What predicts Swedish teachers' disposition for text talk: A survey study

Monica Reichenberg

doi:10.5937/istrped2101200r

Abstract

The significance of reading comprehension can hardly be overestimated. Nevertheless, teachers vary in their disposition or willingness to teach reading comprehension. A wealth of field experimental studies have confirmed the importance of text talk, in class or in teacher-guided small groups, for students' reading comprehension. However, researchers have not yet fully explored what makes teachers practice text talk in the classroom. This study aimed to describe and predict teachers' disposition to practice text talk. The study posited two hypotheses based on professional development theory and social capital theory. The data came from a survey study of 320 Swedish teachers (of grades 1 to 12). The study used (a) item response estimation for measurement and (b) linear regression for analysis. It was found that attitudes towards professional development varied with disposition for text talk, on average, after adjusting for other predictors. It was furthermore found that social capital varied with disposition for text talk, on average, after adjusting for other predictors. The conclusion is that the data offer support for both teacher development theory and social capital theory.

Highlights

The significance of reading comprehension can hardly be overestimated
Mastering reading comprehension skills is crucial for all social participation: good reading comprehension is needed in school for academic development, at work for problem-solving, for reading newspapers and novels, browsing the web, playing board games, and much, much more besides
Following the logic that everybody needs a little help (Fullan et al, 2015), this study argues that both attitudes to professional development and social capital predict teachersdispositions towards text talk

Summary

Introduction

The significance of reading comprehension can hardly be overestimated. Mastering reading comprehension skills is crucial for all social participation: good reading comprehension is needed in school for academic development, at work for problem-solving, for reading newspapers and novels, browsing the web, playing board games, and much, much more besides. Research has documented the importance of teacher instruction in reading comprehension to enhance the development of studentsreading comprehension Several studies have confirmed the importance of teacher-guided text talk (Beck & McKeown, 2006; Palincsar & Brown, 1984). In short teachers’ instructional behaviours scaffold studentsreading comprehension. Several teachers still favour students reading texts silently by themselves, i.e. individually whereas others have embraced text talk in class or in teacher- guided small groups (Reichenberg, 2014)

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