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Full-Text Articles in Education

Elementary Teachers' Perspectives On Teaching Reading Comprehension, Reid Smith, Pamela Snow, Tanya Serry, Lorraine Hammond Jul 2023

Elementary Teachers' Perspectives On Teaching Reading Comprehension, Reid Smith, Pamela Snow, Tanya Serry, Lorraine Hammond

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

PURPOSE: We report findings from a survey of elementary teachers regarding reading instruction. The purpose was to examine teachers' beliefs about how children in the first 7 years of schooling develop reading comprehension skills and to characterize the self-reported practices and strategies they use to support children to comprehend connected text. METHOD: A web-based survey was used to collect data from 284 Australian elementary teachers about their beliefs and practices regarding reading comprehension instruction. Selected Likert-scale items were aggregated to determine the degree to which participants held "child-centered" or "content-centered" views of reading instruction. RESULTS: Australian elementary school teachers hold …


Improving The Reading Skills Of Struggling Secondary Students In A Real-World Setting: Issues Of Implementation And Sustainability, Susan Main, Susan Hill, Annamaria Paolino Jan 2023

Improving The Reading Skills Of Struggling Secondary Students In A Real-World Setting: Issues Of Implementation And Sustainability, Susan Main, Susan Hill, Annamaria Paolino

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Reading difficulties have been associated with limited academic success and related social-emotional outcomes including anxiety and low motivation. Recent research on the educational impact of the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that children with poor reading skills were disproportionally disadvantaged. This growing number of students experiencing reading difficulties will require effective implementation of strategies to prevent long-term disadvantage, including in the challenging context of secondary schools where teachers are unfamiliar with reading instruction and constrained by timetabling of subjects and teachers. This research examined whether a Direct Instruction programme could be implemented with fidelity in the real world of a secondary school …


No Time To Read? How Precarity Is Shaping Learning And Teaching In The Humanities, Helena Kadmos, Jessica Taylor Jan 2023

No Time To Read? How Precarity Is Shaping Learning And Teaching In The Humanities, Helena Kadmos, Jessica Taylor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Humanities educators are frequently frustrated by students’ poor engagement in reading. The contemporary student experience is characterised by disruption and precarity. Similarly, is that of teachers who work in casual employment. This discussion is located within broader conversations around the neoliberal university, but aims to make more visible ways that teaching and learning are increasingly shaped by precarity, and consequences for the humanities. It describes what precarity in higher education looks like and considers the kinds of strategies that students and their teachers are positioned to develop by virtue of engaging in education under such conditions, amid chaos, making these …


How Do Librarians In Schools Support Struggling Readers?, Margaret Kristin Merga Jan 2019

How Do Librarians In Schools Support Struggling Readers?, Margaret Kristin Merga

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

While librarians in schools often face significant budgetary cuts, they can play an important role in supporting learning in literacy and literature. However, little is known about the practices that they may employ to this end. Of particular interest is the role of librarians in schools in supporting struggling readers, as these students may be increasingly disadvantaged as they move through the years of schooling. Semi-structured interview data were collected from teacher librarians at 30 schools and analysed to identify practices exercised by teacher librarians that aligned with extant research around supporting struggling readers. Teacher librarians provided support by identifying …


Academic Reading Format Preferences And Behaviors Among University Students Worldwide: A Comparative Survey Analysis, Diane Mizrachi, Alicia M. Salaz, Sereap Kurbanoglu, Joumana Boustany, Afris Research Group Jan 2018

Academic Reading Format Preferences And Behaviors Among University Students Worldwide: A Comparative Survey Analysis, Diane Mizrachi, Alicia M. Salaz, Sereap Kurbanoglu, Joumana Boustany, Afris Research Group

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study reports the descriptive and inferential statistical findings of a survey of academic reading format preferences and behaviors of 10,293 tertiary students worldwide. The study hypothesized that country-based differences in schooling systems, socioeconomic development, culture or other factors might have an influence on preferred formats, print or electronic, for academic reading, as well as the learning engagement behaviors of students. The main findings are that country of origin has little to no relationship with or effect on reading format preferences of university students, and that the broad majority of students worldwide prefer to read academic course materials in print. …


Children’S Perceptions Of The Importance And Value Of Reading, Margaret K. Merga, Saiyidi Mat Roni Jan 2018

Children’S Perceptions Of The Importance And Value Of Reading, Margaret K. Merga, Saiyidi Mat Roni

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Fostering children’s engagement in regular recreational reading beyond independent skill acquisition is beneficial to promote continued literacy engagement. Regular recreational reading is associated with both literacy skill acquisition and maintenance across the life span. Children’s perceptions of the importance and value of reading can influence their motivation to read. However, it is not currently known if children continue to perceive the value of reading beyond the period of independent reading skill acquisition. Findings from a sample of 997 older elementary children indicate that some children may not recognise the value of reading beyond independent reading skill acquisition. This is particularly …


Research In Action: Leading Literacy Learning In Primary Schools: Final Report 2013 - 2014, Deslea Konza Jan 2015

Research In Action: Leading Literacy Learning In Primary Schools: Final Report 2013 - 2014, Deslea Konza

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

PALL Plus was funded by a Public Education Endowment Trust (PEET) grant and was conducted with the leaders of 12 primary schools serving low socio-economic communities in metropolitan Perth throughout 2013 and 2014. It was a development of the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) pilot project funded by the Commonwealth Government in 2009-10, which was designed to assist primary school principals across Australia to develop their capacity to lead the teaching of reading in their schools...


Teaching Reading: A Shared Vision And A Shared Responsibility 2012-2013: Principals As Literacy Leaders In Ceo Schools, Deslea Konza, Paul Woodley, Sam De Leo, Helen Dixon Jan 2014

Teaching Reading: A Shared Vision And A Shared Responsibility 2012-2013: Principals As Literacy Leaders In Ceo Schools, Deslea Konza, Paul Woodley, Sam De Leo, Helen Dixon

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The PALL Plus professional learning and research project was a collaborative effort between the Fogarty Learning Centre at Edith Cowan University and 16 Catholic primary schools within the Western Australian Catholic Education Office (CEO). It was initiated by the principal of Star of the Sea Primary School, Tim Emery, who coordinated involvement of the other schools and managed contractual responsibilities on behalf of the CEO. The project was based on the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) pilot project funded by the Commonwealth Government in 2009-2010, and originally developed in partnership with the Australian Primary Principals Association, Griffith University and the …


Reading And Note Taking In Monological And Dialogical Classes In The Social Sciences, Manuela Cartolari, Paula Carlino, Laura M. Colombo Jun 2013

Reading And Note Taking In Monological And Dialogical Classes In The Social Sciences, Manuela Cartolari, Paula Carlino, Laura M. Colombo

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This qualitative study explores the uses of reading and note-taking in two pre-service teacher training Social Sciences courses. Data analysis of in-depth interviews with professors and students, class observations and course materials suggested two polar teaching styles according to how bibliography was included in the course and the presence or absence of dialogicality. In one course, the professor assumed that students should read texts on their own prerogative. As monological lectures were given, they mostly studied from their class-notes. In the other course, the professor held class discussions based on readings that took place in and outside the classroom. According …


Expanding The Vision: Synthetic Phonics In Action Ii, Deslea Konza Jan 2013

Expanding The Vision: Synthetic Phonics In Action Ii, Deslea Konza

Research outputs 2013

The Yorke and Mid North - Roxby Downs Area School (YMN-RDAS) Literacy Project in 2013 was largely an extension of the literacy project conducted with the YMN region of the South Australian Department of Education and Child Development in 2012. The 2012 project outcomes were very positive (see Konza, 2013) and funding was made available for continuation of the main elements of the project with another cohort of primary schools in 2013. As was the case with the YMN 2012 project, it was designed to ‘value-add’ to the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) project which had been implemented in the …


Applying The Theory Of Variation In Teaching Reading, Siu Yin Annie Tong Oct 2012

Applying The Theory Of Variation In Teaching Reading, Siu Yin Annie Tong

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper presents a model of collaborative and reflective professional development for teachers that focuses on student learning. The model comprises a cyclical series of lessons that were carried out in Hong Kong with three classes of Secondary Four (Grade 10) students (94 students. The lessons were designed to develop the reading skill of inferring characters’ traits from the events of a story—a skill that presents difficulties for many secondary school students of English as a second language. The learning activities incorporated in the research lessons were underpinned by the Theory of Variation proposed by Marton and Booth (1997), which …


What A Difference A Year Made! : An Evaluation Of The National Year Of Reading 2012 In Western Australia, Queensland And The Australian Capital Territory, Caroline Barratt-Pugh, Pru Smith, Karen Anderson Jan 2012

What A Difference A Year Made! : An Evaluation Of The National Year Of Reading 2012 In Western Australia, Queensland And The Australian Capital Territory, Caroline Barratt-Pugh, Pru Smith, Karen Anderson

Research outputs 2012

This report is an evaluation of how the National Year of Reading helped to build a reading culture across the nation. The evaluation was undertaken by The Centre for Research in Early Childhood Education, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia . The report describes the nature and outcomes of the National Year of Reading in the four case studies, including a consideration of what participating organisations delivered beyond what would normally be expected of them. The findings lead to a series of conclusions about the program's successes, challenges and legacy followed by recommendations about how these successes can be sustained and …


Structure Strategy Use In Children's Comprehension Of Expository Texts, John V. Holsgrove Jan 2011

Structure Strategy Use In Children's Comprehension Of Expository Texts, John V. Holsgrove

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study reviewed a body of literature largely written between the mid 1970s and 1990s that was concerned with the rhetorical structure of written expository text and its relationship to memory and comprehension. This dissertation follows from an argument that the earlier research often confused memory and comprehension and that it was limited in its attempt to clarify the relationship between text structure and reading comprehension. The current study sought to provide a fuller description of the manner in which schoolchildren of different ages and abilities employ rhetorical structure in the comprehension process. In contrast to the earlier research this …


Teacher Understandings Of Responsibilities For Reading Instruction In Stage One And Two English Courses Of Study In Western Australian Schools, Liana Strutt Jan 2011

Teacher Understandings Of Responsibilities For Reading Instruction In Stage One And Two English Courses Of Study In Western Australian Schools, Liana Strutt

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of the study was to explore secondary teachers’ understandings of their responsibilities towards students who demonstrate poor literacy skills with regard to the Reading Outcome in the Western Australian English Courses of Study. As an experienced secondary English teacher, the researcher was aware that the reading demands of senior secondary classrooms were challenging for some students and that many teachers were unsure of how they should respond to the needs of the students. Since the education reforms which began in Western Australia in the late 1990s and the subsequent introduction of Courses of Study in 2006, a great …


Visual Dysfunction : A Contributing Factor In Memory Deficits, And Therefore Learning Difficulties?, Elizabeth G. Bennett Jan 2007

Visual Dysfunction : A Contributing Factor In Memory Deficits, And Therefore Learning Difficulties?, Elizabeth G. Bennett

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is based on Educational Therapy (ET) practice which has found eye muscle imbalance is a key factor to be addressed in management of learning difficulties (LD). This level of oculo-motor (o-m) function is a 'hidden' handicap as individuals are unaware of the problem; it is not routinely tested; and is not generally included in learning difficulties research. O-m function is omitted in standard paediatric optometry tests, and in school vision screening. Eye exercises increase the range of binocular fields of vision by employing stereopsis glasses and red/green slides. Central vision loss was uncovered when students reported words, seen …


Using Interactive Multimedia (Imm) To Help Year Four And Five Students Identified As Experiencing Reading Difficulties: A Formative Approach, Grace Oakley Jan 2004

Using Interactive Multimedia (Imm) To Help Year Four And Five Students Identified As Experiencing Reading Difficulties: A Formative Approach, Grace Oakley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study involved four formative experiments, each of which investigated ways in which IMM (Interactive Multimedia) could be used to help children who experienced reading difficulties. In each of the four contexts, classroom teachers identified a number of students with reading difficulties, selected pedagogical goals for them and worked with the researcher to plan IMM-based activities that targeted the selected goals. The implementations were evaluated formatively and modifications were made accordingly, with the intention of 'fine-tuning' them to facilitate achievement of the pedagogical goals. Facilitative and inhibitive factors were identified during and after each formative experiment, as were unplanned outcomes. …


Year 7 Students' English Reading Comprehension And Attitudes And Behaviours: Collaborative Genre-Based Versus Traditional Teaching Methods In Thailand, Sanguansri Torok Jan 2004

Year 7 Students' English Reading Comprehension And Attitudes And Behaviours: Collaborative Genre-Based Versus Traditional Teaching Methods In Thailand, Sanguansri Torok

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

A new system-wide educational change has been introduced in Thailand that requires English as a foreign language (EFL) to be taught from primary to university level. This study investigates a genre-based method of teaching English to grade 7 secondary students in Thailand. The study was conducted in three phases. In phase 1, Rasch measures of reading comprehension (based on three kinds of genre texts) and of attitudes and behaviour towards genre-based learning of English were created for use in phase 2. An interval scale of 36 items (18 real and 18 ideal perspectives) was created from an original attitude and …


Boys' Perceptions And Experiences Of Their Placement In A Secondary School Remedial Program : An Examination Of Self-Esteem, Attitude, Motivation And Reading Achievement, Angela Milmoe Jan 2003

Boys' Perceptions And Experiences Of Their Placement In A Secondary School Remedial Program : An Examination Of Self-Esteem, Attitude, Motivation And Reading Achievement, Angela Milmoe

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Remedial EngIish education has long focused on the development of students reading and writing skills, but research suggests that greater emphasis may need to be placed on affective factors such as self-esteem, motivation, attitude and perception. The influence of such 'non-cognitive' factors on any adolescent student's literacy development is often underestimated. For students experiencing difficulties in literacy, the interaction between perceived ability of degree of success in literacy and the affective factors often impact negatively on self-esteem, attitude and motivation. The relationship between self-esteem, attitude, perception, motivation and literacy needs to be explored, especially when dealing with students with literacy …


Year One Children's Literacy Behaviours And Perceptions Of Literacy Learning In The Classroom And Reading Recovery Contexts, Fiona Callaghan Jan 2002

Year One Children's Literacy Behaviours And Perceptions Of Literacy Learning In The Classroom And Reading Recovery Contexts, Fiona Callaghan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study investigates the ways in which four Year One children engage in the literacy events of their regular and Reading Recovery classrooms. It explores how these children perceived their beginning reading instruction and possible relationships between the children's perceptions and the ways in which they ‘did' literacy in each setting. The study draws on research in beginning reading instruction from both a psychological and socio-cultural perspective, as well as research into withdrawal programs for children experiencing difficulty in learning to read and the Reading Recovery program itself. A case study approach was used in this study and data collection …


Relationship Between Early Development Of Spelling And Reading, Lorraine S. Hammond Jan 2001

Relationship Between Early Development Of Spelling And Reading, Lorraine S. Hammond

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The research reported in this thesis examined the relationship between beginning spelling and reading. More specifically, it focussed on the relationship between the development of early reading and spelling in a context where the approach to early reading instruction includes systematic phonological awareness and decoding instruction. A critical assumption made by proponents of developmental early literacy models is that transfer of skills and knowledge from reading to spelling will occur spontaneously and without formal instruction (Frith, 1980). By contrast instruction-centred approaches make the assumption that there are critical pre-requisite skills that can and should be taught explicitly (Carnine, Silbert & …


The Language And Literacy Skills And Behaviours Of Two Middle Primary Severely To Profoundly Hearing Impaired Students In The School Environment, Renee M. Kinsman Jan 1998

The Language And Literacy Skills And Behaviours Of Two Middle Primary Severely To Profoundly Hearing Impaired Students In The School Environment, Renee M. Kinsman

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Much research has shown that the hearing impaired population typically achieve only very low levels of literacy. Many researchers have examined the language and literacy deficits of the hearing impaired population in order to explain this. Nevertheless, a recent study has shown that hearing impaired children's preschool language and literacy development may occur along a similar pathway to that of their hearing peers. The present study aimed to investigate the language and literacy skills, behaviours and interactions of two severely to profoundly hearing impaired middle primary boys in the context of their mainstream school. Both qualitative and quantitative data sources …


Multiple Readings In Multiple Choice Reading Tests: A Study Of Year 11 Students' Reading Practices Of A Multiple Choice Reading Test, Rosemary Naughton Jan 1996

Multiple Readings In Multiple Choice Reading Tests: A Study Of Year 11 Students' Reading Practices Of A Multiple Choice Reading Test, Rosemary Naughton

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examines students’ responses to the questions in a multiple choice reading test. An analysis of the processes students used to negotiate meaning revealed the roles played by cognitive strategies and cultural framing in shaping students' responses to multiple choice questions. A descriptive/analytical study methodology was conducted with a group of forty eight Year II students in the final term of the school year. These students represented four mixed sex ability groupings and a range of socio-economic backgrounds. Think-Out-Loud protocols were used in an interview situation. Students responded to thirty four questions from three passages selected from multiple choice …


Teachers' Reading Theories And Preferred Practices With Varied Pupil Abilities, Rowena Errington Jan 1994

Teachers' Reading Theories And Preferred Practices With Varied Pupil Abilities, Rowena Errington

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study was to examine issues related to teachers' theoretical orientations to reading and teachers' preferred strategies for good, poor and very poor readers. A questionnaire was completed by 140 primary teachers in 10 schools. Teachers were asked to rate 6 bottom-up strategies and top-down strategies according to how helpful they were for good, poor and very poor readers. They were also asked to order 6 components of the reading process so that their theoretical orientations to reading could be determined. In addition, teacher provided information about the demographic variables, grade taught, experience, and additional training. Eight …


Syntactic Awareness And Reading Development: A Training Study With Young Children, Barbara E. Milner Jan 1994

Syntactic Awareness And Reading Development: A Training Study With Young Children, Barbara E. Milner

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

A number of previous research studies have examined the relationship between syntactic awareness and reading, but few training studies have been reported. In the present study, a 1 a-week training study employing an experimental design, was conducted with 34 Year 1 and 38 Year 2 children to determine whether training in syntactic awareness increased levels of syntactic awareness and reading performance. Prior to the commencement of training, all children were pretested in syntactic awareness as measured by an oral correction task, and in reading. On the basis of these tests, matched pairs of subjects were assigned to experimental and control …


Let's Decode: Inservice Manual, P. J. Formentin Jan 1993

Let's Decode: Inservice Manual, P. J. Formentin

Research outputs pre 2011

This manual contains inservice material that was prepared for a research project that came to be known as Let's Decode. My motive for publishing the material in this form is to make it available to other teachers who may wish to apply the same principles and procedures in their own classrooms. Typically, they will be teachers who are concerned about children experiencing difficulty learning to read, and teachers responsible for students with special education needs. I am confident that regular classroom teachers will also find the material valuable for all children in the early stages of learning to read. My …


Word Reading Strategies: A Replication And Follow Up Intervention, Andrew Davoll Jan 1993

Word Reading Strategies: A Replication And Follow Up Intervention, Andrew Davoll

Theses : Honours

The first stage of this study involved a replication of the cluster analysts procedures used by Freebody and Byrne (1988) to classify Year 2 readers according to their word reading strategies based on lists of irregular and pseudowords. A four-cluster-solution produced three groups similar to those reported by Freebody and Byrne (1988), and a fourth group which could not be classified using their criteria. A three-cluster-solution produced a more parsimonious interpretation, with these groups meeting the criteria for "LB" (low on both Irregular and pseudowords), "HB" (high on both), and "Phoenician" readers (average or above on pseudoword, low on irregular …


The Effects Of Different Methods Of Cloze Test Construction And Their Relationship With A Standardised Reading Comprehension Test, Trevor Michael Edward Forde Jan 1993

The Effects Of Different Methods Of Cloze Test Construction And Their Relationship With A Standardised Reading Comprehension Test, Trevor Michael Edward Forde

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study is to provide guidelines to classroom teachers for the construction of valid and reliable cloze comprehension tests. Review of the related literature suggested there are many diverse and contradictary opinions as to the most appropriate method of constructing cloze tests. The subjects were 49 Year 5 primary school children from two metropolitan schools. Three different comprehension tests were administered. The Gap Reading Comprehension Test and two Cloze Comprehension Tests consisting of 50 and 100 word deletions, in which the deletions began at either the fifth or sixth word of the second sentence. The Cloze Tests …


Is Anaphoric Resolution Instruction More Effective Than Existing Instruction At Improving The Reading Comprehension Achievement Of Secondary Students With Poor Reading Comprehension?, Christian Busing Jan 1993

Is Anaphoric Resolution Instruction More Effective Than Existing Instruction At Improving The Reading Comprehension Achievement Of Secondary Students With Poor Reading Comprehension?, Christian Busing

Theses : Honours

This study examined the effect of teaching anaphoric resolution skills on the reading comprehension of Year 10 students with poor reading comprehension. Two direct teaching programmes, an anaphoric resolution programme (A.R.Programme) and a reading comprehension skills programme based on the Unit curriculum objectives of the Ministry of Education of Western Australia (U.C. Programme), were developed and taught to two groups of eleven Year 10 poor reading comprehenders. The two groups were pretested and posttested for anaphoric resolution skill and reading comprehension achievement, and the increases in mean scores were compared for significant differences using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The Anova …


The Relationship Between Time Devoted To Independent Recreational Reading And Reading Achievement Scores, R. Fragomeni Jan 1992

The Relationship Between Time Devoted To Independent Recreational Reading And Reading Achievement Scores, R. Fragomeni

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary assessment, in the Western Australian context, of the relationship between reading achievement scores and time devoted to independent recreational reading, and the extent to which gender and socio-economic status, affect this relationship. The data pertaining to time spent in independent recreational reading were collected by means of a questionnaire. The subjects and their teachers were trained by the researcher in the procedure to be followed in the questionnaire completion. The data relating to reading achievement scores were generated through the administration of the comprehension sub-test of the Progressive Achievement Test …


Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The Retelling With The Aid Of A Story-Map Procedure With Weaker Readers, Madeleine Boekeman Jan 1990

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The Retelling With The Aid Of A Story-Map Procedure With Weaker Readers, Madeleine Boekeman

Theses : Honours

This study examines the effectiveness of the 'Retelling with the aid of a story-map procedure' as an instructional approach which could help weaker readers in their second year of schooling. Based on the literature and research findings which support a view of language as a developmental, holistic and natural process, the 'Retelling with the aid of a story-map procedure' was chosen. It was hypothesised that it would help the weaker readers make connections between oral language and written language, develop meaning seeking behaviours and increase their 'data pool' of linguistic knowledge. The goal of this study was to seek answers …