Professional Content Knowledge of Grades One—Three Teachers in Sweden for Reading and Writing Instruction: Language Structures, Code Concepts, and Spelling Rules

Abstract

In this study, Swedish teachers of grades 1–3, with various teacher-training backgrounds, were tested to determine if they have the requisite awareness of language elements and the way these elements are represented in writing. The results were poor, yet the indication was that teachers with a good educational background in literacy and a good deal of teaching experience know significantly more than teachers whose teacher training included fewer or no courses in literacy instruction and who had less experience. The results indicate that it may be difficult for many teachers in the sample to provide adequate instruction in basic reading and writing. However, the study did not investigate how knowledge is used in practice, on which further research is needed. The importance of professional content knowledge is discussed.

Keywords:

• code concepts
• language structure
• spelling rules
• reading and writing instruction
• teacher competence
• teacher content knowledge

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹A phrase is a group of words that express a concept and that are used as a unit within a sentence. A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit in a language. A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. A phoneme is the smallest meaningful unit of sound in a language.

²Phonological awareness in this text is defined as a broad umbrella term encompassing all levels of awareness of the phonological structure of spoken words, including rhymes, syllables, morphemes, and individual phonemes. The term phonemic awareness is restricted to awareness of individual phonemes in spoken language. This definition is specified in Scarborough and Brady (2002).

³F = Swedish preschool class (kindergarten) for six-year-olds: from the age of six, children have the right to attend preschool. The aim of this school form is to stimulate the learning development of each student to prepare each student for future education, and to promote each student's harmonious development. More than 95% of six-year-olds attend preschool.