Lorraine Hammond

Early childhood educators’ perceived and actual metalinguistic knowledge, beliefs and enacted practice about teaching early reading

Results of influential reports on early literacy have drawn attention to the need for early childhood educators to take up a more explicit, teacher-directed approach to beginning reading. Positive classroom results however are in part dependent upon teacher knowledge and this study investigated the relationship between early childhood educators’ linguistic knowledge, beliefs and enacted practice about teaching reading. Results indicate that while early childhood educators believe knowledge about teaching reading is ‘very important’ to their role, their understanding of literacy precursor skills was generally low. When observed teaching beginning reading, most participants demonstrated some capacity to plan and teach in an explicit way; however, their enacted practice was inconsistent with their teacher knowledge results. This suggests the ability to reflect on the sound structure of spoken words and apply this knowledge to learning to read is a different skill to planning instructional sequences to teach these literacy precursor skills explicitly.

Getting the right balance: Effective classroom spelling instruction

Abstract Historically, spelling approaches have been broadly classified as ‘child‐centred’ or ‘instruction‐centred’ but, in recent times teachers have tended to combine elements of these theoretically different perspectives to design new approaches. The findings of research reporting teacher dissatisfaction with such combined approaches is contrasted with the experiences of staff (teachers of Years 2–5) from one Western Australian primary school. The setting was of interest because compared to populations of children in surrounding areas students at Grove Primary School demonstrated consistently higher spelling results in statewide tests. Rather than subscribing to a particular approach, the teachers reported employing a combined approach that included incidental spelling instruction in the context of literature in conjunction with teacher directed and student initiated word study. At the same time, all teachers reported a commitment to spelling practices aligned with an instruction‐centred approach including separate spelling lessons each morning of at least 20 minutes in duration and weekly or fortnightly pretest‐learn‐test cycles of word lists.

Using education assistants to help pave the road to literacy: Supporting oral language, letter-sound knowledge and phonemic awareness in the pre-primary year

Children with weak oral language skills are at risk of experiencing difficulty with early literacy acquisition. Intensive small group intervention during the pre-primary year has the potential to improve childrens success in developing emergent literacy skills. Education assistants are a potentially powerful resource for supporting students at educational risk. In this study, education assistants at four schools were trained to provide a daily half-hour emergent literacy program to pre-primary students with low oral language skills. The program focused on developing phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge and vocabulary using both explicit and in-context (embedded) learning activities. The students undertaking the program made significant gains on early language and literacy measures. Case studies are presented that illustrate the strengths and limitations of the intervention for children and schools.

Walking the talk: Western Australian teachers’ beliefs about early reading and spelling instruction and their knowledge of metalinguistics

Abstract In the context of a national inquiry into the teaching of literacy in Australia, an investigation of beliefs about early reading and spelling instruction and knowledge of metalinguistics of primary pre‐service teachers in Western Australia was undertaken. We also sought to discover how confident this group felt about teaching reading and spelling and how their teacher training could better prepare them for these complex and challenging tasks. Results indicated that pre‐service teachers in this particular sample were strongly in favour of code‐based instruction and believed that it was important to know how to assess and teach phonological awareness and phonics. Despite these beliefs, it was found that knowledge of spoken and written language structure and linguistics terminology was not well developed and only 7 per cent of participants stated that they felt well prepared to teach reading and spelling. These findings highlight a disparity between what educators know and believe and what convergent research purports as effective early reading and spelling instruction.

Strengthening vocabulary for literacy: an analysis of the use of explicit instruction techniques to improve word learning from story book read-alouds

Vocabulary knowledge is an important predictor of literacy and broader academic outcomes, and childrens literature is a rich source of sophisticated vocabulary. This study investigated the effect of providing instruction in word meanings as an adjunct to story-book read-aloud sessions in Grade One classrooms. The main intervention programme ran for 18 weeks over three terms in low socio-economic status (SES) schools. Two intervention models incorporating explicit instruction components were compared with existing classroom practice. Teaching a greater number of word meanings more briefly was contrasted with teaching fewer words in greater depth. Pre- and post-instruction vocabulary knowledge was assessed using curriculum-based assessments. Both explicit approaches were more effective in improving word learning than a traditional constructivist approach. Increased intensity of instruction resulted in better learning for individual words. There was no discernible carryover to scores on standardised vocabulary tests.

Teachers Taking up Explicit Instruction: The Impact of a Professional Development and Directive Instructional Coaching Model

In this study we measured the impact of a professional development model that included directive coaching on the instructional practices of Western Australian primary school teachers taking up explicit instruction. We developed and validated protocols that enabled us to measure teachers’ fidelity to the salient elements of explicit instruction and interviewed participants about the impact of the coaching program on student learning, their feelings of selfefficacy and attitudes to being coached. Numerical scores to indicate teachers’ demonstration of explicit instruction lesson design and delivery components changed positively over the five observed lessons and directive coaching had a positive impact on teachers’ competence and confidence. The elements of the coaching process that the teachers found valuable were the coach’s positive tone, the detailed written feedback, and the specificity, directness and limited number of the suggestions. Implications for schools with reform-based agendas wanting to change teachers’ instructional practices through instructional coaching are discussed.

The effect of a professional development model on early childhood educators’ direct teaching of beginning reading

Abstract Research over the last 15 years has reported that for professional development to be effective, in terms of changing teachers’ knowledge and/or instructional strategies, it needs to be conducted taking into consideration the following factors: teachers’ existing knowledge, experience and attitudes towards the professional development, school administrative factors, opportunities for classroom-based follow-up and gathering data concerning student achievement to measure the impact or effectiveness of the professional development. These factors were all carefully considered when creating, planning and implementing the professional development model for this study. The results indicate that an evidence-based professional development model which included a workshop, classroom observations and coaching significantly improved participants’ instructional practice over the course of one year while implementing Let’s Decode, a semi-scripted, explicit and direct approach to teaching phonological awareness and systematic decoding instruction when teaching beginning reading.