This article discusses a one-year intervention that was implemented using the Read to Learn (R2L) approach with 46 isiZulu-speaking students at a South African University in 2011. All the students were in the BCom4 Access Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and originated from Quintile 1-4 schools. Participating students were taught to understand and read selected texts. They were then assisted through a process of 'scaffolding', in which they ultimately learnt how to independently write a text of the same genre, using the six stages of the R2L teaching cycle. Of the original 46 students, 10 were closely tracked. Various data were collected and analysed during the study period. Findings revealed that there was a marked improvement in both reading (an increase of at least two levels) and writing abilities at both the micro and the macro levels of text. These results suggest that the R2L approach, as a reading intervention, can contribute towards the improvement of the academic literacy levels of disadvantaged students at tertiary level.
The importance of classroom dialogue in promoting effective literacy skills is well documented. Despite comments in a recent paper that there is scant research on classroom observations around print in South Africa post-1994, there have in fact been several studies that have observed classroom practice around reading. The sum of these studies seems to indicate that teaching styles have changed very little over the past 30 years, and that meaningful classroom interaction between teacher and learner remains largely absent. This paper will focus on how the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), of teachers affected their classroom interaction with Grade three and four learners in two semi-urban schools in the Midlands area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It forms part of a larger, 2019, mixed methods, multiple case study that involved eight teachers and their learners, and examined the effects of PCK on the teaching of reading in these Grades. Findings were that, despite some teachers using additional training, ultimately none were managing to move their learners from decoding to reading effectively, and that lack of meaningful interaction played a central role in this.
The focus of this paper is on an instrument known as the Facilitative Orientation to Reading Teaching, or FORT, that was designed to capture how teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) can influence literacy acquisition at Foundation Phase level. The FORT can capture the 'what' and 'how often' of classroom practice and, when combined with qualitative data, it can provide the 'why' and also ascertain whether what teachers say they do when they teach is in accordance with their actual classroom practice. The effectiveness of the instrument will be explained via specific findings from a multiple-case study undertaken with Grade 3 and 4 learners between 2015 and 2017 at two schools in the Midlands area of KwaZulu-Natal. The study involved a total of eight teachers and their classes, while the researchers recorded a total of 34 lessons, most of which were taught in English and some in isiZulu, with class sizes ranging between 35 and 45 learners. Findings indicate that additional training alone may be insufficient to change embedded top-down and teacher-led teaching styles and that teachers may benefit more from ongoing support and mentoring such as coaching.
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