Bunn, Timothy Kenneth (2006) The effectiveness of additional interventions for children with literacy difficulties in Years 3 & 4. Other thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study compared the progress in reading and spelling of 256 children
in 11 classes in 9 English primary schools in Years 3 and 4, and a partially
overlapping sample of 126 children who received additional help with
literacy during one year. Teachers and teaching assistants used either
Additional Literacy Support (ALS), a highly structured set of small group
teaching materials devised by the English National Literacy Strategy, or a
wide variety of other materials including other published intervention
programmes, reading scheme based, computer based and individually
designed interventions, or a combination of ALS and other interventions.
The influence of a broad range of contextual factors were investigated,
especially whether children's qualities, school factors such as SocioEconomic
Status and class size, and delivery differences made significant
differences to the outcomes of the different interventions. The study used
a naturalistic quasi-experimental design, in which teachers were asked to
record details of their children and interventions without altering their
professional decisions, which has not been used before in investigating
literacy difficulties in context.
ALS was marginally more effective than other interventions in the majority
of classes, but was clearly superior in value for money terms. Children's
qualities did not appear to affect outcomes. Although children receiving
additional help made better than average progress, below average
children receiving only class teaching made more progress. Overall catchup
was limited, especially in spelling. There appeared to be a larger
influence of class teaching than expected. A tentative theory of how class
teaching and additional interventions combine is suggested. The study
considers how research of this type could be advanced, the need for
further development of both class literacy teaching and additional
interventions, and raises some questions about national policy towards
literacy interventions.

Item Type:	Thesis (Other)
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1501 Primary Education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Literacy -- Great Britain, Reading (Primary) -- Great Britain, Spelling ability -- Great Britain, English language -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- Great Britain, Teaching -- Aids and devices
Official Date:	September 2006
Dates:	Date Event September 2006 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Institute of Education
Thesis Type:	Other
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Solity, Jonathan
Extent:	235 leaves
Language:	eng

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