Effects of reciprocal teaching on reading comprehension of low‐achieving adolescents. The importance of specific teacher skills

Abstract

Low‐achieving adolescents are known to have difficulties with reading comprehension. This article discusses how reciprocal teaching can improve low‐achieving adolescents' reading comprehension in whole‐classroom settings (as opposed to small‐group settings) and to what extent intervention effects are dependent on teacher behaviour. Over the course of 1 year, experimental teachers (n = 10) were given extensive training and coaching aimed at using principles of reciprocal teaching, while control teachers (n = 10) used their regular teaching method. Observations of teacher behaviour were focused on instruction of reading strategies, modelling and support of group work and were performed in both experimental and control classes, comprising a total of 369 students (mean age = 13.01). Our study shows that reciprocal teaching contributed to adolescent low achievers' reading comprehension only when experimental teachers provided high‐quality strategy instruction. In addition, results suggest that the quality of implementation of reciprocal teaching in whole‐classroom settings should receive more research attention. Highlights What is already known about this topic Reciprocal teaching is a method of instructing and guiding learners in reading comprehension. It consists of a set of three related instructional principles: (a) teaching comprehension‐fostering reading strategies; (b) expert modelling, scaffolding and fading; and (c) students practising and discussing reading strategies with other students, guided and coached by the teacher. High quality of implementation of reciprocal teaching by teachers in classrooms is difficult. What this paper adds After 1 year of implementing reciprocal teaching, no main effects of the treatment were established. Intervention effects were moderated by quality of instruction: strategy instruction led to higher scores on reading comprehension in the treatment condition but not in the control condition. Implementation of the instructional principles was by no means optimal: teachers were unable to provide detailed guidance to students working in small groups and modelling of strategies requires more experience and theoretical insight in the use and nature of reading strategies. Implications for practice and/or policy Extensive training and coaching are needed for teachers to become experts in reciprocal teaching. Teachers need hands‐on tools to be able to guide students in their collaborative group work and to fade the teachers' role in order to allow more individual self‐regulation by students in their use of strategies. Implementation quality has to be taken into account when doing effectiveness research and when adopting new, theory‐based didactic approaches.

Developing Summarizing Skills in 4th Grade Students: Intervention Programme Effects

“…First, there was not enough formative monitoring of the EG teachers -large differences in relative progress appeared between classrooms of individual teachers, which probably reflect the differences in the teachers' engagement/effort in implementation of the intervention. Therefore, it would be sensible to monitor the implementation quality by teachers who have implemented the programme, which is an advise given also in current studies (e. g., Okkinga, van Steensel, van Gelderen, & Sleegers, 2018). The second major limitation was that we had no control over what the students in CG did -we do not know, whether they were familiarised with the summarizing strategy during regular instruction or how much they were trained in it or using it.…”

Textanvändning och texttolkning i svenskundervisningen på högstadiet

“…Detta är en utmaning som behöver antas i kommande satsningar på svensklärares professionsutveckling. Aktuella studier tyder dock på att det inte nödvändigtvis räcker med träning i evidensbaserade undervisningsmetoder per se (Okkinga et al, 2018), utan att insatser för lärares professionsutveckling måste ta hänsyn till de specifika utvecklingsbehov som finns i lärarnas arbete, exempelvis genom samverkan i långsiktiga förbättringsnätverk (Bryk, Gomez, Grunow, & LeMahieu, 2015).…”

“…Forskning visar emellertid att det slags undervisning som främjar kvalificerad läsning och tolkning av texter från olika genrer och ämnesområden ställer höga krav på läraren (Okkinga, van Steensel, van Gelderen, & Sleegers, 2018). Sociokognitiva och sociokulturella perspektiv på lärande har lagt grund för en metodlitteratur som förespråkat vikten av samtal om texter i klassrummet, men inte alla slags samtal leder till att elevernas textmedvetenhet och förståelse vidgas (Wilkinson, Murphy, & Binici, 2015).…”

The IMPLEMENTATION OF RECIPROCAL TEACHING MODEL TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT ON ACID-BASE CONCEPTS

“…Implementing a more challenging teaching method such as reciprocal approach rather than regularly using direct instruction could be a reasonable effort in order to switch students' common behaviour from passive to be more active. Reciprocal teaching method which is initially applied in literature discipline particularly in reading comprehension (Ashegh Navaie, 2018;Okkinga, van Steensel, van Gelderen, & Sleegers, 2018) is an instructional method for improving students' reading comprehension skills. This model even named as reciprocal reading in some literature (Gilbert, 2018).…”

“…Later, the teaching approach has been adopted in the teaching and learning in the wider disciplines including in science/chemistry teaching. However, attention to do research regarding the implementation of reciprocal teaching should be carried out in wider samples (Okkinga et al, 2018). The Fab Four strategy including summarizing, questioning, predicting, and clarifying is frequently applied in implementing this model (Ashegh Navaie, 2018; Bales, 2019).…”