Grade 7 learners’ understanding of comprehension skills while involved in an intervention programme in a quintile 5 school

Abstract

The South African education system experiences many complex comprehension literacy challenges, with a large focus on comprehension skills, as we continue to produce low literacy results. In the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016, where learners are assessed according to the following four comprehension processes: 'focus on and retrieve explicitly stated information', 'making straightforward inferences', 'interpret and integrate ideas and information', 'evaluate content and textual elements', South African Grade 4 and 5 learners continually produce the lowest results globally. This research project identified and attempted to address these results through the main research question: What are the Grade 7 learners' understanding of comprehension skills while involved in an Intervention Programme (IP) in a Quintile 5 school? The researcher chose a quintile 5 school in Cape Town where more than 90% of learners speak African languages, with a few English and Afrikaans speakers, but the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in the school is English. The LoLT affects learners who come from disadvantaged areas with no learning resources nor parental involvement. These parents are in no position to support their children with speaking English at home as they themselves are unable to read and write. This study used an interpretative research paradigm, a qualitative approach and a case study design. The case study was used as the researcher intended to gain an in-depth understanding of the individual journeys of 5 Grade 7 learners as they interacted with comprehension questions and learnt new comprehension strategies during the ten-week IP. The purpose of the research was to assist these learners to improve their comprehension skills. Nine comprehension strategies were used to develop their higher-order thinking skills. These skills were supported by the conceptual framework using theories from Vygotsky, Feuerstein and Blooms' Taxonomy. They were fundamental as they stressed the significance of interaction through mediation of the knowledgeable other, the importance of social environment and cognitive development. The researcher interviewed five parents, three teachers, one Learner Support Teacher (LST) and the five learners who took part in the study on their last day of the Intervention Programme (IP). The ten-week IP focussed on teaching, mediating and scaffolding learners' higher-order thinking and comprehension skills using Blooms' Taxonomy cognitive verbs. Using Blooms' Taxonomy to present the results showed that learners' cognitive development progressed from lower-order thinking to higher-order thinking. The study concludes with recommendations based on findings that all grade teachers need to create communities of practice within their classes, to develop a variety of fun and exciting-to-use strategies to enhance the teaching of higher-order comprehension skills.