Time to go back to the drawing board: organisation of primary school reading development in South Africa |
| |
| Authors: | Lisa Zimmerman Sarah J Howie Brigitte Smit |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, University of Pretoria , Pretoria, South Africa lisa.zimmerman@up.ac.za;3. Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, University of Pretoria , Pretoria, South Africa;4. Department of Further Teacher Education, College of Education , University of South Africa , Pretoria, South Africa |
| |
| Abstract: | The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 findings highlighted concerns about reading literacy teaching quality in South African primary schools (Howie et al., 2007 Howie, S.J., Venter, E., Van Staden, S., Zimmerman, L., Long, C., Scherman, V. and Archer, E. 2007. Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 summary report. South African children's reading literacy achievement, Pretoria, South Africa: Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, University of Pretoria. Google Scholar]). In response, the national Department of Education (DoE, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2008d) has emphasised instructional practice improvement. However, little emphasis has been placed on the role of school organisation in learners’ reading success or failure. This article presents school organisation findings from a mixed methods study that explored South African Grade 4 teachers’ instruction practices and schooling conditions for reading literacy development. The analysis considered is based on the reclassification of the PIRLS 2006 sample according to class achievement levels on the PIRLS benchmarks and instructional language profiles. Findings from the PIRLS 2006 school questionnaire data are reported together with findings from case studies to illustrate differences and similarities in school organisation for reading literacy across a range of low- and high-performing schools. |
| |
| Keywords: | reading literacy international comparative studies school organisation school improvement |
|
|
