1 / 21

Improving Early Grade Reading Outcomes August 2019

Improving Early Grade Reading Outcomes August 2019. Key obstacle - Early Grade Reading. 78% of South African Grade 4 learners could not reach the lowest benchmark in the HL The majority of South African children transition to English as language of instruction in Grade 4.

lilli
Download Presentation

Improving Early Grade Reading Outcomes August 2019

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Improving Early Grade Reading Outcomes August 2019

  2. Key obstacle - Early Grade Reading • 78% of South African Grade 4 learners could not reach the lowest benchmark in the HL • The majority of South African children transition to English as language of instruction in Grade 4. • This means that the majority of learners cannot engage critically with text in later grades • This no doubt feeds into the substantial inequalities in educational achievement that are established early in primary school. Early interventions aimed at improving the acquisition of English as an additional language can be expected to have larger effects than interventions later in the school programme.

  3. Innovative ways of overcoming the problem: • Structured learning programmes seem to be successful in improving: • Instructional change • Learning outcomes • Within structured learning programmes - mode of delivery matters • On-site teacher coaching seems to be quite successful (Snilstveit et al, 2016; Popova, Evans, & Arancibia, 2016). (Popova, et al., 2016). (Kraft, et al., 2016). First research question: Is this replicable in the South African context?

  4. Reading Catch-up Study (RCUP): • On-site teacher coaches over a short period of time (11 weeks) • Aim: to boost the teaching and learning of English Second Language reading amongst Grade 4 • Evaluated: RCT design in the Pinetown district of the KwaZulu-Natal province • If effective, this could be implemented in a cost-effective manner through rotating coaches across schools for one term at a time. • BUT: the average impact of the RCUP was not significantly different from zero • Although children with a higher baseline English proficiency did register statistically significant gains 2 lessons learnt: #1: Learners lack the foundations, so we need to intervene prior to Grade 4. #2: The duration of coaching was too short, we need to intervene for at least 2 years

  5. First Early Grade Reading Study Implementation 3 Interventions targeting HL literacy (Setswana) in no-fee schools 2015 - 2017

  6. First Early Grade Reading Study Impact after 2 years

  7. First Early Grade Reading Study Changed instructional practices • Teachers felt much more supported • Higher access to print and adherence to teaching routine • Increase in group-guided reading (individualized reading) • Curriculum coverage, assessment and opportunities to write • Pupil use of reading material

  8. First Early Grade Reading Study: Sustainability – Grade 4 Setswana ORF

  9. First Early Grade Reading Study: Sustainability – Grade 4 English ORF

  10. First Early Grade Reading Study: Sustainability – Grade 4 Main results

  11. First Early Grade Reading Study: Sustainability – Grade 3 results

  12. First Early Grade Reading Study: Sustainability – Grade 3 Teachers Lesson plans Graded readers Resource utilisation remains high

  13. First Early Grade Reading Study: Sustainability – Grade 3 Teachers Usage of Graded readers But graded readers used more intensively in Coaching arm

  14. First Early Grade Reading Study: Lessons learnt • Structured learning programmes seem to be successful in improving: • Instructional change • Learning outcomes • Within structured learning programmes - mode of delivery matters • On-site teacher coaching seems to be quite successful But expensive + resource intensive • Next generation questions: • Are there more cost/ resource effective modes of delivery? • Is this approach replicable in another province or subject?

  15. Second Early Grade Reading Study Implementation 2 Interventions targeting EFAL literacy (English) in no-fee schools

  16. Second Early Grade Reading Study Preliminary results – after 1 year of implementation

  17. Second Early Grade Reading Study Preliminary results – after 1 year of implementation

  18. Second Early Grade Reading Study Changed instructional practices • Predominant use of English by teachers and learners • More opportunities for learners to speak English individually • Teachers used a much broader variety of instructional practices • Teachers are more likely to introduce vocabulary in context • More English print visible (posters/charts/books etc)

  19. Discussion • Preliminary results: • Coaching improves human capital: students taught by teachers who received Coaching the previous year learn at a fast rate, compared to the control. • Coaching able to induce a sustained change in behavior: knowledge and resource utilization persisted for both Coaching and Training. • External validity: On-site coaching can work in another province and language • Virtual coaching might be a less resource intensive mode of delivery • But the impact of Coaching on the subsequent cohort is roughly half the size. • Next generation research questions: • Can the on-site coaching model be delivered on a larger scale? • Will light-touch follow-ups assist with persistence?

  20. Next steps: System change • EGRS Improvement Plan • Lesson plan and LTSM review • Development of the coaching course • Reading Support Programme in North West (2019-2020) • Hempel foundation programme (2020 – 2022) • Development of reading norms

More Related