Why Elementary Teachers Might Be Inadequately Prepared to Teach Reading

Abstract

Several national reports have suggested the usefulness of systematic, explicit, synthetic phonics instruction based on English word structure along with wide reading of quality literature for supporting development in early reading instruction. Other studies have indicated, however, that many in-service teachers are not knowledgeable in the basic concepts of the English language. They may be well versed in children's literature but not know how to address the basic building blocks of language and reading. The authors hypothesized that one of the reasons for this situation is that many instructors responsible for training future elementary teachers are not familiar with the concepts of the linguistic features of English language. This hypothesis was tested by administering a survey of language concepts to 78 instructors. The results showed that even though teacher educators were familiar with syllabic knowledge, they performed poorly on concepts relating to morphemes and phonemes. In a second study, 40 instructors were interviewed about best practices in teaching components and subskills of reading. Eighty percent of instructors defined phonological awareness as letter-sound correspondence. They also did not mention synthetic phonics as a desirable method to use for beginning reading instruction, particularly for students at risk for reading difficulties. In conclusion, providing professional development experiences related to language concepts to instructors could provide them the necessary knowledge of language concepts related to early literacy instruction, which they could then integrate into their preservice reading courses.

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“…Educational research was not explicitly identified by them as a major source of their professional knowledge for the teaching of reading" (2007, p.68). Similar findings have been reported in the United States (Joshi, Binks, Hougen, Dahlgren, Ocker-Dean & Smith, 2009;Kilpatrick, 2015;Spear-Swerling, 2007) and in Canada (Kosnik & Beck, 2008).…”

Pre-Packaging Preschool Literacy: What Drives Early Childhood Teachers to Use Commercially Produced Phonics Programs in Prior to School Settings

“…Research has highlighted that pre-service teachers recognise the importance of teaching phonics, yet they do not feel equipped to teach it effectively in the classroom (Fielding-Barnsley, 2010). Early childhood teachers generally lack the disciplinary knowledge needed to promote early language and literacy development (Cuningham et al, 2009), possibly because they have not received sufficient preparation in pre-service undergraduate courses (Joshi et al, 2009).…”

The Efficacy of Multimedia Modules for Teaching Basic Literacy-Related Concepts

“…Their assessment reflected foundational literacy knowledge referred to as "basic language constructs" (Binks-Cantrell, Joshi et al, 2009). Basic language constructs include aspects of phonology, morphology, phonemic awareness, and phonics.…”

“…In addition to phonology, teacher candidates should understand the association between reading and writing (McCutchen, Abbot, et al, 2002). Yet, studies show teacher preparation programs are not universally preparing teacher candidates in these areas of basic literacy concepts (Al Otaiba & Lake, 2007;Al Otaiba et al, 2012;Bos, Mather, Dickson, Podhajski, & Chard, 2001;Joshi et al, 2009;Moats et al, 2010). Given the current state of teacher knowledge related to early reading instruction, a need exists to identify evidence-based approaches to ensure teacher candidate mastery of the fundamental components of reading development.…”