Early Career Teachers’ Knowledge and Practice in Spelling Instruction: Insights for Teacher Educators

Abstract

Children who cannot spell fluently are likely to encounter difficulty in writing texts across the curriculum. Furthermore, spelling is often a component in high stakes tests, the results of which have significant implications for students and schools. In the context of debates on teacher quality, it is pertinent to examine the views of early career teachers on their preparedness to teach spelling. This article reports on a small scale study on the views, knowledge and practices of early career teachers in relation to the teaching of spelling, and their views on their pre-service teacher preparation. Participants were early career teachers in Western Australia and data were collected through a questionnaire. This article adds to evidence indicating that many teachers feel inadequately prepared to teach spelling, particularly differentiated spelling instruction. The study is significant in that it focuses on early career teachers' preparedness to teach spelling, an area not previously thoroughly investigated.

Effects of web‐based training on Spanish pre‐service and in‐service teacher knowledge and implicit beliefs on learning to write

“…The present study attends to the quality assurances of changes in content knowledge (Shulman, 1987), and it is very relevant because teachers need to understand the subjects they teach (Ball et al, 2008). It has been found across different languages that many teachers lack sufficient knowledge about language structure as well as the good teaching practices needed in order to effectively help their students acquire basic writing skills (Alatalo, 2016;Oakley, 2018;Puliatte & Ehri, 2018). The lack of knowledge that has been observed in both pre-service teachers and in-service teachers often goes hand in hand with incorrect teacher beliefs regarding what they need to know and do in order to help their students learn (Ball et al, 2008).…”

Unlocking the power of co-collaboration: the impact of educator involvement in educational technology development

“…Researchers have declared that error analysis is crucial for differentiation in spelling and phonology (Daffern & Fleet, 2021;Hong Poay Lin & Kee Jiar, 2018;Malatesha Joshi & Wijekumar, 2019;Oakley, 2018;Roatchanaphaphong & Chusanachot, 2021). Two participants called attention to the feature's ability to provide a comprehensive view of student performance and work processes, allowing for practical observation and error analysis.…”

“…The "Peter Effect" impacted learning due to poor teacher preparation and training and created the "Matthew Effect," where poor-performing students never caught up to average peers (Malatesha Joshi & Wijekumar, 2019;Pfost et al, 2019). Several researchers reported that educators were aware of their lack of explicit training in spelling instruction, including error analysis, differentiation (designed instruction), and TWFT (Daffern & Fleet, 2021;Hong Poay Lin & Kee Jiar, 2018;Malatesha Joshi & Wijekumar, 2019;Oakley, 2018;Roatchanaphaphong & Chusanachot, 2021). Various studies concluded that explicit coaching and training around TWFT were necessary to increase educators' understanding of effective methods for spelling instruction (Daffern & Fleet, 2021;Malatesha Joshi & Wijekumar, 2019;Moats, 2009;Weiser et al, 2019).…”

“…Teachers gained significantly through appropriate training in spelling methodology, but more importantly, educators recognized spelling's importance for reading success. In essence, explicit teacher knowledge, training, and support in the implementation of TWFT were necessary to replace the universal one-size-fits-all commercial literacy programs commonly used in schools (Malatesha Joshi & Wijekumar, 2019;Oakley, 2018;Roatchanaphaphong & Chusanachot, 2021;Weiser et al, 2019).…”