About the project
Prior research shows that knowledge about reading strategies is important for the development of reading comprehension, and in the curriculum for Norwegian language arts it is emphasized that students shall learn and use reading strategies that are appropriate for the purpose of reading. Traditionally, much of the reading activities in classrooms are focused on teachers asking questions to texts, therefore, it is also interesting to look into what sorts of questions teachers use in whole class instruction.
The aim is to analyze to what extent teachers engage in the instruction of reading comprehension strategies, how they do it, what kind of strategies they provide instruction of, and in connection to what kinds of texts.
- To what extent do teachers provide explicit instruction of strategies to enhance students’ reading proficiency?
- Do teachers focus their instruction on strategies that are important for identifying and learning text content, monitoring own reading process, or evaluate different aspects of reading?
- What strategies are connected to fictional texts and what strategies are connected to non-fictional texts?
Research design and background
This project is a part of a large scale video study called Linking Instruction and Student Achievement (LISA) which has collected video data from four consecutive language arts lessons in eighth grade across 47 classrooms in Norway. In addition, this PhD project uses video data from one language arts classroom that has been filmed in both eighth, ninth and tenth grade, as well as interviews with students and the teacher of this class.
Camilla Magnusson has a master’s degree in Nordic literature from UiO (2006) and she has been a language arts teacher at both elementary, secondary and college level. The experience from classrooms and engagement in reading instruction have led to her interest in research on how teachers in Norwegian language arts teach reading comprehension at the secondary level.