Teachers’ perceptions of their preparedness for supporting struggling literacy learners in secondary English classrooms

Figures & data

Table 1. Respondent characteristics.

Characteristic	in sample (N = 315)	in sample (%)
Gender
Female	270	85.71
Male	42	13.33
Other	3	0.95
Age Group
<20	0	0.00
21–30	51	16.19
31–40	92	29.21
41–50	90	28.57
51–60	65	20.63
61–70	16	5.08
>71	1	0.32
Years teaching experience
<3	32	10.16
3–6	55	17.46
7–10	49	15.56
11–14	58	18.41
15–18	32	10.16
19–22	21	6.67
23–26	22	6.98
27–30	22	6.98
>30	24	7.62
Years post teacher training
<3	27	8.57
3–6	58	18.41
7–10	43	13.65
11–14	51	16.19
15–18	41	13.02
19–22	21	6.67
23–26	18	5.71
27–30	25	7.94
>30	31	9.84

Table 2. School characteristics.

Characteristic	in sample (N = 315)	in sample (%)
Location
Metropolitan	220	69.84
Rural	90	28.57
Remote	5	1.59
State/territory of school location
SA	41	13.02
Tasmania	12	3.81
NT	14	4.44
NSW	82	26.03
WA	56	17.78
Queensland	50	15.87
Victoria	45	14.29
ACT	15	4.76
School type
Government (public)	195	61.90
Private	120	38.10
ICSEA*
Above average ICSEA	67	21.27
Average ICSEA (1000)	79	25.08
Below Average ICSEA	106	33.65
Unsure	63	20.00

*ICSEA relates to the socio-educational backgrounds of students at this school (ACARA 2015)

**multiple selections permitted, so percentage not relevant.

Table 3. Agreement with adequacy of ITE and PD and knowledge for meeting the needs of struggling literacy learners.

Agreement	in sample (N = 315)	in sample (%)
ITE
Strongly agree	23	7.30
Somewhat agree	53	16.83
Neither agree nor disagree	31	9.84
Somewhat disagree	78	24.76
Strongly disagree	130	41.27
PD
Strongly agree	38	12.06
Somewhat agree	109	34.60
Neither agree nor disagree	46	14.60
Somewhat disagree	84	26.67
Strongly disagree	38	12.06
Knowledge
Strongly agree	42	13.33
Somewhat agree	127	40.32
Neither agree nor disagree	63	20.00
Somewhat disagree	68	21.59
Strongly disagree	15	4.76

Table 4. Descriptive statistics of ITE sufficiency and knowledge across time.

		Sufficiency of instruction during training (Sufficiency)^+		Knowledgeable about practices to support SLLs (Knowledge) ^+
Years since training completion (time)	N	mean	Std. Dev.	mean	Std. Dev.
Less than 3	27	2.6667	1.4142	2.8519	1.0635
3–6	58	1.9655	1.1542	2.9310	1.1218
7–10	43	2.2326	1.4115	3.1860	1.0747
11–14	51	2.1373	1.3312	3.7255	1.0407
15–18	41	2.3171	1.3312	3.4634	0.9772
19–22	21	2.4286	1.3990	3.6667	1.2780
23–26	18	2.2778	1.4473	3.2778	1.3198
27–30	25	2.0000	1.1180	3.5600	0.8699
More than 30	31	2.5161	1.5027	3.7742	0.9205
Total	315	2.2413	1.3374	3.3587	1.1037

⁺Reverse-code in the analysis, 1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Somewhat disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = Somewhat agree, 5 = Strongly agree.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. 2015. “What Does the ICSEA Value Mean?” http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/About_icsea_2014.pdf

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