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Key Terms and Concepts in Teaching and Learning
Series Editor:
This series features short handbooks focusing on the special language used in a wide variety of educational disciplines ranging from science education to educational leadership. Possessing an understanding of the unique vocabulary within a scholarly domain is vital to foster shared communication for those who wish to understand a discipline and even more important for those who wish to contribute to it. This is particularly true for those new to the academic language of a particular educational arena. Each book in the series may be seen as a set of very short stories introducing a particular discipline in education.
The featured terms in each volume have been selected for their relevance and their potential to be defined uniquely within a particular educational field. The key terms are discussed on one page with a brief introductory definition for quick reference followed by a longer, expanded discussion supported by references. The index in each book includes links encouraging readers to explore related terms and concepts and thus gain additional information and context.
Authors are cordially invited to submit proposals and/or full manuscripts to the Acquisitions Editor, John Bennett.
The featured terms in each volume have been selected for their relevance and their potential to be defined uniquely within a particular educational field. The key terms are discussed on one page with a brief introductory definition for quick reference followed by a longer, expanded discussion supported by references. The index in each book includes links encouraging readers to explore related terms and concepts and thus gain additional information and context.
Authors are cordially invited to submit proposals and/or full manuscripts to the Acquisitions Editor, John Bennett.
A Developing Context Perspective
Reading has been touted as the most crucial and lacking skill for young South African children. This book delves into the issues and measurement considerations surrounding reading literacy using the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) data. The contributors to this volume explore the complexities of measuring reading literacy with an international survey, curricula misalignment, and how the PIRLS framework can inform teaching and learning.
Contributors are: Caroline Böning, Celeste Combrinck, Peter Courtney, Martin Gustafsson, Nompumelelo L. Mohohlwane, Nangamso Mtsatse, Elizabeth Pretorius, Karen Roux, Claudia Schreiner, Tobias Schroedler, Nick Taylor, Stephen Taylor, Surette van Staden and Hans Wagemaker.
Contributors are: Caroline Böning, Celeste Combrinck, Peter Courtney, Martin Gustafsson, Nompumelelo L. Mohohlwane, Nangamso Mtsatse, Elizabeth Pretorius, Karen Roux, Claudia Schreiner, Tobias Schroedler, Nick Taylor, Stephen Taylor, Surette van Staden and Hans Wagemaker.
A Developing Context Perspective
Reading has been touted as the most crucial and lacking skill for young South African children. This book delves into the issues and measurement considerations surrounding reading literacy using the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) data. The contributors to this volume explore the complexities of measuring reading literacy with an international survey, curricula misalignment, and how the PIRLS framework can inform teaching and learning.
Contributors are: Caroline Böning, Celeste Combrinck, Peter Courtney, Martin Gustafsson, Nompumelelo L. Mohohlwane, Nangamso Mtsatse, Elizabeth Pretorius, Karen Roux, Claudia Schreiner, Tobias Schroedler, Nick Taylor, Stephen Taylor, Surette van Staden and Hans Wagemaker.
Contributors are: Caroline Böning, Celeste Combrinck, Peter Courtney, Martin Gustafsson, Nompumelelo L. Mohohlwane, Nangamso Mtsatse, Elizabeth Pretorius, Karen Roux, Claudia Schreiner, Tobias Schroedler, Nick Taylor, Stephen Taylor, Surette van Staden and Hans Wagemaker.
Abstract
South Africa’s language education policies acknowledge the country’s exceptional linguistic diversity, with all 11 official languages represented. At Grade 4 (the population of interest) the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) differs by school, according to legislation described in this chapter. South Africa’s legislation acknowledges the complexity of factors determining a school or class’s ideal LoLT. We give context to these factors through the literature supporting the use of home-language instruction in early grades. Using PIRLS 2006–2016 data, we describe South Africa’s changes in LoLT, decomposing language proficiency by province, asset ownership quintile, and whether the LoLT matches the learner’s home language. Finally, we explore language proficiency along the same dimensions through multiple linear regressions. We find three primary results. First, there is a high match between home language and LoLT, which refutes the myth that classrooms are becoming increasingly multilingual, apart from in Gauteng. Second, African languages, especially Nguni languages, are significant contributors to the improvement seen in PIRLS between 2006 and 2016. Third, there is still a significant gap in performance between English and Afrikaans compared to all other South African languages. At the 2010–2016 rate of progress, it would take another 20 years before the fraction of Nguni language speakers that meet the Low International Benchmark would be the same as Afrikaans or English speakers in 2016.
Abstract
This chapter focuses on South Africa as a developing nation in navigating the complexities of learning to read and measuring trends in reading achievement. It also introduces additional data analysis, perspectives and contextualisation of South Africa’s participation history in PIRLS, directing attention to the diverse South African population of learners who wrote the assessment over three cycles of administration in the decade spanning 2006 to 2016. It aims to familiarise readers with the complexities of the country’s educational system(s) and provides pertinent background information. Given this background, the chapter outlines South Africa’s participation in PIRLS in the context of other participating countries, also focusing on what was assessed and on changes made to design decisions across cycles.
The chapter concludes by briefly outlining the themes of the other chapters in this book and the implications of the secondary studies referred to in those chapters.
Abstract
Three international testing programmes, including PIRLS, point to educational quality improvements in South Africa during the period 2002 to 2019. The gains were substantial, relative to the steepness of improvements seen in other countries. What lay behind these trends? National education quality trends are not easy to explain, and this is seldom attempted in a systematic manner. This is in part because there is little guidance on the optimal methods to follow, which must inevitably employ a mix of statistical and non-statistical approaches. This chapter offers a brief historical account of major policy and implementation shifts in South Africa’s schooling sector, with a focus on the primary level tested by PIRLS. A statistical analysis then employs an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, using the PIRLS 2011 and 2016 data in an attempt to identify factors that explain the improvement in reading scores between the two surveys. While this technique adds value to the analysis, there are serious limitations relating to missing values in the background questionnaire data and the fact that these questionnaires are international, and therefore do not capture many local policy specificities. When viewed jointly, the historical account and statistical analysis point to improvements in the home background circumstances of learners, including more educated adults and increased access to digital technologies, playing an important role. Certain policy interventions are likely to have played an important role: a large expansion of participation in pre-school education; an increased focus on learning outcomes prompted in part by standardised national assessments; improved initial teacher education; increased provision and use of books in classrooms; and curriculum reforms.
Abstract
This book contains assorted views and interpretations of reading achievement in South Africa. A decade of large-scale data maintain that the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) provides objective evidence that most children in South Africa cannot read for meaning by the end of Grade 4, thereby reducing their chances of succeeding in school and in life. We unabashedly call this a ‘reading crisis’ and encourage other researchers to use PIRLS data and advance research to find potential solutions. Therefore, the invitation to authors in this book centred on a call to action, one in which the magnitude of the PIRLS data would be examined, applied, and real-world solutions sought.
The most considerable contradictory evidence is presented in Chapter 3, where Gustafsson and Taylor wrote from a perspective held by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), namely that of ‘continuous improvement’. In contrast to our view of a crisis, Gustafsson and Taylor did their analysis from the perspective that South African participation in international large-scale assessments (ILSA s) has shown educational improvement. While evidence of growth is encouraging, their models show that socioeconomic status is the driver of reading literacy achievement, which is echoed in most of the other chapters.
In a relatively young education system, poverty—as the legacy of apartheid and colonialism—emerges consistently as highly correlated with poor reading achievement. South Africa has an immense wealth disparity; therefore, reading comprehension still needs to be improved and will continue to be a daunting challenge as long as these disparities exist. The most vulnerable groups are boys who are still learning to read, and especially boys who are learning to read in one of the African languages and attending a school in an economically disadvantaged neighbourhood, for instance in a rural area or township. A practical recommendation is that South African schools that teach African languages require more resources and development due to their neglect and suppression in the apartheid era, which is a legacy that will continue unless explicitly addressed. Recommendations in other chapters include focused initial teacher training (ITE)—especially for multilingual classroom settings—and
Author:
Abstract
The purposes of this chapter are two-fold. First, to unpack the PIRLS Assessment Framework (hereafter the PIRLS framework) in terms of the reading literacy processes it defines and assesses at four levels of cognitive complexity. Second, to consider what it would mean for primary school teachers to be suitably equipped to nurture their charges through the four types of comprehension processes in each of two purposes for reading (information and literary experience). Data from South Africa illustrate the main points of the argument, but the conclusions for reading pedagogy and teacher education apply generally in the developing and developed worlds alike.
Abstract
This chapter examines how teacher education for multilingual classroom settings, different local linguistic contexts and large-scale assessments like PIRLS can be interconnected. As an introduction, we consider why each future teacher must acquire certain skills and knowledge about multilingualism, portraying some general ideas, approaches, specific content that can be covered in teacher education and measures that could be implemented as part of teacher education programmes. Before discussing items from the PIRLS’ teacher questionnaire relating to teacher education, and results from South Africa, the complexity and uniqueness of its multilingualism as well as specific aspects and challenges for (teacher) education are explained. This description of the complex multilingual schooling context alludes to the discussion of surveying opportunities to learn (OTL) in the PIRLS teacher questionnaire, and thoughts on why regional aspects concerning multilingualism and other educational background factors must also be considered on a meta-level when analysing and interpreting data. This chapter presents different reasonings to explain unexpected, complex patterns that occur in PIRLS data on the relationship between teachers’ educational background and their learners’ literacy performance. Besides methodological explanations, the authors aim to trace regional linguistic and societal context factors of South Africa that could indirectly affect the data. After this methodological discussion of the South African context, a broader connection between teacher education and large-scale assessment studies follows. The chapter concludes with the idea that knowledge about multilingualism and home languages in education should always be a prominent component of teacher education, yet it must be designed for and adapted to local needs and realities.
Abstract
This chapter illustrates the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016 results from a South African and Austrian perspective to show complexities when making classroom processes and constructing contextual scales of reading practice for two different countries in terms of reading achievement and socioeconomic profile. The chapter uses Austria’s PIRLS 2016 Grade 4 data and South Africa’s PIRLS 2016 Grade 5 data to describe differences in teachers’ reported patterns of reading instruction practice. Various attempts at scale construction resulted in three scales of teacher reading instruction, namely Reading instruction for basic reading comprehension, Reading instruction for advanced reading comprehension, and Reading instruction for interpretation and reflection. As outcome variables, the scores of the basic scale Retrieve and straightforward reading, and the more advanced scale Interpret and integrate were both used in two models to investigate differences in reading achievement that could be more distinct than when using overall reading scores only. The models also control the socioeconomic status of the area in which the school is situated. While the reading instruction scales did not provide evidence of statistical significance, socioeconomic issues still override any possible effect on classroom practice if more than 50% of students come from disadvantaged areas. Patterns in predicted score points between Austria and South Africa are varied when controlling for the percentage of students who come from disadvantaged areas, which suggest the importance of the context of instruction when considering possible effects of socioeconomic disadvantage. An argument is made for the necessity of in-depth national analyses to make meaning of large-scale contextual data.
Abstract
Large-scale reading comprehension assessments provide useful information, not only about what successful reading performance can look like at a certain age or grade level, but also information about the range of comprehension performance across different educational contexts. PIRLS identifies four reading comprehension benchmarks, namely Advanced, High, Intermediate and Low. Because only 4% of Grade 4 children who participate in PIRLS internationally perform below the Low International Benchmark (LIB), the need to examine this small group in more detail has not previously arisen. However, in some developing countries that participate in PIRLS, the number of learners who perform below the LIB are the norm rather than the exception. We argue that this trend creates a need in the PIRLS reporting framework, where a more nuanced analysis of performance below the LIB is called for. Using Grade 4 2016 PIRLS Literacy data from South Africa, we categorise learners who fall below the LIB into three groups. This provides a more detailed view of struggling comprehenders at different points on a developmental cline. A more detailed analysis of comprehension failure is useful for two reasons. Firstly, it allows for a more nuanced and differentiated pedagogic response as to where and how to improve reading comprehension. Secondly, it allows for a more sensitive monitoring system as to where and how to detect more subtle shifts in reading comprehension that are not readily detectable at or above the LIB.