Measures that matter : Facilitating literacy through targeted instruction and assistive technology

Abstract: The acquisition of reading skills is one of the most important academic outcomes, as reading enables the individual to acquire knowledge and to actively take part in society. Despite research and educational progress, not all students develop their reading skills to a level that meet academic or societal demands. Study I in the dissertation aimed to demonstrate the relative importance of students developing adequate reading skills in order to succeed academically, and,thus to motivate interventions in order to counteract the negative impact of reduced reading performance. The overall aim of this dissertation was to explore two subsequent approaches for improving students’ possibilities to achieve a functioning literacy. The first approach focused on teachers’ use of reading assessment data and teaching recommendations in order to target instruction in classroom education involving all students (study II). The second approach focusedon the use of assistive reading and writing technology (primarily with text-to-speech, TTS, and speech-to-text, STT functions) for students with severe difficulties with reading (study III and IV). Study I was conducted as a follow-up study of an earlier project, in which grade 2 screening data of word decoding (N=1784) were run through a series of multiple regression analyses, in order to predict grade 9 grade marks and subject choices. Study II was conducted as a teacher intervention project within a larger reading educational project, in which participating grade 1-3 teachers (N=8) used the program features to strengthen reading instruction in classroom teaching. The teachers were interviewed in focus group meetings and their statements were analyzed using qualitative method. Study III and IV consisted of a six week assistive technology intervention (M=21 sessions) aimed to students with severe difficulties in reading from grade 4, grade 8 and from high school (N=146 participants before pretests). The intervention had a randomized control trial design with additional experimental elements, including pretests, posttests and one year follow up measurements, in addition to students, parents and teachers perceptions. The intervention was evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Study I demonstrated that students’ early reading skills predicted long-termacademic performance, meaning that low reading performers received lower grades and academic opportunities than students with higher assessed readingl evels. Study II showed that teachers could use assessment data and recommendationsin order for increasing their awareness of student learning, which influenced how they organized teaching. The impact of using the program for targeting needs in individual students, were, however, rather limited, and required further implementation of the program. Study III and IV showed that assistive technology can be used for assimilating(i.e., to read) and communicating (i.e., to write) text for students with severe difficulties in reading, which affected students’ motivation to engage with text, and their schoolwork in general. However, the extent students’ managed to use the technology varied and pointed to the need of teacher support to be able use the technology efficiently, as well as for further use in classroom education. Approximately 70 % of the students continued to use the technology after theintervention. Additional findings demonstrated the relative advantage of assistive technology in terms of increased reading speed and that students who used assistive technology did not fall behind equally impaired control students onreading measures, as assessed immediately after the intervention and after one year. In summary, this dissertation demonstrated how adjusted teaching, based on assessment data and recommendations, can be used to target individual needs in students, and how the use of assistive technology can be beneficial for students with severe difficulties in reading.