EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING Reading

ReadingEFFECTIVE TEACHINGAND LEARNING

SUMMARY REPORT

Greg Brooks, Maxine Burton, Pam Cole and Marcin Szczerbinski

Reading Summary LIVE THURSDAY 20/1/07 17:59 Page 1

Published by the National Research and

Development Centre for Adult Literacy and

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6 The Effective Practice Studies

8 Main findings

10 Recommendations

12 Background to the study

15 The learners

17 Factors associated with improvement in reading attainment18 Factors not related to improvement in reading attainment

20 The teachers

24 How teacher practice may affect learner performance

26 Conclusions

28 References

ReadingSUMMARY REPORT

RESEARCH TEAM

Greg Brooks, Maxine Burton, Pam Cole and Marcin Szczerbinski

SERIES EDITOR

John Vorhaus

EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING


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This reading study is thelargest in Britain to date ofthe strategies used to teachreading in adult literacyclasses


■ The Skills for Life Strategy in Englandhas led to unprecedented investment inadult literacy, language and numeracy(LLN), major reforms of teachereducation and training, and theintroduction of national standards, corecurricula and assessment to informteaching and learning. We have a uniqueopportunity to make a step change inimproving levels of adult skills. But untilrecently too little was known abouteffective teaching and learning practices,and reports from Ofsted and the AdultLearning Inspectorate repeatedly drewattention to the quality of teaching, andthe need for standards to improve.

It has been a strategic priority of theNational Research and DevelopmentCentre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy(NRDC) to investigate teaching andlearning practices in all the subjectareas and settings in Skills for Life. Wealso see it as our role to report on themost promising and effective practices,and to provide teachers, trainers, policy-makers and researchers with anunparalleled evidence base on which tobuild on the progress already made.

Our findings and recommendations arereported here, and in the fourcompanion reports covering writing,numeracy, ESOL and ICT. The five

studies, which have been co-ordinatedby NRDC Associate Director JohnVorhaus, provide material for improvingthe quality of teaching and learning, andfor informing developments in initialteacher education and continuingprofessional development (CPD). We arealso preparing a range of practitionerguides and development materials, as amajor new resource for teachers andteacher educators. They will explore anddevelop the examples of good andpromising practice documented in thesepages.

This reading study is the largest inBritain to date of the strategies used toteach reading in adult literacy classes(some classes were integrated - with ICTand financial literacy, for example). It isalso the first to attempt to chart teachingstrategies used against changes inlearners’ reading attainment andattitudes to literacy. Over 472 hours ofteaching and learning were observedand recorded. The data gathered on 454learners in 59 classes, a broad nationalrepresentation, constitute a wealth ofinformation: about teaching andlearning; effective and promisingpractices; and priority areas for furtherteacher training and development.

Ursula Howard, Director, NRDC


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Introduction


■ The five Effective Practice Studiesexplore teaching and learning inreading, writing, numeracy, ESOL andICT, and they set out to answer twoquestions: • how can teaching, learning and

assessing literacy, numeracy, ESOLand ICT be improved?

• which factors contribute to successfullearning?

Even before NRDC was set up it wasapparent from reviews of the field thatthere was little reliable research-basedevidence to answer these questions.Various NRDC reviews showed thatprogress in amassing such evidence,though welcome where it wasoccurring, was slow. Four preliminarystudies on reading, writing, ESOL andICT were undertaken between 2002 and2004. However, we recognised theurgent need to build on these in ordergreatly to increase the research basefor the practice of teaching thesesubjects.

The inspiration for the design of the fiveprojects was a study in the UnitedStates of the teaching of literacy andEnglish language to adult learners forwhom English is an additional language(Condelli et al., 2003). This study wasthe first of its kind, and the lead author,Larry Condelli, has acted as an expertadviser on all five NRDC projects.

Our research began in July 2003 andwas completed in March 2006. We setout to recruit and gather information on500 learners in each study, assess theirattainment and attitudes at two pointsduring the year in which they wereparticipating in the study, interviewboth learners and teachers, observe thestrategies their teachers used, andcorrelate those strategies with changesin the learners’ attainment andattitudes. The ICT study differed fromthe others in that its first phase wasdevelopmental, its sample size wassmaller, and it had a shorter timescale,completing in March 2005.

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The Effective Practice Studies



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Progress

Learners are progressing andachieving: many learners involved inthis study achieved an externallyaccredited qualification at the end oftheir course (163 out of 265), and manywent on to further study (171 out of265). Progress was supported byregular attendance.

• Pair and group work encouragedprogress, and learners who spentless time working alone in classmade better progress.

• Women made slightly betterprogress than men.

• Employed people made betterprogress than the unemployed.

• People with a furthereducation/national vocationalqualification made better progressthan those with no qualifications.

• Learners who spent time in self-study between classes made betterprogress.

• There was evidence of a significantincrease in confidence amongstlearners, crucial if they are to makeprogress.

Learners’ progress is not affected orinhibited by many factors that mightotherwise be thought of as having animpact on their achievement: • Age• Ethnicity

• English as a first or additionallanguage

• Age of leaving full-time education• Time since last course• Having dyslexia• Pre-test scores in reading.

Time to learn

Learners need enough time to learn: • The average amount of attendance by

learners between the pre- and post-assessments was only 30 hours. Bycontrast, in the Progress in Adult

Literacy study in 1998–99 (Brooks etal., 2001a), many learners hadattended for 50 or more hoursbetween the two assessments, andthose learners made the greatestaverage progress. Evidence from theNational Center for the Study of AdultLearning and Literacy (NCSALL) inthe US suggests that learners require150-200 hours if they are to progressby one level within the Skills for Life

qualifications framework. • There were no significant

differences between the mid- andpost-assessments in either year(although in 2004/05 there was again between pre- and mid-assessment). The evidence suggeststhat learners in this study couldhave gone on to make moreprogress if the gap betweenassessments had been longer.

Main findings



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Teaching strategies

Although a wide range of teachingquality was observed, most teachingwas of high or fairly high quality. Fewclasses were judged to be middling orpoor. The instrument used was adaptedfrom the authoritative Condelli study(Condelli et al., 2003) and coveredteaching strategies and strategies forlearner engagement.

The following teaching strategies werevery frequently used: • giving appraisal/feedback

immediately• discussion of vocabulary during a

reading• other word study (word lists,

puzzles, word searches)• using a dictionary to find word

meanings.

However, several approaches that theliterature suggests are effective wererarely seen, which may help to explainwhy progress was limited in somecases. In particular, teachers shouldallow more time for learners to engagein ‘active reading’, including readingaloud, as opposed to reading silently ornon-reading activities. On average,active reading tuition occupied lessthan half the class time. The mostfrequent patterns of classroom activityobserved were either a whole-classopening section followed by individualpractice or entirely based on individualwork. In both cases learners workedalone for substantial amounts of time -this was the most frequent groupingstrategy, corresponding with silent

reading as the most frequent specificteaching strategy.

Priorities for further development are:• encouragement of fluent oral

reading (we are gathering newevidence that this re-engagesreluctant readers, producesexcellent progress, and increasesthe amount of active reading inclass)

• reciprocal teaching (where pairs oflearners take turns to be ‘tutor’ and‘student’). There is researchevidence from the US that thisstrategy can be effective with adultlearners

• explicit comprehension strategies• accurate phonics teaching• language experience approaches.

The Adult Literacy Core Curriculum

Most teachers spoke positively aboutthe core curriculum as more‘structured’, ‘focused’, generating‘good ideas’, raising the profile of adultliteracy, increasing teachers’confidence and clarifying issues ofdifferentiation. There were somecriticisms: thatpaperwork/bureaucracy wasburdensome; that there was pressureto ‘teach to the curriculum rather thanwhat learners want’; and that it couldbe ‘restrictive’ or ‘inflexible’.


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Teacher training and development

It is a priority for initial teacher trainingand for CPD to provide teachers withspecific and general strategies forteaching reading, and in particular:• oral reading fluency• explicit comprehension strategies• reciprocal teaching• phonics• language experience approaches.

Teachers in training need to be shownin more detail how to teach reading inways adapted to their learners’ needs -- and how to assess those needs,especially where learners have ‘spikyprofiles’1 of achievement.

Initial teacher training and CPD shouldsupport teachers to make morecreative use of curriculum materials.

Teachers, curriculum managers andproviders should be supported inenabling learners to spend more timeon learning tasks. This will include, inaddition to more contact time andtaught hours:• self-study (which will both increase

time on task and encouragelearners to take responsibility fortheir own learning)

• distance learning• ICT-supported study• intensive provision.

Learners would benefit from spendingmore time working in small groupsduring course time, rather than mostof their time working alone.

There is a need to support teachers indeveloping strategies for balancing pairand group work with time given over tolearners working alone. Thesestrategies should be developed andintroduced into initial teachereducation and CPD programmes.

At the level of classroom practice, themost practicable ways to reduce theamount of time learners spendworking alone are to increase whole-class work and opportunities forlearners to work in pairs – for example,in a buddy system.

Teachers in the field appear to havelittle opportunity for reflection on theirpractice. Practitioner-researchers’accounts suggest that moreopportunities need to be provided forteachers to observe other teaching.

Policy

Evidence supports the policy of makingprovision available to learners of arange of ages and ethnicities, withEnglish as their first or an additionallanguage, who left school at differentages and/or have spent varying lengths

Recommendations

1 ‘Spiky profile’ inthis context refersto the differentlevels of ability inlistening, speaking,reading and writingthat one studentmay have.



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of time away from education, and whomay or may not have dyslexia.

As the field expands, the availability ofmore classes should be built on todifferentiate learner groups by initialattainment in reading and writing –currently, most classes have to caterfor a range of levels.

Research

Approaches that have been found to beeffective elsewhere (mainly in NorthAmerica) should be tried out and theireffectiveness investigated. Examplesinclude teaching reading fluency andaccurate phonics teaching. NRDC isundertaking field trials of incorporatingpractice in oral reading fluency intoclassroom activities.

A detailed development and researchproject should be carried out onphonics teaching in adult literacy.Further professional developmentactivity is needed to train adult literacyteachers to use phonics, and to assessthe effectiveness of phonics teaching inthe adult literacy classroom.

We should explore comparisonsbetween:• intensive courses and the typical

pattern of extended provision• large and small amounts of whole-

class teaching• more and less time spent working

alone.

Practitioner-researchers’accounts suggest that more

opportunities need to beprovided for teachers toobserve other teaching


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■ In most English-speaking countriesthere are high proportions of adultsthought to have less than functionalliteracy. In England, the BritishGovernment’s response has been toestablish the Skills for Life initiativewith targets for increasing adultliteracy, language and numeracyenrolments and qualifications by 2004,2007 and 2010.

The overall aim of this reading studywas to develop insight into whatsupports learners to make progressand/or develop more positive attitudes.

Specific aims were:• to investigate in depth:

(1) the range of pedagogicalpractices in the teaching ofreading to adult learners inEngland which occur ‘naturally’,that is in the normal course ofevents and not as part ofintervention studies

(2) changes in adult learners’attainment in and attitudes toreading over the course of a year

(3) the correlation between thedifferent pedagogical practicesand any such changes

• to make recommendations to theprofession about effective practices.

Findings of previous studies

A review of previous literature (Brookset al., 2001b) found there had been onlytwo national surveys of adult learners’progress in literacy in England andneither had attempted to correlateprogress in attainment with strategiesfor teaching. There was almost noinformation on what adult literacyteaching was actually like on theground. The only area that had beenthoroughly researched in England wasthe scale of need. Surveys had shownthat very few adults could be consideredilliterate, though many had less thanfunctional literacy (defined as belowLevel 1) – possibly as many as 7 million.

An earlier, smaller-scale NRDC study(Besser et al., 2004) showed amismatch between learners’difficulties in reading and teachingstrategies:• intensive, focused reading

instruction did not comprise asignificant amount of teaching

• little work beyond the literal wasseen at sentence level or incomprehension exercises

• learners had poor phonologicalawareness

• much of the phonics teaching wasdone on the spur of the moment,and there were instances ofinaccurate phonics teaching.

Background to the study



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Other literature reviews havehighlighted the following factorsassociated with better progress inreading:• the benefits of reciprocal teaching

(Rich and Shepherd, 1993; forreciprocal teaching see Palincsar,1986; Palincsar and Brown, 1984)

• the benefits of a ‘diagnosticprescriptive’ approach - the use ofdiagnostic procedures to identifyadults’ strengths and weaknessesand to develop individual educationalprogrammes (Cheek and Lindsey,1994)

• tutors having qualified teacher status• tutors having assistance in the

classroom• regular attendance by learners• learners being taught word attack

skills, fluency in reading aloud,repeated reading, and explicitcomprehension strategies.

Scope of this study

Five practitioner-researchers(fieldworkers) and one research fellowgathered data in 2003/04, and they werejoined by six more fieldworkers in2004/05. They recruited 454 learners in59 classes. All 454 learners completed aconsent form, a learner profile and apre-questionnaire on attitudes toliteracy, and 440 completed a readingpre-assessment. Across the two years,338 learners (74 per cent) returned forthe mid-assessment and 322 (71 percent) for the post-assessment, and fulldata were obtained on 298 (66 per cent).This is the largest sample ever achievedin a study of this sort in this country,

and is sufficient to support robuststatistical analyses.

The providers of the 59 classes in thisstudy included:• 34 FE colleges (of which one was

learndirect)• 19 LEAs (including one delivered

by FE)• three charities• two training providers• one prison (delivered by FE).

Overall, the classes were fairlyrepresentative of mainstream adultliteracy provision, but not of the fullrange. For instance, there were noclasses in workplaces (even thoughseveral were contacted in an attempt torecruit them) or young offenderinstitutions.

The study was confined to England andmost of the 59 classes were held in anarea bounded by Liverpool, Chorley,Leeds, Louth and Swadlincote. Therewere also three outlying classes, inNorfolk and West Sussex. Most of theclasses were in urban or suburbansettings, but some were in small townsor rural areas.

Thirty-nine classes were held in thedaytime and 20 in the evening.

Method

A fuller account of the methods used isgiven in Appendix A of the full report ofthe study, which will be available laterthis spring on the NRDC websitewww.nrdc.org.uk

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Adult learners’ attainment in readingand attitudes to literacy were assessedthree times, and between the first twoassessments the strategies theirteachers used were observed.

In general, the initial (pre-)assessments of the learners, includinggathering information on theirbackground characteristics, took placein the autumn terms of 2003 and 2004.The second and third (mid- and post-)assessments were carried out in thespring and summer terms of 2004 and2005.

The observations were conductedbetween the pre- and mid-assessments - mainly betweenNovember 2003 and March 2004 andbetween October 2004 and February2005. Four observations wereconducted in each of the 59 classes,making 236 observations in all. Sinceclasses lasted two hours on average,the total amount of observation timewas about 472 hours.

The reading assessment instrumentused was specifically designed forNRDC by the National Foundation forEducational Research in 2003. It wasaligned in detail with the Adult LiteracyCore Curriculum and NationalStandards, and therefore also with thenational tests for which many learnerswere being prepared. It tested readingcomprehension, in line with theproject’s definition of reading as‘creating or deriving meaning fromtext’. Other aspects of reading, for

example word identification, were notassessed. The instrument wasdesigned to be appropriate for learnersfrom Entry Level 1 to Level 2.

Information was also gathered fromthe teachers on their teachingbackground, their aims for the sessionand, where this was known, data onlearners’ achievement of an accreditedqualification and progression to furtherstudy.

Four observations were carried out ineach class. The observations involved:• background information on the

learners and the session – such asthe layout of the room

• a timed log which covered, amongother things:- whole class, small group and

individual groupings, and changesbetween these

- the content and style of theteaching

- whether individual learners orsmall groups received help fromthe teacher or others present

- the materials used - the time spent on each activity,

logged to the minute as far aspossible.

• an analysis of the session against aclassification of teaching strategiesand activities.

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Who were they?

The gender balance and agedistribution of the initial sample of 454learners were similar to the nationalpicture. However, our sample includedproportionately fewer young people inadult literacy provision. The higherpercentage of people of white ethnicitythan nationally arose because thisstudy sampled only a few areas withhigh ethnic minority populations, andnone in London.

Most classes had no students withlearning difficulties or disabilities, but20 classes had at least one suchlearner. Two classes consisted entirelyof such learners. Another had fivelearners with Down syndrome and twowith severe learning difficulties, and afourth consisted of people recoveringfrom mental health problems. A totalof 108 other learners were said to havedyslexia, of whom 50 had beenformally assessed and the rest werejudged by their teachers to havedyslexia. In all, there were at least 170

learners with some form of learningdifficulty or disability (37 per cent) inthe sample.

Of the 454 learners who had provideddata at the pre-assessment stage, fulldata were gathered on 298 (66 per centof the original sample). This group arereferred to as the ‘returners’ and arejudged as representative of the fulloriginal sample.

Their progress

The reading scores were standardisedon a 0-100 scale with a nationalaverage of 50. The average scores forthis study were all somewhat below thenational average, though probably notsignificantly so. Our samples may havebeen much more diverse than thesample on which the readingassessment instrument was ‘normed’.The ranges of scores were certainlyvery wide. On all occasions at least onelearner scored zero, and on fouroccasions at least one learner got themaximum score of 100.

The learners

Reading attainment, by cohort

Occasion

Cohort Pre Mid Post

2003/04 (N=123) Average scaled score 43.1 41.9

2004/05 (N=179) Average scaled score 40.0 46.5 46.2

N= sample size


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Analysis of assessment data

Analysis of the reading assessmentdata showed no significant differencesbetween the mid- and post-assessments in either year. However,in 2004/05 there was a statisticallysignificant gain between pre- and mid-assessments. (The pre-score for thefirst cohort is not shown because adifferent and possibly less reliableversion of the test was used.)

Contrary to what might be expected,the comparison between the types oferrors made on the pre- and post-assessments would seem on thesurface to reflect less understandingon the post- than on the pre-assessment.

What might account for this change?Learners’ reading ability may havedecreased between assessments,which seems highly unlikely, orlearners’ motivation may havedecreased by the third assessment, insome way affecting their responses –but these possibilities seeminconsistent with the findings onattitudes. Conversely, it may be thatconfidence and ability increased andlearners felt able to attempt morecomplex questions, and made morebasic errors as they were working atthe limit of their ability.

It is also possible that ‘assessmentfatigue’ had set in by the thirdoccasion. This may help to explain whythe mid- and post- scores did not differsignificantly.

Differing classes

The classes differed markedly inaverage change in reading scores. Inthe 2003/04 cohort, the best class hadan average improvement of almost 5scale points, while the worstexperienced an almost 12-pointdecrease. Similarly, in the 2004/05cohort, the best class improved by 19points, while the worst got worse by 3points. So, although the classes werevery small, differences between themwere probably not just randomfluctuations. However, the numbers oflearners in each class were so smallthat statistical tests would not showthese differences to be significant.Class rolls ranged from 4-15, butnumbers attending were almost alwayslower, with eight classes running for atleast one session with only two or threelearners.

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Factors associated withimprovement in readingattainment

Gender

Women’s scores rose slightly more than men’s.

Occupational status

In the 2004/05 cohort only, employed and self-employed learnersimproved significantly more than those who were unemployed.

Formal qualifications

In the 2004/05 cohort only, learners with any FE/national vocationalqualification improved significantly more than those with noqualifications or CSE/GCSE/O-level.

Attendance

More regular attendance was associated very weakly withimprovement.

Enjoyment of literacy

Learners whose reading benefited more from the classes reportedslightly, but significantly, greater enjoyment of literacy at post-testthan at pre-test, and had higher self-ratings than others on this atpost-test. These relationships were very weak, however.

Self-study

Learners who reported more self-study between classes madebetter progress. This has also emerged as an important factor inthe Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning in Oregon (Reder, 2005).


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Factors not related to improvementin reading attainment

Age

There were no significant differences in progress between age bands.Age at leaving full-time education was not related to improvementeither.

Ethnicity

White learners performed better than others2 at pre-test and at post-test, but neither group made significantly greater loss or gain than theother.

English as a first or additional language

Progress made by learners with English as an additional language didnot differ from that of the majority whose first language was English.

Time since last course

It made no difference (on average) how long it had been since learnershad been on a course.

Having dyslexia

There was no significant difference in change in reading scores betweenthose who had dyslexia and those who did not and between those whohad been assessed as having dyslexia and those who had not.

Improvement in self-confidence

Rather surprisingly, the improvement in learners’ self-confidence wasnot related to changes in reading scores.

Attending other provision

Less than half of the learners were also attending some other provision.There was no correlation between attending other provision and changein reading scores.

Scores at pre-test

The correlation between initial scores and change in scores between pre- and post-assessments was not significant.

2 Because the numbers of ethnic minority learners were small, for purposes of analysis allethnicities other than white were collapsed into a single category.


Their voices

Learners willing to attend consultationand feedback days were likely to be themore confident and successful.Nevertheless, their comments providesome insight into their views on theirprogress.

Milestones:

• One learner said he had now read hisfirst book (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to

the Galaxy by Douglas Adams) andhad just finished a second. (Histeacher said that the ‘most fantasticthing’ for her was when he came inand said he had read that first book.)In terms of writing, he said he wasnow prepared to persevere, writingexercises out about five times to getthem right, even although he stillfound the process difficult.

• Another learner said that she couldnow understand ‘How they want meto answer certain questions’. Shealso said she read more, and not justthe TV magazines but things shewould not have read before.

What helps?

• One learner said her teacher hadbeen more like a friend and helped alot - not like at school. This one-to-one help was ‘tremendous’ and hadhelped her confidence and self-esteem.

• Another learner mentioned thedifferent atmosphere in adulteducation compared with school.She described it as being treated as‘an equal’.

Pride in progress:

One learner talked about how she wasso nervous that it took her about 40minutes of pacing up and down outsidethe learning centre before she dared togo in to enquire about what help shecould get with her reading and writing.When she was given the forms, shedidn’t have her glasses with her – ‘Yes,really’ – and joked about how oftenpeople would have heard that excuse!‘It was the best thing I’ve ever done inmy life.’ She said that last year she hadbeen made redundant after 17 yearsworking in a factory. She said that shethought she would not be able to getanother job. ‘Now I have done myEnglish Levels 1 and 2 and maths Level1, have just signed on to do GCSEEnglish and I’ve just got a job in acollege as a learning support workerfor learners with profound learningdifficulties.’

Both from these comments andgeneral experience it is clear thatmeasuring progress in reading is morecomplex than any tests devised byresearchers or awarding bodies. Aworthwhile research topic would be toinvestigate more systematically whatlearners perceive as markers of theirprogress.


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Across the two years, semi-structured interviews were conducted with all but threeof the 47 participating teachers, on completion of the observations of their classes.

Who were they?

Gender:

Thirty-six of the teachers were women and 11 were men, and the overwhelmingmajority of classes observed were taken by female teachers (46 out of 59).

Home language:

English was the first language of all but one teacher.

Qualifications:

Current standards now expect adult literacy teachers to have both a full teachingcertificate and a Level 4 subject-specialist qualification. Two of the teachers werefully qualified in this way as literacy teachers, but the data were gathered at a timewhen few teachers had yet had the opportunity to acquire the new Level 4qualifications. One other teacher was fully qualified, but as a numeracy teacher.

Twelve of the 47 teachers had both a generic teaching qualification (Cert Ed, PGCEor equivalent) and a subject-specific literacy teaching qualification in the form ofthe ‘old’ City & Guilds 9285. A further 11 teachers had qualifications of both types,but one or other, or both, of the qualifications was of an introductory nature only.

Thirteen teachers had a full generic teaching certificate, but no qualifications inteaching adult literacy. A further two teachers had less than full versions of genericteaching qualifications, also with no literacy teaching qualifications.

Three teachers had qualifications in teaching adult literacy, but no generic teachingqualifications.

Three teachers were not interviewed about their qualifications.

Of the 31 teachers with full generic teaching qualifications, 20 were in the contextof training to teach in schools.

We make no assumptions here about how the status of teaching qualifications hasaffected teaching skills.

Experience:

Over three-quarters of those interviewed (34) had additional teaching experience inother subjects. Nearly half of these teachers (16 of the 34) had infant or primaryschool experience. All but two had previous teaching experience in adult literacy,which varied from one year to 28 years, with a mean of nearly nine years.

The teachers


Teaching practice

The nature of class teaching:

• Group workUp to 92 teaching sessions in 23 classeswere studied during the first year. Ofthese, a large number were found tocontain whole-group teaching - 62sessions in 18 classes - a pattern seenin over two-thirds of sessions. Forty-three sessions in 14 classes followed astyle which may be simply described asgroup work followed by practice. Thisusually consisted of a taught lesson,ranging from 10 minutes to an hour,where the teacher involved the wholegroup in the teaching of some point,often a reading strategy or a spelling orpunctuation rule, followed by individual,paired or small group practice.Frequently the teacher would haveprepared worksheets, usuallydifferentiating the level of work inmixed-level groups.

• Individual workTwenty-seven sessions in 10 classesconsisted entirely of individual work.Five teachers taught all of theirsessions in this way. (Five classes variedbetween the pattern of group work andpractice and having no taught whole-

group session at all, usually foridentifiable reasons.) Working as part ofthe whole class and working alone werethe predominant modes of working.Relatively little time was spent in anyother grouping.

The average length of a session wasabout 120 minutes. For the averagelearner, the groupings listed took upabout 73 minutes (sum of averages forthe six categories), or about 61 per centof time in class. The remaining 47minutes were taken up with social time.This included an opening chat and teabreaks but most of this time was spenton work that was not reading-related:discussing individual learning plans withthe teacher or writing.

Secondly, in five of the groupings itcould be assumed that learners werereceiving active reading tuition orpractice, the exception being workingalone. If the average 29 minutes spentworking alone are subtracted from theaverage 73 minutes spent on all readingactivities, it seems that learnersreceived on average 44 minutes (37 percent) of active reading tuition or practiceper session.


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Learner groupings in class, by average number of minutes

Grouping category Average number of minutes per session

A. Whole class with teacher/assistant 25.4

B. Alone 29.1

C. 1:1 with teacher 4.6

D. 1:1 with assistant. 6.3

E. Learner pair – no teacher/assistant support 3.6

F. Small group, with or without support 4.4


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The most popular classroom layout wasone large table with learners sittinground, showing that teachers had anoverall preference for the model of‘group work followed by practice’.

Most teaching was assessed as of highor fairly high quality. The specificteaching strategy recorded mostfrequently was silent reading. Several‘effective’ approaches highlighted byliterature reviews were rarely, if ever,observed.

Teaching strategies not generally used

but deemed effective

• Reciprocal teaching (see Palincsar,1986; Palincsar and Brown, 1984) -an approach in which pairs oflearners take turns to be ‘tutor’ and‘student’, e.g. in formulating

questions for each other about a text– was rarely seen.

• Teaching of ‘word attack skills’(Kruidenier, 2002) or phonics wasinfrequently used and, whenobserved, was often inaccurate.

• Fluency in reading aloud seemshardly to be taught at all, though it isin widespread use in North Americaat both initial and adult levels. ManyUK adult literacy teachers may bereluctant to put pressure on learnersto do this because they see it asinvolving individual reading aloud.North American practice seems torefer more to choral reading, whereindividuals’ uncertainties need not berevealed.

• Repeated reading is an extension ofthat technique: classes andindividuals practise reading a

Teaching strategies

Most commonly used teaching strategies

2003/04 Cohort Average number of minutes per session

Learner reads text silently 13.23

Appraisal/feedback given immediately 10.45

Discussion of text 7.01

Discussion of vocabulary during a reading 5.76

Other word study (e.g. word lists, puzzles, word searches) 4.92

Use dictionary to find meanings 5.39

Teacher reads text aloud while learners follow own texts 3.97

2004/05 Cohort

Learner reads text silently 11.57

Appraisal/feedback given immediately 8.54

Other word study (e.g. word lists, puzzles, word searches) 6.72

Discussion of vocabulary during a reading 4.46

Use dictionary to find meanings 5.47



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familiar passage aloud until they cando so faultlessly. Again, in NorthAmerican experience it seems tobuild confidence and comprehensionrather than just being an exercise.

• Teaching explicit comprehensionstrategies brings us back toreciprocal teaching. It is clear fromthe research literature that theteaching of comprehension, which

after all is the point of reading, is theleast researched topic in the field, atboth initial and adult levels.

• Language experience approaches –researchers looked for exampleswhere learners read out their ownwriting after having composed it,which might have reflected alanguage experience approach, butfound few examples.

Sensitive teaching

One particular example of sensitiveand thoughtful teaching was a class,which comprised seven learners, ofwhom five were adults with Downsyndrome. Their teacher had beenworking with adult literacy groups forsome time, and was following acourse leading to a certificatedqualification. She was regularly helpedby an experienced assistant. Both staffand most of the learners had workedtogether in the previous academicyear.

The sessions displayed commoncharacteristics:• a casual, familiar conversational

approach, but without ever losinggroup control

• very little formal exposition, withwhat there was always supportedby a medium other than speech andalmost always involving the learner

• considerablesupport/encouragement of even thesmallest achievements

• staff involving themselves in the

activities they were presenting, atthe same level as the learners

• relatively swift switches toindividual participation in groupwork, or to individual work (mainlycopying) with staff sitting withindividuals or pairs to encourageand support

• use of effective role-playtechniques to encourageinvolvement, often with learnerstaking the lead role

• absolute acceptance that the pacehad to be measured, and thatprogress would be slow.

Over the year, the learners’ growth inconfidence was evident. It was mostmarked in one learner who, by the endof the year, was a markedly differentperson – open and communicative, notjust wanting to please by herresponses but wanting to get involved.It was also possible to see that somelearners had made a little progress,even at the minimal level of literacythat they needed to cope with theirlives.

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How teacher practice may affectlearner performance

■ The effectiveness of teachers’practice depended greatly on theirattitudes. It must be significant that theclass with the greatest evidence oflearner dependence, leading to longperiods of inactivity, was the one whoseteacher expressed the most negativeattitude towards his teaching.

Working alone in class wassignificantly and negatively associatedwith change in reading scores. Thus,greater amounts of time spent workingalone were associated with worseprogress. The relationship was veryweak, but does call into question thehigh proportion of time learners spentworking alone. In one class wherelearners generally worked alone onworksheets too much time was wastedwaiting for the teacher’s commentsand directions.

Working in pairs was positively

associated with change in readingscores. On average, learners whoworked more in pairs made betterprogress. Group work tended topromote a more positive classatmosphere due to mutual supportbetween learners, thoughindividualised working could alsoachieve this.

Silent reading was the most frequentspecific strategy in both years. Thissuggests that this was the largestsingle component of the average 29minutes per session that learnersspent working alone. Of course, thismeans that learners were practisingtheir reading, but could they or shouldthey have done this between sessions?Does this strategy improve theirfluency or accuracy or comprehensionif not linked to discussion or oralpractice or some form ofcomprehension exercise? Similarly, areword lists, puzzles and word searcheseffective in developing readingcomprehension?

The finding that silent reading was thestrategy that occupied the greatestamount of class time, coupled with thesubstantial amount of time learnersspent working alone, requires someexemplification (see case studyopposite).



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Pair work/buddying

One session demonstrated how a tutorincorporated pair work into her lessonplan. After a whole-class section onadvertisements and persuasive writing,the tutor handed out differentiatedworksheets and attempted to pairlearners working at the same level.The two learners at Level 1 were told,‘Get together, get ideas from eachother.’ They disregarded this andworked on their own. However, whenthe teacher asked the two Entry Levellearners to work together, oneimmediately moved her seat so theywere sitting together. They discussed

the worksheet (on adjectives) at lengthtogether and helped each other look upentries in a dictionary. When theteacher gave feedback, it was donejointly, rather than one-to-one.

With a different class, however, thisteacher ‘seized the moment’ to providea buddying opportunity. One learner (J)arrived very late, after the session onpronouns and distribution of individualworksheets. The tutor told her, ‘S willexplain what you’ve to do’. S laughs –‘If I can!’ J sits down next to S, whoexplains briefly but accurately aboutpronouns and what the task involves.

Silent reading

In one session all learners received a‘silent reading’ coding for times thatvaried from 6 to 44 minutes. However,this strategy was never used on itsown. As they read through theworksheet passages, learners wereidentifying unknown words,highlighting them and usingdictionaries to find their meanings.Time was also spent one-to-one with alearner who needed more help,listening to him read the text aloud.The reading was followed by individualcomprehension exercises.

An alternative to silent reading as aprelude to comprehension exercises isdemonstrated by the followingdescription of a session on contractsand ‘reading the small print’. Theteacher distributed sheets withinformation about telephone contracts,

with comprehension questions. Sheread the first part of the sheet to thelearners and asked the first question(‘Where would you find these texts?’).This was followed by further questionsabout features of this particular type oftext and then a class discussion. Thelearners then continued reading thenext text, this time with the learnersbeing asked to read out in turn. Againthis was followed by questions anddiscussion, and this time the tutorwrote up the main points on thewhiteboard. The learners were thengiven a second sheet with the text ofthe actual contract and read it silentlyfor about three minutes before furtherquestions, discussion and taking turnsto read it again. These whole-classactivities occupied about 40 minutes,and only then did the learners workalone, on a task which involved writinga summary of the main points.

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■ This study provides substantialevidence of the range of teachingpractice within adult literacy and thereal effect this has on learnerattainment in, and attitudes towards,reading.

• The adult literacy workforce emergesfrom the research as well-qualifiedand experienced on the whole, withan overarching concern to meetlearners’ needs.

• Most teaching was assessed as ofhigh or fairly high quality with manypositive features (e.g. flexibility, directteaching, opportunities for practice,links to life outside the classroom,praise and encouragement).Teachers provided good opportunitiesfor learner involvement (e.g.contributing their own ideas, thinkingabout tasks and discussing them,expressing themselves without beingimmediately corrected) and manyhad considerable teachingexperience. More than half hadassistance in the classroom.

• The introduction of a core curriculumis prompting teachers to movetowards greater group work andindeed group and paired work has apositive effect on reading attainment,as opposed to students workingalone. Many teachers, including themore experienced, spoke in terms of

the curriculum being more‘structured’, ‘focused’, generating‘good ideas’, raising the profile ofadult literacy, increasing teachers’confidence and clarifying issues ofdifferentiation, although the highestpraise came from those who hadbeen teaching adult literacy for arelatively short time. One teacherwith four years’ experience said: ‘It’smy bible’.

• Although the specific teachingstrategy recorded most frequentlywas silent reading this strategy wasrarely used on its own and requiredmore engagement than might beassumed. As learners read throughworksheet passages, for example,they would simultaneously identifyunknown words, highlight them anduse dictionaries to find out theirmeanings. Time might also be spentone-to-one with learners whoneeded more help.

• Although learners were exposed to arange of single sounds and ‘blends’(consonant clusters), a morestructured approach to phonics isdesirable and a more systematicmethod of determining which soundsare known, which need somereinforcement and which need to betaught.

• There is scope for further review ofICT software and web-based

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Conclusions



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3

resources and their effectiveness asa teaching resource over a range ofstrategies. How the resource is usedcould be an important factor inlearner progression.

• Change in reading scores wassignificantly related to just twovariables: working alone and in pairs.Learners who worked alone lessmade better progress, and learnerswho worked in pairs more madebetter progress. Learners whoreported more self-study betweenclasses also made better progress.

• Learners’ self-confidence increasedsignificantly between pre- and post-assessment, and those whosereading benefited more from classesreported significantly greaterenjoyment of literacy. In feedbacksessions learners spoke with greatpride of their achievement. Forexample, one learner describedwriting the first letter ever to herbrother: ‘He was shocked and said,don’t let that be the only letter youwrite to me!’ Another who talkedabout writing a book review for thefirst time -- ‘I was quite proud of that’-- went on to achieve Levels 1 and 2qualifications and to enlist for GCSEEnglish. Such stories were notuncommon.

Our research suggests that measuringprogress in reading is more complexthan any tests yet devised byresearchers or awarding bodies. Aworthwhile research topic would be toinvestigate more systematically whatlearners perceive as markers of theirprogress.

Limitations to this research

We acknowledge the followinglimitations to our research: • The amount of time between

assessments is likely to have beentoo short for evidence of substantialprogress to emerge.

• The assessment instrumentassessed only comprehension at textlevel. No data were gathered onprogress in other aspects of reading,such as word recognition.

• Active reading tuition was found tooccupy less than half the averageclass time, and not all classes wereonly focused on reading.

• Some basic aspects of reading werenot assessed: word recognition, forexample.

• Several effective teaching strategieswere rarely seen.

• The assessment tool used at pre-test in the first year was a pilotinstrument.

• Significant numbers of learners hada learning disability.


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learners’ difficulties in reading: an

exploratory study. London: NationalResearch and Development Centre foradult literacy and numeracy.

Brooks, G., Davies, R., Duckett, L.,Hutchison, D., Kendall, S. and Wilkin,A. (2001a). Progress in adult literacy: do

learners learn? London: Basic SkillsAgency.

Brooks, G., Giles, K., Harman, J.,Kendall, S., Rees, F. and Whittaker, S.(2001b). Assembling the fragments: a

review of research on adult basic skills.

London: Department for Education andEmployment Research Report no.220.

Cheek, E.H. and Lindsey, J.D. (1994).‘The effects of two methods of readinginstruction on urban adults’ wordidentification and comprehensionabilities.’ Journal of Vocational and

Technical Education, 11, 14-19.

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works study for adult ESL literacy

students. Washington, DC: USDepartment of Education.

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Palincsar, A.S. and Brown, A.L. (1984).‘Reciprocal teaching ofcomprehension-fostering andcomprehension-monitoring activities.’Cognition and Instruction, 1, 2, 117-72.

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Rich, R. and Shepherd, M.J. (1993).‘Teaching text comprehensionstrategies to adult poor readers.’Reading and Writing, 5, 387-402.

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