Grade 3 learners’ experiences of developing comprehension skills during an Intervention Programme

Abstract

Developing the comprehension skills of children in primary schools is a challenge that many countries face. The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (2016) (PIRLS) shows that South Africa is ranked last of fifty countries when it comes to literacy. At primary level learners are expected to comprehend what they read so that they can analyse, critique, evaluate and synthesize information. When learners lack this ability to read for meaning, it retards their academic performance. In this study, the use of various instructional strategies to teach reading comprehension contributed to the development of the learners’ reading comprehension skills. A ten-week Intervention Programme (IP) was conducted. The first and last weeks were used to complete pre- and post-comprehension tests with the five Grade 3 learners. The results of the pre-tests determined the content to be included in the eight-week IP. Nine comprehension strategies were taught to develop the four comprehension skills used together with the PIRLS four comprehension skills: focus on retrieving explicitly stated information, making straight forward inferences, interpret and integrate ideas and information and finally evaluate and examine content, language and textual elements, to answer the following three research questions: What were the learners’ comprehension challenges during the IP? How did the IP encourage social, cognitive and language development of the Grade 3 learners? And finally: What were the learners’ post-test results after explicit teaching of the comprehension skills? The conceptual frameworks underpinning this study are a synthesis of various pedagogical priorities: Vygotsky’s (1978) theory of social constructivism, Cambourne’s (2004) social constructivism, Bloom’s Taxonomy (2001) of cognitive domain and Wenger’s (2005) social theory of leaning, provided the necessary background information on significant issues related to this research project. A qualitative approach, using a case study design, within an interpretivist paradigm was followed with data obtained from semistructured interviews, participant observations, pre and post–tests results from the IP and document analysis were inductively analysed. Evidence from the study showed significant improvement in all four of the comprehension type questions for all five learners. It is recommended that the National Department of Education and Higher Education Institutions work together in developing large research projects into the conditions of reading in Foundation Phase classrooms in township schools and how teachers are prepared to teach reading for meaning. In addition, workshops should be conducted to teach reading for meaning skills and research, track and support teachers while they transfer this academic knowledge to their classrooms.