How scripted is too scripted? A mixed-methods analysis of literacy teachers’ guides

• In Event: Best Practices for Material Development to Support Early Grade Reading

Proposal

Teachers’ guides have been a fundamental part of the design of many of the recent literacy improvement programs implemented in Southern contexts over the last ten years. Some scholars argue that the structure of scripted lesson plans in teachers’ guides provides teachers with an essential scaffold to support newer instructional methods. Others argue that overly scripted lessons reduce the ability of teachers to implement lessons that are designed at the appropriate level for students, reducing teachers’ ability to differentiate instruction appropriately.

The different perspectives on the utility of teachers’ guides in literacy programs is not accompanied by empirical evidence. We are not aware of experimental data that compare the impact of different types of teachers’ guides. However, a recent study in Kenya compared the relative impact of treatment groups that included teachers’ guides with another treatment group that was identical with respect to the amount of coaching, training and other structures. This study found that the addition of the teachers’ guides had substantial impacts on learning outcomes in English, Kiswahili and mathematics (Piper et al, 2016).

In order to understand how literacy programs differ with respect to the amount of scripting in teachers’ guides, we studied teachers’ guide documents from 19 projects in 13 countries. We present the quantitative differences in the level of scripting in these projects. In addition, we selected four countries that had substantial differences in the level and type of scripting in their teachers’ guides. We observed classrooms in those contexts to determine what type of modifications teachers made to the lesson plan as written in the teachers’ guides. We also interviewed the teachers and asked them to describe the reasons for their modifications to the teachers’ guides.

In the quantitative analysis, we examine the number of pages in a lesson and the number of words on a page to create an index for the amount of scripting in the teachers’ guide. We compare the level of scripting with the program impacts identified in each of the projects to determine whether the level of scripting is associated with higher or lower program impacts. In addition to the quantitative results, we find substantial numbers of changes from the teachers’ guide across the four country’s qualitative data collection. We also find interesting relationships between the level of fidelity to the teachers’ guide and the quality of the lesson.

The presentation provides suggestions to future literacy programs regarding which levels of scripting in teachers’ guides have particular teacher responses. We also use practical examples from different contexts for the descriptions of classroom behavior. The study is a step towards reviewing the contributions of teachers’ guides towards improved literacy outcomes.

Authors

• Jessica Mejia, RTI International

• Benjamin Piper, RTI International

• Yasmin Sitabkhan, RTI International