Prosody growth and reading comprehension: a longitudinal study from 2nd through the end of 3rd grade

Prosody is an important but not fully understood component of reading. In this longitudinal study with a sample of 98 Portuguese elementary school children, a multilevel growth model with four repeated measures over time showed steady progress in participants’ reading prosody from the middle of 2nd to the end of 3rd grade. However, children’s growth in this area varied across time points. Results also showed that individual differences in prosody’s scores at baseline affect the performance of most but not of all students. Simple linear regressions showed that the prosody dimension “phrasing/expression” significantly predicted reading comprehension at all time points. Partial correlation analysis showed that when reading rate was accounted for, the unique contribution of prosody to reading comprehension was marginal, except at the third measurementA prosódia é uma importante mas nem sempre bem compreendida componente da leitura. Neste estudo longitudinal, com uma amostra de 98 estudantes do ensino primário, um modelo multinível com quatro medidas repetidas no tempo evidencia uma evolução estável da leitura prosódica dos participantes entre o 2.º e o 3.º ano de escolaridade. Contudo a evolução é desigual nos diversos momentos no tempo. Os resultados também mostram que as diferenças inter-individuais na linha de base da prosódia nem sempre condicionam o desempenho dos participantes. Regressões lineares simples revelam que nos quatro momentos de avaliação a dimensão construção frásica/expressividade prediz significativamente a compreensão da leitura. Análises de correlação parcial mostram que uma vez controlada a velocidade de leitura, a contribuição única da prosódia se torna residual

Ensino da leitura no 1.º ciclo do ensino básico: crenças, conhecimentos e formação dos professores

Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santo

How portuguese and american teachers plan for literacy instruction

This study explored American and Portuguese elementary teachers' preferences in planning for literacy instruction using the Language Arts Activity Grid (LAAG; Cunningham, Zibulsky, Stanovich, & Stanovich, 2009), on which teachers described their preferred instructional activities for a hypothetical 2-h language arts block. Portuguese teachers (N = 186) completed Portuguese versions of a background questionnaire and LAAG electronically, in Survey Monkey; American teachers (N = 102) completed identical English measures using paper and pencil. Results showed that teachers in both groups usually addressed comprehension and reading fluency on their LAAGs and that they also allocated the most time to these two areas. However, American teachers were more likely to include teacher-directed fluency activities, whereas Portuguese teachers were more likely to include fluency activities that were not teacher directed. Significantly more American than Portuguese teachers addressed phonics in their planning, whereas significantly more Portuguese than American teachers addressed writing processes such as revision. Both groups of educators demonstrated large variability in planning, with many teachers omitting important components of literacy identified by researchers, for writing as well as reading. The study highlights the importance of providing teachers with comprehensive, research-based core literacy curricula as well as professional development on key components of literacy. Study findings also suggest significant relationships between orthographic transparency and teachers' instructional planning.This research was supported by a 2-year grant from the Foundation Francisco Manuel dos Santos in Portugal as well as by a Connecticut State University research grant in the U.S.A. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to these funding agencies as well as to the teachers and school districts who participated in the study and sent messages of interest about our research. In addition, warm thanks to our research assistants for their help with data collection, coding, and analysis, and to Anne Cunningham for providing us with inspiration as well as guidance in this work.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Teachers’ academic training for literacy instruction

Literacy instruction is a powerful determinant of children's academic and school outcomes. Teachers' training for literacy instruction is therefore critical for children's reading learning. The present study examined the contents of 130 courses related to literacy instruction from a representative national sample of primary teachers' undergraduate programs (N =81), to address the following issues: which courses, related to literacy instruction, are included in the curriculum of undergraduate training programs? Which is the weight of the courses in undergraduate programs? What are the contents of the courses? The results show that most critical features of literacy instruction are included in the course contents of most programs (e.g. phonics, theory of literature). Still, some other critical features are underrepresented (reading/writing comprehension skills) or apparently missing (assessment and intervention in reading/writing problems). Moreover, the time allocated to literacy instruction seems to be scarce. Still, wide differences across university programs and courses were found

Actual disciplinary knowledge, perceived disciplinary knowledge, teaching experience and teacher's training for reading instruction: a study with primary Portuguese and American teachers

In this study, the relation between primary teachers· actual disciplinary knowledge and teachers· perceived disciplinary knowledge in three distinct areas of reading instruction (phonics. fluency/vocabulary/comprehension, and assessment/intervention), as well as the relation between teachers· experience and teachers· background with these variables is investigated. Participants inc!ude Portuguese primary teachers (n = 390) and American primary teachers (n = 390). Results show that the American teachers outperform the Portuguese teachers in a!most every item in analysis. Canonical correlation and commonality analysis show that actual disciplinary knowledge and perceived disciplinary knowledge are relatively independent constructs. Regression analyses show that actual knowledge predicts a small but significant amount of the variance in perceived knowledge. Knowledge about phonics instruction is by far the best unique predictor of teachers· perceived knowledge. The hypothesis of miscalibration (the "unskilled-and-unaware effect") between actual knowledge and perceived knowledge in the less knowledgeable teachers was also explored. However. results do not suggest such an effect in our participants. Resu!ts also show that there are significant differences between Portuguese and American teachers, mainly in the area of knowledge about assessment/intervention

Actual disciplinary knowledge, perceived disciplinary knowledge, teaching experience and teacher’s training for reading instruction: a study with primary Portuguese and American teachers

In this study, the relation between primary teachers’ actual disciplinary knowledge and teachers’ perceived disciplinary knowledge in three distinct areas of reading instruction (phonics, fluency/vocabulary/comprehension, and assessment/intervention) is investigated. Participants include Portuguese primary teachers (n = 390) and American primary teachers (n = 390). Canonical correlation and commonality analysis show that actual disciplinary knowledge and perceived disciplinary knowledge are relatively independent constructs. Still, actual knowledge predicts a small but significant amount of the variance in perceived knowledge. Knowledge about phonics instruction is by far the best unique predictor of teachers’ perceived knowledge. The hypothesis of miscalibration (the “unskilled-and-unaware effect”) between actual knowledge and perceived knowledge in the less knowledgeable teachers was also explored. However, results do not suggest such an effect in our participants. Results also show that there are significant differences between Portuguese and American teachers, mainly in the area of knowledge about assessment/intervention.Neste estudo investiga-se a relação entre conhecimento real e conhecimento percebido de professores do 1.º ciclo do ensino básico em três áreas distintas do ensino da leitura (ensino fónico, fluência/ vocabulário/compreensão e avaliação/intervenção), bem como a relação da formação e experiência dos professores com estas variáveis. Participaram no estudo 390 professores Portugueses e 390 professores Americanos. Os resultados revelam que os professores americanos superam os professores portugueses em quase todas as variáveis em análise. A análise das correlações canónicas e a análise das comunalidades mostra que o conhecimento disciplinar e a percepção de conhecimento disciplinar são constructos relativamente independentes. As análises de regressão mostram que o conhecimento disciplinar prediz uma pequena mas significativa porção da variância do conhecimento percebido, constituindo o conhecimento acerca do ensino fónico claramente o melhor preditor. Foi também explorada a hipótese da falta de calibração (o efeito “incompetente-e-inconsciente do facto”) entre conhecimento e conhecimento percebido nos professores com menor nível de conhecimento. Os resultados, porém, não sugerem tal efeito nos nossos participantes. Os resultados mostram ainda a existência de diferenças significativas entre os professores Portugueses e Americanos, principalmente nos conhecimentos acerca de avaliação/intervenção

Ensino da leitura no 1.º ciclo do ensino básico: Crenças, conhecimentos e formação dos professores [Teaching reading in primary school: Beliefs, skills and teaching training]

This book presents the results of a comparative education project that characterizes the profile of American and Portuguese primary school teachers; their beliefs, scientific and pedagogical knowledge and their training. Data collection took place in Portugal and in Connecticut, Colorado and New Jersey and the instruments used were The Teacher Knowledge Survey (TKS) and the Teacher's Self-rating Questionnaire of Knowledge about Reading (TSRQ) (Spear-Swerling, 2005). Content analysis complemented the statistical analysis. Results indicate that Portuguese teachers dedicate less time to motivating students to read and that they seldom engage in reading to their students, whereas American teachers engage in these practices more frequently. Additionally, this study indicate that Portuguese teachers have very limited knowledge about phonological awareness and of the specificities of the orthographic code.JRC.DDG.01-Econometrics and applied statistic