Upper Elementary Teachers' Knowledge and Practice for Reading Comprehension Instruction

• In Event: Literacy Instruction: Teacher Practice

Abstract

The current study examined upper elementary teachers’ (N = 239) knowledge for reading comprehension instruction and the quality of reading comprehension instruction they provided. Results revealed teachers were largely unfamiliar with evidence-based reading comprehension strategies and tended to perform better content and pedagogical content knowledge items than application of knowledge items. Participants serving as instructional specialists scored statistically significantly higher than classroom teachers (p = .001). Further, we observed that approximately 68% of observed teachers modeled and allowed for guided practice of generating a main idea after reading. Moreover, teachers who provided poor or fair instruction were significantly less likely to allow for guided practice during comprehension lessons than teachers who provided good or excellent instruction (p = .007).

Authors

• Alida K. Hudson, American Institutes for Research
  Presenting Author

• Kacee M. Lambright, Texas A&M University
  Presenting Author

• Kausalai K. Wijekumar, Texas A&M University
  Presenting Author

• R. Malatesha Joshi, Texas A&M University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emily Binks-Cantrell, Texas A&M University
  Non-Presenting Author