Teachers’ Knowledge of Reading

• In Event: Knowledge, Strategies, Instruction, and Assessment

Abstract

In this paper we describe the construction of a test for measuring teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of reading. Items in the domains of phonological awareness, alphabetic principle and fluency were presented to 30 reading experts to ensure content validity. This procedure resulted in a 45-items test which was administered to 215 primary school teachers. Reliability estimated by internal consistency, using KR 20 was adequate. Investigation of the more stringent demands on reliability of the Item Response Theory revealed parallel item characteristic curves for a set of 38 items. Respondents’ item parameters for gender, age, years of experience, grade and level of education showed that the unidimensionality of the scale was not violated.

Authors

• Henk van den Hurk, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences

• Thonia A. Houtveen, Utrecht University

• Willem Van De Grift