Teacher-education students’ reading abilities and their knowledge about word structure
Abstract
This study focused on teacher-education students taking a special-education language-arts course in which information about English word structure was taught. The relationship between students' component reading-related abilities and their performance on three measures of word-structure knowledge, before and after course instruction about word structure, was examined. Students' word reading accuracy and spelling ability, but not their general language abilities or reading speed, influenced their acquisition of word-structure knowledge. Specific patterns of results varied by word-structure task and by time (pre-vs. posttest); however, even students with strong component reading abilities performed at fairly low levels on the word-structure knowledge tasks at pretest, and course instruction influenced students' knowledge acquisition as much as or more than their component abilities did. Findings support the need to provide word-structure information in teacher preparation and suggest that it may sometimes be useful to assess different types of knowledge separately.
Reference
Spear-Swerling, L., & Brucker, P. O. (2006). Teacher-education students' reading abilities and their knowledge about word structure. Teacher Education and Special Education, 29(2), 116-126. doi:10.1177/088840640602900204
Journal
Teacher Education and Special Education
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
yes
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
- General Methods Course
- language arts course for individuals with special needs
Preservice Participants
- Graduate Students
- Undergraduates (special education)
Preservice Sample Size
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
- pre-/post-assessment
- Woodcock-Johnson (W-J) III
Data Analysis Tools
- ANOVA
- Multiple Regression
- Pearson product-moment correlation analysis
Researcher Positionality
- Inside (studying their own programs)
Research Questions
Do individual differences in teacher education
students' component reading abilities
relate to their knowledge about word
structure?" (p. 118)
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
"If so, does the pattern of
relationships vary by component reading ability
or by word-structure task?" (p. 118)
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
"To what
extent do component reading abilities influence
students' acquisition of word-structure knowledge
after course instruction?" (p. 118)
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes