Decoding and comprehension skills mediate the link between a small-group reading programme and English national literacy assessments

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Vousden, JI ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7237-1490, Cunningham, AJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1199-9556, Johnson, H, Waldron, S, Ammi, S, Pillinger, C, Savage, R and Wood, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1492-6501, 2021. Decoding and comprehension skills mediate the link between a small-group reading programme and English national literacy assessments. British Journal of Educational Psychology. ISSN 0007-0998

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12441

Abstract

Background: Despite the fact that literacy instruction is a main focus of primary education, many children struggle to meet nationally set standards.

Aims: We aimed to test which components of a comprehensive reading programme (ABRACADABRA: https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1186%2FISRCTN18254678&data=04%7C01%7Cjanet.vousden%40ntu.ac.uk%7C880280e0b00749df855308d94068a0bb%7C8acbc2c5c8ed42c78169ba438a0dbe2f%7C1%7C0%7C637611640381216902%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=%2B4U9sGfofkyCPEY7lWz8n3TPoMOAeJMXyFwdhW6EpUw%3D&reserved=0) mediated the effect of the programme on nationally assessed literacy outcomes.

Sample: Following blind allocation, 516 Year 1 pupils from 40 schools were randomized to the programme group, and 908 Year 1 pupils, to a control condition.

Methods: Pupils in the programme completed 20 weeks of instruction in grapheme/phoneme knowledge, decoding, and comprehension. Control children received regular classroom instruction.

Results: Children in the programme group were significantly better at these taught skills after the programme finished (effect sizes: grapheme/phoneme knowledge, β = .33, 95% CI [0.09–0.57]; decoding, β = .26, 95% CI [0.09–0.43]; and comprehension, β = .26, 95% CI [0.05–0.47]). Improvements in the programme group’s decoding and comprehension skills fully mediated the improvements in national literacy assessments serving as a delayed post-test 12 months after the programme. Programme group pupils were 2.3 (95% CI [1.4–4.1]) times more likely to achieve/exceed the expected standard in reading, and 1.8 (95% CI [1.2–2.6]) times more likely to achieve/exceed the expected standard in writing due to an increase in the trained skills.

Conclusions: These results provide strong evidence that a programme that incorporates decoding and comprehension instruction for typically developing beginning readers improves distal educational outcomes in reading and writing through increasing proficiencies targeted by the reading programme.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	British Journal of Educational Psychology
Creators:	Vousden, J.I., Cunningham, A.J., Johnson, H., Waldron, S., Ammi, S., Pillinger, C., Savage, R. and Wood, C.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	10 July 2021
ISSN:	0007-0998
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1111/bjep.12441 DOI 1451381 Other
Rights:	© 2021 The Authors. British Journal of Educational Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	15 Jul 2021 15:00
Last Modified:	15 Jul 2021 15:00
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/43490