Enhancing the metalinguistic abilities of pre-service teachers via coursework targeting language structure knowledge
Abstract
Low metalinguistic knowledge of pre-service and in-service teachers is likely to restrict the provision of evidence-based literacy instruction in the classroom. Despite such concerns, relatively few studies have examined the effects of teacher preparation coursework in building pre-service teachers’ language structure knowledge. This study examined the effects of 7 h of language structure coursework, delivered over 7 weeks, on 121 New Zealand pre-service teachers in their initial year of study. Changes in participants’ phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic knowledge were tracked across the teaching period. The impact of the coursework for participants who presented with strong spelling (n=24) and poor spelling (n=24) ability was also compared. The cohort demonstrated significant gains across all measures. Strong spellers responded more favourably to the teaching than poor spellers, even when accounting for initial levels of meta-linguistic knowledge. Implications for the development of teacher preparation programmes that enhance the provision of effective literacy instruction are discussed.
Reference
Purvis, C. J., McNeill, B. C., & Everatt, J. (2016). Enhancing the metalinguistic abilities of pre-service teachers via coursework targeting language structure knowledge. Annals of dyslexia, 66(1), 55-70.
Journal
Annals of Dyslexia
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
unclear
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
- longitudinal
- Pre-test, Intervention, Post-test
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
- Undergraduates (university based program)
- Undergraduates in a Reading and Language Arts methods course
Preservice Sample Size
121
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
Data Analysis Tools
Researcher Positionality
- Inside (preservice/inservice teacher studying their own practice)
- inside (staying their own students)
Research Questions
What is the effect of 7 hours of direct, explicit teaching of metalinguistic concepts on the phoneme, morpheme and orthographic knowledge of pre-service elementary teachers?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
Is the response to intervention different between a group of pre-service teachers with good spelling ability and a group with poor spelling ability when taking into account pre-intervention assessment scores?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes