Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Teachers lack tools for competent literacy instruction

A thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, reveals that many teachers have insufficient knowledge of how the spoken language is converted into written language, and that they lack basic knowledge about the general processes involved in learning to read and write.

Tarja Alatalo’s study is based on teachers’ own testimonies and responses to interview questions and a questionnaire on conditions for teaching and approaches, attitudes and knowledge about the process of learning to read and write.
“A large proportion of the teachers in the study group have gaps in their knowledge when it comes to the structure of the Swedish language and common Swedish spelling rules. They also seem to be unaccustomed to providing detailed descriptions of pupils' reading development, and to have difficulty giving a systematic account of aspects of daily literacy instruction,” says Tarja Alatalo.

One consequence of teachers’ knowledge gaps seems to be that when pupils have cracked the reading code, or if they are experiencing reading difficulties, many teachers tend to one-sidedly place emphasis on getting pupils to read more. This can mean that those pupils who might need to spend more time practising the basic technical aspects of reading or reading comprehension strategies are left without support, because the teacher lacks additional tools.

“There is a risk that the lack of varied and individual training in reading fluency and reading comprehension will lead to pupils falling behind in their reading development. The skill of the teacher is highly significant, particularly considering that 25-35 percent of Swedish pupils in years 3 and 4 (ages 9–11) have difficulty comprehending texts, and that 3–7 percent of school pupils have specific reading and writing difficulties.”

Tarja Alatalo’s thesis has been produced within the framework of the educational research school at the Centre for Educational Science and Teacher Research at the University of Gothenburg. She taught the earliest year groups at primary school for a period of ten years and now trains teachers at Dalarna University.



Helena Aaberg | idw
Further information:
http://hdl.handle.net/2077/25658
http://www.gu.se

Im Focus: Virus multiplication in 3D

Vaccinia viruses serve as a vaccine against human smallpox and as the basis of new cancer therapies. Two studies now provide fascinating insights into their unusual propagation strategy at the atomic level.

For viruses to multiply, they usually need the support of the cells they infect. In many cases, only in their host’s nucleus can they find the machines,...

Im Focus: Cheers! Maxwell's electromagnetism extended to smaller scales

More than one hundred and fifty years have passed since the publication of James Clerk Maxwell's "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" (1865). What would our lives be without this publication?

It is difficult to imagine, as this treatise revolutionized our fundamental understanding of electric fields, magnetic fields, and light. The twenty original...

Im Focus: Highly charged ion paves the way towards new physics

In a joint experimental and theoretical work performed at the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, an international team of physicists detected for the first time an orbital crossing in the highly charged ion Pr⁹⁺. Optical spectra were recorded employing an electron beam ion trap and analysed with the aid of atomic structure calculations. A proposed nHz-wide transition has been identified and its energy was determined with high precision. Theory predicts a very high sensitivity to new physics and extremely low susceptibility to external perturbations for this “clock line” making it a unique candidate for proposed precision studies.

Laser spectroscopy of neutral atoms and singly charged ions has reached astonishing precision by merit of a chain of technological advances during the past...

Im Focus: Ultrafast stimulated emission microscopy of single nanocrystals in Science

The ability to investigate the dynamics of single particle at the nano-scale and femtosecond level remained an unfathomed dream for years. It was not until the dawn of the 21st century that nanotechnology and femtoscience gradually merged together and the first ultrafast microscopy of individual quantum dots (QDs) and molecules was accomplished.

Ultrafast microscopy studies entirely rely on detecting nanoparticles or single molecules with luminescence techniques, which require efficient emitters to...

Im Focus: How to induce magnetism in graphene

Graphene, a two-dimensional structure made of carbon, is a material with excellent mechanical, electronic and optical properties. However, it did not seem suitable for magnetic applications. Together with international partners, Empa researchers have now succeeded in synthesizing a unique nanographene predicted in the 1970s, which conclusively demonstrates that carbon in very specific forms has magnetic properties that could permit future spintronic applications. The results have just been published in the renowned journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Depending on the shape and orientation of their edges, graphene nanostructures (also known as nanographenes) can have very different properties – for example,...