiency requires the development of both decoding and comprehension skills as well as instructional practices that address both.
• Estonia and Finland have languages with transparent orthographies, and in both countries, students enter school at the age of seven.
• Their difference is that the onset of formal reading instruction takes place in kindergarten in Estonia but in first grade in Finland.
• Despite the later onset of instruction, Finnish students on average reach the same level of reading fluency and reading comprehension as their Estonian peers by the end of first grade.
• Instruction in first grade has been shown to have a greater impact on students’ reading skills than instruction in other grade levels.
• The need for balanced instructional practices that support both the development of students’ foundation-level code-focused (CF) skills of decoding and reading fluency and the broad advancement of meaning-focused (MF) comprehension skills has been widely acknowledged.
• Yet, analyses of the effects of specific instructional practices at these differentiated levels from classroom observations are rare.

Emerging literacy skills

• The Simple View of Reading (SVR; Gough and Tunmer, 1986), a widely used theoretical account on reading, suggests that reading comprehension is a composition of efficient decoding skills and linguistic comprehension.
• Linguistic comprehension and vocabulary develop through informal and formal exposure to interactions throughout one’s life, whereas acquiring the ability to decode words is a more rapid process where students must master a limited number of letter-sound combinations and the alphabetic principle.
• Typically, in transparent orthographies the acquisition of decoding skill takes place soon after reading instruction has begun.

Literacy instruction in first grade

• The sensitivity of the teacher to take a student’s skills into account and tailor the instruction has been shown to contribute to the development of reading skills.
• A heavier emphasis on the development of CF skills, for example through letter knowledge, phonological awareness and decoding tasks is commonly needed in the beginning of the first school year, whereas the focus may later shift towards incorporating more MF activities.
• The three dimensions of framework and observational coding scheme of literacy instruction:

1. Context (e.g. whole vs. small group instruction)
2. Management (e.g. teacher vs. child managed direction of attention)
3. Content of instruction

• The present study centres on the content of literacy instruction.
• CF activities aim at providing support for early decoding and spelling skills, such as blending phonemes or doing spelling exercises, and later practicing reading fluency.
• MF activities seek to support students’ comprehension skills via meaning-based discussions and reading comprehension tasks, for example.
• Because the Estonian and Finnish languages have highly transparent orthography (almost perfect phoneme-grapheme correspondence), reading instruction is phonics-based.
• After the first phonemes are introduced to students, phonemic assembly and progress toward full mastery of accurate decoding are relatively easy for beginning readers.

The study

The present study examines the instructional activities during literacy lessons in Estonia and Finland and their associations with students’ reading performance during the first school year.

Research questions:

1. How is literacy instruction implemented in the observed Estonian and Finnish classrooms in first grade spring?
2. How are the amounts of time used for CF vs. MF literacy instruction contents in Estonian and Finnish classrooms associated with the students’ reading performance (fluency and comprehension) in the spring of first grade? Are these associations similar for students with different entry-level reading fluency?

The participants consisted of 33 classroom teachers (21 from Estonia, 12 from Finland) and a total of 569 students from 33 first grade classrooms. Observations in the classrooms were carried out in first grade spring (April). The literacy lessons were coded with respect to the duration of the contents of instructional activities following the Individualising Student Instruction (ISI) classroom observation system developed by Connor et al. (2009). The codings assigned in each category were summarised under the broader categories of CF and MF activities and non-instructional activities. Students’ reading skills were assessed using group-administered tests in the classrooms in first grade autumn (reading fluency) and first grade spring (reading fluency and reading comprehension).

Conclusions

• More similarities than differences in literacy instruction between Estonia and Finland were found, but the analyses of the associations with students’ reading performance revealed some country-specific interaction effects.
• Estonian teachers spend more classroom time on listening and reading comprehension activities.
• Individualising practices when teaching basic literacy skills were found only in Finland.
• This pattern of findings appears to reflect teachers’ adapting their instructional strategies to the different phases of students’ formal literacy learning careers.
• The amount of either CF or MF activities did not associate with the level of reading fluency or comprehension among Estonian students, nor did it have any additional effect on students’ first grade spring performance when students’ entry-level reading fluency was considered.
• Among Finnish students, a high amount of CF activities was associated with higher levels of reading fluency and better reading comprehension among students with low entry-level reading fluency.
• Overall, students spent more time on MF activities than on CF activities in first grade spring.
• Yet, CF activities are important as there is variation in students’ reading performance and there are still students who are learning to decode in first grade spring and hence need support.
• In early years literacy instruction, students need ample support and exposure to literacy content and instruction adapted to their skill levels.
• This is especially important for readers with low reading fluency skill, who thus need more support with coding skills.

The authors synthesized comparisons of bilinguals’ and monolinguals’ performance in six executive domains using 891 effects size from 152 studies on adults. Before correcting estimates for observed publication bias, our analyses revealed a small bilingual advantage for inhibition, shifting, and working memory, but not for monitoring or attention. No evidence for a bilingual advantage remained after correcting for bias.

Authors: Minna Lehtonen, Anna Soveri, Aini Laine, Janica Järvenpää, Angela de Bruin & Jan Antfolk

Source: Lehtonen, M., Soveri, A., Laine, A., Järvenpää, J., de Bruin, A. & Antfolk, J. (2018). Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 144(4), 394-425, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000142

The authors synthesized comparisons of bilinguals’ and monolinguals’ performance in six executive domains using 891 effects size from 152 studies on adults. Before correcting estimates for observed publication bias, our analyses revealed a small bilingual advantage for inhibition, shifting, and working memory, but not for monitoring or attention. No evidence for a bilingual advantage remained after correcting for bias. For verbal fluency, the analyses indicated a small bilingual disadvantage. The available evidence does not provide systematic support for that bilingualism is associated with benefits in cognitive control functions in adults.

• Executive functions (EF) is an umbrella term for high-level cognitive control functions that are involved in all complex mental activities, and therefore are of particular importance to human behaviour.
• The most frequently postulated EF components are working memory, inhibition, and set shifting.
• The field has not reached consensus on the nature and extent of the putative bilingual advantage.
• Theoretically, the bilingual advantage is assumed to stem from the demands that the use of two languages places on the cognitive control system.
• Previous meta-analysis and systematic reviews on the relationship between bilingualism and particular aspects of EF have reported varying results.

The study

In this meta-analysis, the currently available literature on bilingualism and EF in adults was reviewed. Compared to previous systematic reviews, this meta-analysis is considerably more wide-ranging in the number of included studies and in the domains, tasks, and background variables investigated, and unpublished studies were included.

Research questions:

1. In which EF domain do we observe a bilingual advantage?
2. Are possible advantages specific to some task paradigms?
3. Are possible advantages of different magnitude in verbal or nonverbal tasks?
4. Are observed advantages affected by how participant groups have been matched for age, SES, vocabulary knowledge, or IQ?
5. Is there a larger advantage in older than younger bilingual adults?
6. Does age of acquisition (AoA) or proficiency in L2 or immigration status moderate the advantages?
7. Does the country in which the study was conducted or language pairs of the bilinguals moderate the effects?

The data included a total of 891 effect sizes from 152 studies.

Conclusions

• No systematic evidence was found of a bilingual advantage in adults in any of the EF domains after correcting for an observed publication bias.
• More specifically, the initial analysis across all EF domains estimated a small positive difference in favour of bilinguals, corresponding to less than 1% of the explained variation in outcomes, and this difference was the likely result of bias that remained in the data after removing outliers.
• After correcting for the remaining bias, the analysis across all EF domains no longer estimated any difference between monolinguals and bilinguals.
• Before accounting for bias in the data, the analysis focusing on each EF domain separately estimated small differences in favour of bilinguals for inhibitory control, shifting, and WM, and a small difference in favour of monolinguals was estimated for verbal fluency.
• After correcting for bias, no bilingual advantages were seen in any of the investigated EF domains.
• In fact, only a small bilingual disadvantage for verbal fluency and a smaller bilingual disadvantage for attention remained.

A comprehensive meta-analysis on the effects of bilingualism on working memory (WM) capacity was conducted. Results from 88 effect sizes, 27 independent studies, and 2,901 participants revealed a small to medium population effect size of 0.20 in favour of greater WM capacity for bilinguals than monolinguals.

Authors: John G. Grundy & Kalinka Timmer

Source: Grundy, J.G. & Timmer, K. (2017). Bilingualism and working memory capacity: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Second Language Research, 33(3), 325-340, DOI: 10.1177/0267658316678286

A comprehensive meta-analysis on the effects of bilingualism on working memory (WM) capacity was conducted. Results from 88 effect sizes, 27 independent studies, and 2,901 participants revealed a small to medium population effect size of 0.20 in favour of greater WM capacity for bilinguals than monolinguals. This suggests that experience managing two languages that compete for selection results in greater WM capacity over time. Moderator analyses revealed that the largest effects were observed in children than in other age groups. In addition, whether the task was performed in the first (L1) or second (L2) language for bilinguals moderated the effect size of the bilingual advantage.

• Bilingualism has been associated with the enhancement of multiple executive functions (EFs), including cognitive flexibility, efficiency, task-switching, and conflict resolution.
• This is believed to be the result of lifelong experience managing multiple languages that compete for selection.
• Substantial evidence exists that both languages are activated in the bilingual brain even when only one language is being used.
• Managing languages that compete for selection requires resources from WM, and continual use of WM resources might lead to enhanced WM capacity over time in order to ensure the efficiency of processing in the future.
• Recent models of WM share the view that it is constructed of multiple component processes that rely heavily on selective attention.
• Learning a second language across the lifespan necessarily involves selective and sustained attention that operate on perceptual and long-term memory information.

The study

The present study performed a comprehensive meta-analysis on the effects of bilingualism on working memory capacity to reveal an estimate of the population effect size. Furthermore, the authors were able to examine age, the linguistic nature of the task, and the language in which the task was performed as potential moderating variables.

The data included a total of 88 effect sizes from 27 independent studies with a total sample involving 2,901 participants.

Conclusions

• The authors propose that second language experience has a positive effect on WM capacity.
• The bilingual advantage appeared to be strongest in children.
• When bilinguals performed the task in their L1, they performed better than monolinguals, but when they performed the task in their L2, they performed worse than monolinguals.
• This exemplifies the importance of ensuring that both groups are performing the task in their dominant language.

The findings of this study showed that high academic buoyancy indirectly predicted lower avoidance behaviour, fewer failure expectations, and higher task-oriented planning via academic emotions. High academic buoyancy was related to high enjoyment and hope as well as low boredom and hopelessness, which further predicted low failure expectations. The findings suggest that academic buoyancy supports positive expectations and adaptive behaviours in learning situations through the regulation of emotions.

Authors: Riikka Hirvonen, David W. Putwain, Sami Määttä, Timo Ahonen & Noona Kiuru

Source: Hirvonen, R., Putwain, D.W., Määttä, S., Ahonen, T., & Kiuru, N. (2020). The role of academic buoyancy and emotions in students’ learning-related expectations and behaviours in primary school. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 948-963. DOI:10.1111/bjep.12336

This study investigated the extent to which academic buoyancy predicts students’ failure expectations, avoidance behaviour, and task-oriented planning in learning situations, and to what extent academic emotions mediate the effect of academic buoyancy on these expectations and behaviours. The sample consisted of 845 Finnish students in the sixth grade of primary school. The findings showed that high academic buoyancy indirectly predicted lower avoidance behaviour, fewer failure expectations, and higher task-oriented planning via academic emotions. High academic buoyancy was related to high enjoyment and hope as well as low boredom and hopelessness, which further predicted low failure expectations. The findings suggest that academic buoyancy supports positive expectations and adaptive behaviours in learning situations through the regulation of emotions.

• Previous studies have shown learning-related beliefs and behaviours play a significant role in learning.
• It may be presumed that learning-related expectations and behaviours are influenced by previous learning experiences.

The mediating role of academic emotions

• Academic emotions are defined as emotions that relate directly to achievement activities or outcomes.
• Outcome emotions are related to anxiety of possible failure and pride of previous success.
• Activity emotions are related to boredom or enjoyment of learning.
• Valence of emotions differentiates between positive versus negative emotions, and activation of emotions refers to the level of physiological activation that emotions invoke.
• The control–value theory suggests that different outcome- and activity-related emotions are the function of students’ control and value appraisals.
• Positive activating emotions (such as enjoyment of learning, hope, and pride) can promote motivation, effort, use of adaptive learning strategies, and self-regulated learning.

Transition to lower secondary school in Finland

• The present study focused on students in the last grade of primary school before their important transition to lower secondary school.
• In Finland, this transition takes place at 12 or 13 years of age.
• In addition to going through biological, cognitive, and psychological changes related to puberty, students at this age face changes in their daily life at school as a result of the school transition.
• They move from a classroom teacher system to a subject teacher system, start to study new subjects, and often change to another school.
• As a result of these changes, students’ motivation and effort can decrease and negative attitudes towards school increase during the school transition.

The present study

The present study examined the role of seven academic emotions as mediators in the relationship between academic buoyancy and learning-related expectations and behaviours. Of these emotions, three were positive activating (enjoyment, hope, and pride), two were negative activating (anxiety and shame), and two were negative deactivating (boredom and hopelessness).

Hypotheses:

1. Buoyancy was expected to relate positively to positive emotions and negatively to negative emotions.
2. High enjoyment, hope, and pride were expected to further relate to low levels of avoidance behaviour and failure expectations as well as high task-oriented planning.
3. Boredom and hopelessness were expected to be related to high avoidance behaviour, high failure expectations, and low task-oriented planning.
4. It was expected that anxiety and shame would have positive effects on task-oriented planning and negative effects on avoidance behaviour and failure expectations.

Methods

Participants were 845 Finnish sixth-grade students with an age range at the beginning of the study of 11.6–14.8 years. Two trained testers collected the data in the classrooms on normal school days in the autumn (T1) and spring (T2) of Grade 6.

Conclusions

• The results show that the effect of high buoyancy at the beginning of sixth grade on low avoidance behaviour, low failure expectations, and high task-oriented planning at the end of the sixth grade was fully mediated by students’ emotions.
• The findings suggest that an adaptive role for buoyancy in relation to positive academic outcomes is partly achieved through the regulation of academic emotions.
• Interestingly, pride, anxiety, and shame were not found to mediate the effect of academic buoyancy on learning-related beliefs and behaviours.
• The findings highlight the importance of positive-activating emotions in supporting primary school students’ adaptive learning-related beliefs and behaviours and the role of negative deactivating emotions in increasing maladaptive beliefs and behaviours.
• According to control–value theory, students’ appraisals of their subjective control over learning situations and outcomes are crucial for the arousal of positive and negative emotions.
• The sense of this subjective control could be reinforced by rehearsing academic buoyancy.
• Buoyancy could be a fruitful target of intervention studies in promoting students’ positive learning experiences, adaptive functioning, and performance at school.
• Attention should be paid to students’ positive emotional experiences at school, their feelings of being in control of their learning, and their skills and confidence to overcome challenges, because these promote students’ enjoyment of learning and their effort with learning tasks.

This intervention study was conducted to document conditions under which a computer-based literacy game (GraphoGame) could enhance the literacy skills of first-grade students in an African city. The game demonstrated a positive effect for the spelling test. The most effective intervention combined exposure of both the teachers and the students to the game.

Authors: Jacqueline Jere-Folotiya, Tamara Chansa-Kabali, Jonathan C. Munachaka, Francis Sampa, Christopher Yalukanda, Jari Westerholm, Ulla Richardson, Robert Serpell & Heikki Lyytinen

Source: Jere-Folotiya, J., Chansa-Kabali, T., Munachaka, J.C., Sampa, F., Yalukanda, C., Westerholm, J., Richardson, U., Serpell, R., & Lyytinen, H. (2014). The effect of using a mobile literacy game to improve literacy levels of grade one students in Zambian schools. Educational Technology Research and Development, 62, 417-436. DOI: 10.1007/s11423-014-9342-9

This intervention study was conducted to document conditions under which a computer-based literacy game (GraphoGame) could enhance the literacy skills of first-grade students in an African city. The participants were 573 first-grade students from government schools who were randomly sampled into control (n = 314) and various intervention (n = 259) groups. GraphoGame was admistered on mobile phones to students at their school under supervision. There was a positive effect of the game for the Spelling test. The most effective intervention combined exposure of both teachers and students to the game. Initial letter knowledge was a good predictor of final letter knowledge on GraphoGame.

• Literacy is a major cultural resource for effective communication and an essential skill for individuals to prosper in a modern society.
• The proportion of school students in Zambia achieving even the minimal expected standard of literacy by Grades 5 and 6 is exceptionally low, with only 32.3% of students attaining minimal acceptable mastery of skills and knowledge.
• In an attempt to improve reading levels, the Government of Zambia introduced a new educational policy: Primary Reading Program (PRP), which requires the seven Zambian official languages should be used for teaching initial literacy, depending on the geographical location.
• The PRP works on the premise that the orthography of the Bantu languages of Zambia is transparent or consistent in nature.
• Transparent alphabetic codes are much easier to teach and learn.
• Reading improvements have been documented since the introduction of the PRP.
• For example, an increase from 23% to over 60% has been reported in achieving minimal standards in the local languages in Grade 5.

The present study

This paper reports on the findings of an applied research project entitled Reading Support for Zambian Children (RESUZ). The objective was to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of a supplementary, computer-mediated learning resource in the form of a phonics game (GraphoGame) played on a hand-held device (mobile phone).

The goals of the study were as follows:

1. To examine the effectiveness of the desktop computer or mobile phone-based phonics game (GraphoGame) in improving initial literacy skills of first-grade students in the context of prevailing conditions as a supplementary resource for literacy instruction in Zambian public schools.
2. To establish which of several methods of providing intervention (students only, teachers only, or a combination of both) was most effective.
3. To investigate the influence of initial letter knowledge and amount of time playing GraphoGame on final letter knowledge.

Methods

Participants were 573 students (age range 5-9 years, 52.4% females) and their teachers (n = 68). In the post-test, 312 students participated. The participants were randomly selected from 42 government schools in the Lusaka District. Within each school, two Grade 1 classes were randomly selected and randomly assigned to either a control or intervention class. Six students were then randomly sampled from each classroom.

GraphoGame

• The game provides a computer-mediated online environment for learning letter–sound correspondences developed in Finland.
• The game provides an index of initial letter knowledge based on assessment of the child’s letter knowledge before they play the game.
• It provides an index of final letter knowledge after the child has played the game.
• The focus of the training was initially letter–sound knowledge and the steps needed thereafter for learning to read (if the training is to continue over a prolonged period).

Conclusions

• The findings provide evidence that GraphoGame is a tool that can be used to help Zambian students learn to read by enhancing their letter–sound knowledge.
• The effect of playing the game is greater when teachers are introduced to letter–sound knowledge in ciNyanja to avoid interference from English letter names.
• The PRP used in Zambian schools emphasises letter-sound correspondence as basic introduction to literacy.
• This means that these two approaches (the PRP course and GraphoGame) can complement each other in the teaching of basic literacy to students—especially in the early grades.
• The results lead the authors to recommend that GraphoGame can be used as a tool to supplement the teaching of literacy in Zambian schools.
• Interventions that use the game should focus on both students and teachers.

In 17 sub-Saharan countries, fewer than half of all children are learning basic reading skills. Among the key reasons for this are the inadequate number of trained teachers and the high child-to-teacher ratios in schools. Further, because of differences in the orthography of languages, choice of language in early literacy instruction can have a considerable effect on learning outcomes.

Authors: Heikki Lyytinen, Emma Ojanen, Jacqueline Jere-Folotiya, Stella Damaris Ngorosho, Francis Sampa, Pamela February, Flora Malasi, Jonathan Munachaka, Christopher Yalukanda, Kenneth Pugh & Robert Serpel

Source: Lyytinen, H., Ojanen, E., Jere-Folotiya, J., Damaris Ngorosho, S., Sampa, F., February, P., Malasi, F., Munachaka, J., Yalukanda, C., Pugh, K., & Serpel, R. (2019). Challenges Associated with Reading Acquisition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Promotion of Literacy in Multilingual Contexts. In Spaull, Nic; Comings, John (Eds.) Improving Early Literacy Outcomes: Curriculum, Teaching, and Assessment, IBE on Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment, 4. Leiden: Brill Sense, 119-132. DOI: 10.1163/9789004402379_007

Of the 650 million children of primary school age worldwide, at least 250 million are not learning basic skills in reading and mathematics. Of these children, approximately 130 million had attended school for several years. In 17 sub-Saharan countries, fewer than half of all children are learning the basics. For instance, in 2007, 44% of Grade 6 learners in Zambia were assessed as functionally illiterate. Among the key reasons for this are the inadequate number of trained teachers and the high child-to-teacher ratios in schools. Further, because of differences in the orthography of languages, choice of language in early literacy instruction can have a considerable effect on learning outcomes. In the following, the present situation in Africa is illustrated and how new technology could be used to support literacy learning is discussed.

Effects of language policy in literacy instruction

• Africa is the only continent in which children start school in a foreign language of which their teachers may not have a competent command.
• Use of familiar languages is an important factor for human rights and preservation of cultural values. Moreover, it promotes inclusiveness in education, as it allows children to use the language they commonly speak.
• It is likely that lack of awareness of the strong impact of language on the ability to learn to read has affected education policy.
• In 1996, a new policy was announced (implemented in 2000), introducing literacy in first grade in one of seven indigenous African languages, followed by a gradual transition to English in later primary grades.
• The new curriculum combined two major technical advantages for ease of initial learning: local language familiarity and orthographic transparency.
• Initial pilot projects in two rural districts comparing the new curriculum with the pre-existing English-medium immersion scheme yielded very encouraging results. However, implementation of the policy nationwide has failed to maintain this finding.
• It is important that teachers receive adequate and effective training in the correct use phonics-based instruction methods and in how to support learners in building literacy skills, from letter-sound knowledge to reading fluency.
• Many teachers, despite receiving orientation training on the new Primary Literacy Programme, still continue to use ‘look and say’ literacy instruction recalled from their own English language literacy instruction, instead of using the phonics-based approach more suited to local Zambian languages. This may be because they receive inadequate training in the local language phonics.
• English letter names and the correct local language phonemes are pronounced in inconsistent ways. This can slow down learning for all children and pose a particular risk for children who have learning difficulties.

Mobile learning games can improve literacy

• In present-day Africa, mobile phones offer an affordable and easy-to-use gateway to reading material, and access to the Internet gives a person more reading material than in any physical library.
• Educational games can provide users with new opportunities to learn basic scholastic skills and access to new learning materials through which to acquire full literacy.
• GraphoGame (GG) was designed based on the findings from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Dyslexia (JLD) study.
• A key finding of the study was that the degree of early letter knowledge was the best predictor of later learning difficulties in reading.
• The most efficient way to support children with reading difficulties in transparent writing environments is to provide them with practice in letter-sound (not letter name) knowledge.
• In GG, over 20 language adaptations currently exist.
• By adapting to players’ performance, GG allows each player to receive individualised learning content during the game.
• The game can be used on multiple platforms, including desktop computers and smartphones/tablets.
• Pedagogically, GG teaches children grapheme–phoneme connections (sounds, syllables, and word formation) based on synthetic and analytic phonics instruction by constantly adapting to the particular player’s skill level.
• The aim of such adaptability is to keep the training optimally challenging for the child concerned and to ensure that the child receives mostly positive feedback.
• Because of the similarity between the orthography of the Finnish language and many local languages in Africa, GG could be well suited for use in providing additional support for learning basic reading skills.
• A study by Jere-Folotiya et al. (2014) documented how the greatest effects of playing GG were attained when both the Grade 1 teachers and their learners in the urban areas of Lusaka were exposed to the game.
• It was observed that teachers could use the game to improve their letter–sound knowledge in the local language, knowledge essential to imparting basic literacy skills to early grade learners.

Education policy needs to be based on research

• The lack of text books and the shortage of trained teachers using the languages are among the biggest obstacles to using local languages in the classroom.
• Short school hours and high teacher–student ratios severely compromise teachers’ abilities to give enough attention to struggling readers.
• Mobile technology could be one way to provide additional support.
• It should be acknowledged that because of the effect orthography has in reading acquisition, policy on language instruction has much wider implications than has previously been acknowledged.
• Children can learn early literacy skills relatively quickly and easily if instruction is in their mother tongue, or if the orthography in question is consistent with their mother tongue or a familiar language.
• Using local African languages and training teachers to use phonics-based reading instruction methods could improve literacy rates across the continent and decrease the risk of children dropping out of school.