Understanding how effective interventions
work: psychologically enriched evaluation
Early reading and reading self-concept.
•
Objectives
•
To provide a brief overview of an experimental study that
investigated children’s reading self-concepts.
•
To illustrate different children’s individual experiences of the
intervention as a way of exploring contrasting responses within
the same experimental group.
Dr Ben Hayes.
b.hayes@ucl.ac.uk
» University College London.
» Kent Educational Psychology Service.
Purpose of the study.
1) To establish if it is possible to make an
impact on children’s self-concepts in
reading through focused training in decoding skills.
2) To see whether different word level
factors have a different impact on selfconcept.
Hypothesis 1.
• That two independent variables
(hypothesis 1a, size of phonological unit
and hypothesis 1b, sound to print
orientation) will impact on the development
of children’s self-concepts in reading, and
more specifically, that small unit
programmes with a sound to print
orientation will show improvements over
large unit or print to sound orientations.
Hypothesis 2.
• That the approach used to train word level
reading skills taken in the study will
promote reading skills beyond the
progress that is seen in a comparison
group following normal classroom
teaching.
Design of the study.
• Measuring Reading Self-Concept in two ways; self report
and a confidence measure that avoids self report.
• Four individually delivered programmes (differing in the
way the sounds are introduced and whether the
orientation for teaching is from print to sound or from
sounds to print).
• 12 Weeks.
• Selection criteria.
Schedule of data collection.
Data point T1
12 week
training
program
119 children in 20 schools (22 classes). Each school selects around 6 children.
Each school randomly allocated to one group.
Pre-intervention assessment completed.
Group 1
IV 1
Level 1
Group 2
IV 1
Level 1
Group 3
IV 1
Level 2
Group 4
IV 1
Level 2
IV 2
Level 1
IV 2
Level 2
IV 2
Level 1
IV 2
Level 2
Control group.
Approximately 2
pupils from each
school.
Normal class
teaching.
Data point T2
104 children in 18 schools (19 classes)
The four intervention groups.
Size of phonological unit.
Sound to
print
orientation
Small
Large
Sound to
Print
Group 1
Group 2
Print to
Sound
Group 3
Group 4
• Programmes matched for;
– The sounds introduced.
– The pace of the learning.
– The overall coverage.
– The time spent on the programme.
Practice Task: Record Sheet
Week 1
The practice task should take 1 minute. In that minute complete as much as possible without rushing
the child. You can let them know it is timed and ask them to go as quickly as they can. Some children
may not get to the end of the column. Practise three times a day, ideally evenly spread through the day
with one in the morning, one in the middle of the day and one in the afternoon.
Practice tasks must be done individually. It is not necessary to be on your own with the child, but do
ensure you have their attention for the whole minute and that you can hear each other clearly.
Day 1
Adult
(say the
whole
word)
cat
Pupil
(say each
sound)
tap
t-a-p
mat
m-a-t
pat
p-a-t
sap
s-a-p
cot
c-o-t
mop
m-o-p
tap
t-a-p
cap
c-a-p
fat
f-a-t
sat
s-a-t
top
t-o-p
Totals
c-a-t
Day 2
Day 3
a r a r a r a r a r a r a r a r a r
Support visits to schools.
• Implementation issues.
• Check on progress.
• Check pupils’ enjoyment.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Controls
Small Unit
Large Unit
Print to Sound
Sound to Print
Number
Mean age at T2
in months (sd)
20
17
20
18
29
40
35
37
38
67 (4)
66 (3)
67 (3)
65 (3)
67 (4)
67 (3)
65 (3)
66 (3)
66 (4)
Measures.
• Reading Self Concept Scale
– (Tunmer 1995)
• Reading confidence measure.
• BAS WRT
The Reading Confidence Measure
– possible responses.
Reading outcome
Prediction
Correct
Incorrect
Positive
Accurate Correct
Optimistic
Negative
Pessimistic
Accurate Incorrect
Confidence index = √(ac + op + 1) x (ac + ai)
45
40
RSCS
Full.
35
30
25
20
4
5
6
7
8
9
Reading confidence index.
10
Hypothesis 1.
• That two independent variables
(hypothesis 1a, size of phonological unit
and hypothesis 1b, sound to print
orientation) will impact on the development
of children’s self-concepts in reading, and
more specifically, that small unit
programmes with a sound to print
orientation will show improvements over
large unit or print to sound orientations.
Between subjects ANOVA results for Self-Concept variables at T1 and T2.
Source
Dependent Variable
Size
Difficulty T1
.002
.964
Competence T1
.276
.600
Attitude T1
.329
.568
Full T1
.001
.976
Confidence Index T1
.033
.856
Difficulty T2
.099
.753
6.377
.013
13.269
.000
6.233
.014
18.313
.000
Difficulty T1
.779
.379
Competence T1
.023
.881
Attitude T1
.352
.554
Full T1
.035
.853
1.237
.269
.959
.330
1.614
.207
Attitude T2
.145
.704
Full T2
.063
.802
2.331
.130
Competence T2
Attitude T2
Full T2
Confidence Index T2
Orientation
Confidence Index T1
Difficulty T2
Competence T2
Confidence Index T2
F
Sig.
Hypothesis 2.
• That the approach used to train word level
reading skills taken in the study will
promote reading skills beyond the
progress that is seen in a comparison
group following normal classroom
teaching.
Case Studies.
Case Study 1
T0
T1
T2
Sex : Male
BAS subtests (centile scores)
Verbal Comprehension
50
Picture Similarities
21
Naming Vocabulary
24
Pattern Construction
38
Early Number Concepts
50
Age
5.00
5.03
5.07
9
13
47
23.0
44.3
Accurate Correct
0
8
Optimistic
5
2
Accurate Incorrect
4
0
Pessimistic
1
0
Reading measures.
BASWRT (centile score)
Reading Self Concept Scale (raw score, max’ = 50)
Full Scale
Reading Confidence (raw score, max = 10)
Case
Study
Study1
CaseCase
Study
12
14
12
10
8
Correct
Incorrect
6
4
2
0
1
4
7
10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88
Practice sessions. (With 9 in each week of the programme.)
Case Study 2
T0
T1
T2
Sex : Female
BAS subtests (centile scores)
Verbal Comprehension
27
Picture Similarities
96
Naming Vocabulary
93
Pattern Construction
90
Early Number Concepts
50
Age
5.02
5.07
5.11
13
9
68
36.7
32.3
Accurate Correct
2
9
Optimistic
6
1
Accurate Incorrect
2
0
Pessimistic
0
0
Reading measures.
BASWRT (centile score)
Reading Self Concept Scale (raw score, max’ = 50)
Full Scale
Reading Confidence (raw score, max = 10)
Case Study 2
Practice sessions. (With 9 in each week of the programme.)
Case Study 3
T0
T1
T2
Sex : Female
BAS subtests (centile scores)
Verbal Comprehension
50
Picture Similarities
24
Naming Vocabulary
24
Pattern Construction
73
Early Number Concepts
31
Age
5.02
5.05
5.10
13
9
39
40.7
35.3
Accurate Correct
2
3
Optimistic
3
2
Accurate Incorrect
5
2
Pessimistic
0
3
Reading measures.
BASWRT (centile score)
Reading Self Concept Scale (raw score, max’ = 50)
Full Scale
Reading Confidence Index (raw score, max = 10)
Case Study 3