Socioeconomic status at the individual and school-level are positively related to literacy achievement in all English-speaking countries. The components of socioeconomic status - income, parent ...education and parent occupation - are each statistically significant predictors of school literacy achievement but they are primarily a proxy for more directly salient factors. This literature review outlines the factors that are most strongly implicated in literacy achievement. At the individual-level, they are early literacy ability, gene-environment interactions, home learning environment, time spent reading, sleep, school attendance and school mobility. At the school-level, they are school practices and teacher quality, including quality of initial reading instruction. These factors are interactive; not only are socioeconomically disadvantaged children more likely to experience these conditions, they are also more adversely affected by them than their more advantaged peers. This review concludes that understanding the nature of the relationship between socioeconomic status and literacy is the key to mitigating it. Author abstract
The present study was conducted to explore how the relationships between reading comprehension constructs change according to word reading accuracy, as measured in a large convenience sample ('n' = ...857) of school-aged students (Years 3-6) with reading difficulties. Multiple regression analyses containing interaction variables were conducted, to determine whether word reading accuracy moderated the relationships between the dependent variable (i.e. reading comprehension) and independent variables (i.e. each of vocabulary and nonword reading accuracy). The interaction variable between word reading accuracy and receptive vocabulary was significant, with steeper slopes evident among more skilled readers compared to less skilled readers. Conversely, the interaction variable between word reading accuracy and nonword reading accuracy was also significant, but with steeper slopes evident among the less skilled reader groups. These patterns align with what has been found in typically developing children: as word reading ability improves, reading comprehension depends more so on language comprehension skills than lower-level decoding skills.
Gaps in literacy ability between children from different socio-economic backgrounds are evident before formal schooling begins. Low income makes a minor contribution. Socio-economic status exerts its ...influence on early literacy primarily through its association with other factors. Children from disadvantaged families are less likely to have experiences that encourage the development of fundamental skills for reading acquisition, specifically phonological awareness, vocabulary and oral language. These skills underlie the cognitive processes in the "simple view" of reading - word identification and language comprehension. Low quality early home literacy environments suppress children's genetic potential, increasing the risk a child will struggle to learn to read. In addition, children from low socio-economic status backgrounds are more likely to have infant health outcomes associated with cognitive impairments, such as preterm birth and low birth weight, and are less likely to attend preschool. The risk factors associated with the failure to develop early literacy skills are cumulative and interactive. This literature review describes a predictive pathway between social disadvantage and poor early literacy.
Conducting classroom-based educational research trials is important for establishing the efficacy and effectiveness of specific instructional interventions. Such endeavours, however, are challenging ...to implement. This was made evident during a recent independent evaluation of the efficacy of the MiniLit program, wherein various difficulties emerged relating to the dosage and fidelity of instruction, and the measures and analyses employed by the research team. As such, this served as an object lesson in what can, and frequently does, go wrong in even the best planned intervention research enterprises conducted in schools. The present article is intended to capture the authors’ experiences in implementing research trials in school contexts, with specific examples drawn from the independent evaluation of MiniLit. In particular, this study has reinforced the need to select assessment measures carefully, according to how well they represent targeted skills in the specific population of interest. In addition, it has highlighted the importance of planning program efficacy trials such that participants can receive enough exposure of the intervention to progress to a realistic extent.
Teachers in England and South Australia annually administer the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) to Year 1 students, with the purpose of identifying struggling readers. Students who do not meet the ...score threshold have not met the expected standard of word-decoding ability, meaning further support may be warranted. We sought to quantify the extent to which other early reading measures, such as the Wheldall Assessment of Reading Nonwords (WARN) and Wheldall Assessment of Reading Lists (WARL), predicted students' likelihood of not meeting PSC expected standards. Predicting PSC outcomes, and thereby identifying struggling readers at the start of Year 1, has important implications for possible intervention strategies. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analyses were conducted to examine the longitudinal relationships between real-word and pseudoword predictors as measured by the WARL and WARN and PSC pass/fail outcomes. Students who scored lower on predictors were less likely to meet the PSC expected standards. Results indicate that the WARL and WARN could be used to identify students who will not meet PSC expected standards, facilitating earlier intervention where it is most critically required. Author abstract
Recently, there has been debate surrounding the potential implementation of the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) in Australian primary schools. The present study sought to investigate the child- and ...task-related factors influencing the PSC performances of Year 1 Australian students, who had received almost two years of systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) instruction. Non-parametric between- and within-group comparisons and correlational analyses were conducted to examine whether performance was influenced by gender, age, school site, real word status and item complexity. Approximately 82% of the students obtained or exceeded the South Australian PSC trial threshold of 28 points out of 40, which suggests the students were, on average, developing adequate word-level decoding skills. The only child- and task-related factors to emerge as statistically significant were age and item complexity.
Review comment on the first edition
"Wheldall asks himself and his readers what has transpired within the field of educational psychology ... and what its relevance actually is for teaching, learning ...and education. As such it is a 'must read' for all educational psychologists, students of educational psychology, teachers and teacher trainers."
Professor Paul Kirschner, Open Universiteit, British Journal of Educational Technology
What is the relevance of educational psychology in the twenty first century?
In this collection of essays, leading educational psychologists reflect on the seminal developments which have been made in the field over the past twenty five years or so and assess how far we have progressed. Given a broad and personal remit to address a range of issues, the contributors review and critique a variety of topics, including:
intelligence;
communication;
family environments;
individual differences;
reading;
peer learning;
classroom behaviour;
and higher education.
Providing provocative and challenging insights into the state of contemporary educational psychology, the contributors acknowledge throughout the successes and progression in the field, but with a critical edge and a challenge being thrown down to psychologists of education to make study more seriously informed and as a consequence, reformed.
Now in its second edition this compelling text for students and researchers is thoroughly updated and includes four new chapters.
The aim of the present study was to determine the efficacy of a small-group reading instruction program that was delivered over two school terms to Australian students in Years 3 through 6. A large ...cohort (n = 239) of primary school children was assessed on their literacy skills before and after receiving ‘MacqLit’, a phonics-based program designed for older struggling readers. Parametric and nonparametric difference tests were used to compare results at pre- and postintervention time points. Statistically significant improvements with large effect sizes were observed on all raw score measures of word reading, nonword reading, passage reading and spelling. Statistically significant improvements were also observed on standard score measures of nonword reading and passage reading, suggesting the gains were greater than what might be expected to have resulted from typical classroom instruction. The results indicate that older middle primary school-aged students may benefit from phonics-based, small-group reading instruction.
An earlier series of pilot studies and small-scale experimental studies had previously provided some evidence for the efficacy of a small group early literacy intervention program for young ...struggling readers. The present paper provides further evidence for efficacy based on a much larger sample of young, socially disadvantaged, at-risk readers. The participants comprised 14 successive intakes of Year 1 and Year 2 students into small group remedial literacy intervention programs hosted by two charitably run tutorial centres. In each semester, over the years 2005-2011, eight students (on average) attended each centre for one hour, for four days per week, for 15 weeks. Pre- and post-test assessment data on eight measures of early literacy performance were available on up to 194 students who completed the program. Substantial and statistically significant gains were evident on all literacy measures with large effect sizes. These results provide further evidence for the efficacy of the small group literacy intervention program.
This article considers social class and reading performance. It outlines a non-categorical approach to reading disability and describes the reading intervention program developed for older ...low-progress readers. It then demonstrates how students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds can, and do, make substantial progress when offered effective reading instruction based on the available scientific research evidence. Author abstract, ed
