Primary school students have difficulties with text comprehension, and therefore support from teachers via proper language teaching strategies is needed. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of language teaching strategies on students' reading outcomes and reading interest. In the current paper, two reading outcomes-vocabulary knowledge and understanding text-and students' interest in reading were considered. In the study, 220 Estonian-speaking primary school students and their native language teachers (N = 12) from 12 schools participated. The results revealed that interest in reading, vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension were positively correlated. Path analysis indicated that the strategy of developing reading interest had the strongest impact on both reading outcomes and students' reading interest. In addition, the strategy of developing vocabulary had a positive effect on students' vocabulary knowledge. Surprisingly, the strategies of teaching text comprehension and teaching grammar rules had negative effects on students' reading outcomes and reading interest. The findings emphasise the importance of proper usage of teaching strategies in primary school language lessons.
Teachers' beliefs about teaching goals and practices are influenced by several factors, including teaching and mentoring experiences. To identify which teaching goals and practices are preferred for the social and cognitive development of pupils, 112 student teachers and 73 school-based teacher educators were questioned. In contrast to teacher educators, student teachers consider the mechanical acquisition of knowledge and practices that support intrapersonal processes directed toward cognitive development to be a more effective goal, while teachers with mentoring experience prefer teaching practices that support pupils' social development. Knowledge about teaching-related beliefs is essential for promoting effective teacher training.
Introducing information and communication technology (ICT) into education has had an impact on the teacher role perception. To learn about the perceptions of primary school teachers who regularly use computers in teaching, their role and the impact of ICT on the instructional process, a qualitative study was conducted in Estonia. Five teachers who extensively use computers in teaching were interviewed. Narrative logic was used in presenting the research findings. According to the results some of the teachers' roles coincided in traditional and computer-aided lessons (distributor of knowledge, assessor), some roles were easier to perform with ICT (individualiser, motivator) and some roles had emerged due to ICT (expert of study materials, developer of materials). The essence of a primary school teacher's role has not changed, but the proportions of different roles and tasks have changed.
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