Influence of accelerated training in early grade reading knowledge: experiences in Northern Nigeria.

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday III)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: From baseline assessment to evaluating interventions in teacher education programs focusing on reading and writing instruction in Nigeria and Honduras.

Proposal

Decades of development neglect combined with the more recent violence caused by Boko Haram, which has caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, are some of the contributing factors to the current education crisis in Northern Nigeria. Many learners and youth have had interruptions to their schooling in the early grades, while some others have not attended at all. Consequently, a need to support learners who are beginning readers to be able to become independent readers in the near future has been included in NGO’s programmatic strategies. To deliver an effective response to the children affected by this crisis, an After School Tutoring program that includes structured lessons in literacy (and also in math and social and emotional learning) has been designed and implemented to provide the basic skills that learners need, as a supplement to their regular courses during the day. A cadre of Master Trainers with diverse educational and experience backgrounds participated in a week-long training experience with the purpose of delivering the same training to the tutors (classroom teachers) who will work in the after-school programs. The literacy component of the training was delivered in 1.5 days and focused on teaching how to create an optimal learning environment as well as the following topics: Concepts of print; Enriching learners’ oral language development; Phonological and phonemic awareness; Phonics; Vocabulary enrichment; and Writing words. After the training, the Master Trainers were responsible to train the tutors and ensure that they acquired the skills and understanding to effectively implement the structured lessons in literacy. This paper provides the results of a pre and post questionnaire administered to the Master Trainers with the purpose of examining how the 1.5 day-long training experience influenced their knowledge of early grade reading instruction. Instead of a curriculum-specific made measure, an instrument designed for students participating in an Early Grade Reading graduate course was used. The results inform how impactful the training was in the Master Trainers’ gains in Early Grade Reading knowledge. Implications for training design are discussed.

Author

• ANA HELGA MARTY, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY