Walking the talk: Western Australian teachers’ beliefs about early reading and spelling instruction and their knowledge of metalinguistics

Abstract

In the context of a national inquiry into the teaching of literacy in Australia, an investigation of beliefs about early reading and spelling instruction and knowledge of metalinguistics of primary pre‐service teachers in Western Australia was undertaken. We also sought to discover how confident this group felt about teaching reading and spelling and how their teacher training could better prepare them for these complex and challenging tasks. Results indicated that pre‐service teachers in this particular sample were strongly in favour of code‐based instruction and believed that it was important to know how to assess and teach phonological awareness and phonics. Despite these beliefs, it was found that knowledge of spoken and written language structure and linguistics terminology was not well developed and only 7 per cent of participants stated that they felt well prepared to teach reading and spelling. These findings highlight a disparity between what educators know and believe and what convergent research purports as effective early reading and spelling instruction.