Pedagogical practices in the teaching of early literacy in Spain: voices from the classroom and from the official curricula

Abstract

Children’s success in learning to read in the first grade is crucial for their ultimate success in schooling. This study aimed at identifying self‐declared practices in preschool and first grade in Spain and contrasting these practices with the official recommendations for the initial teaching of reading and writing. A characterisation of the ways of teaching and of the broader institutional context which can support or hinder teachers’ work is fundamental for determining the best conditions for successful literacy learning. A 30‐item questionnaire was used to collect teachers’ preferences on a six‐point Likert scale describing the frequency with which they reported adopting a certain practice in four areas: (1) organisation of the class, (2) planning, (3) activities and content, and (4) evaluation. A total of 2250 teachers, 1193 from preschool and 1057 from first year of primary school from nine geographic areas of Spain responded to the questionnaire. A cluster analysis of teachers’ responses revealed three practice profiles. The first gathers teachers’ preferences for explicit instructional practices, highly focused on the learning outcomes but less concerned with autonomous writing and occasional learning. The second brings together situational practices, more concerned with spontaneous writing and occasional learning than with explicit instruction and learning outcomes. The third reunites multidimensional practices focusing both on explicit instruction and leaning outcomes and on autonomous writing. The distribution of these practice profiles differed significantly with the teacher’s age, school level (preschool or primary school), type of school (private, public or subsidised), the location of the school, level of participation in in‐training service and the self‐declared methodology for teaching literacy. In the official recommendations, Andalusia and Catalonia support practices included under the situational oriented profile whereas Madrid appears more closely aligned with the instructional profile of practices

Keywords:

• pedagogical practices
• literacy
• Spain

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education: Las condiciones del aprendizaje inicial de la lengua escrita: influencia de las prácticas vigentes en el aula y de los conocimientos previos de los alumnos 2006 ‐ 2009 SEJ2006‐05292. We are thankful to Reinaldo Martínez for the statistic assistance and to Nayme Salas and Mila Albert for their comments on a previous version of this paper. A report of the results of the study was published in Spanish (González, Buisán, and Sánchez. 2009. Las prácticas docentes para enseñar a leer y escribir. Infancia y Aprendizaje 32, no. 2: 153–70).

Notes

1. In Spain, preschool education (Educación Infantil) consists of six non‐compulsory courses distributed into two cycles of three courses each: first cycle (0–3) and second cycle (3–6). There are few public centres at this stage of education, and access is restricted to the less‐favoured sector of society. Primary school (ages 6–12) consists of six courses distributed into three cycles of two years each (initial, middle and high), and secondary education (ages 12–16) consists of two cycles of two courses each. Our survey focuses on teachers working in the last year of preschool education and the first year of primary school. There are three types of school: public, subsidised, that is, schools that are paid by parents, but also get a subsidy from the local government and private schools.

2. A previous version of the questionnaire, including the same structure and number of questions, was piloted in the eight communities that participated in the project. A total of 124 teachers participated in the pilot, 66 from preschool and 55 from first grade. It was a face‐to‐face application. Analyses were performed on 115 cases, 9 being excluded due to missing data. Results were submitted to an analysis of reliability that showed a very good level of overall consistency (Cronbach’s α = .87).

3. The following documents regulating preschool and primary education in the community of Andalusia were consulted: Decreto 428/2008, 29 July, BOJA 164, 19 August 2008, Decreto 230/2007, 31 July and BOJA 156, 8 August 2007.

4. The following documents regulating preschool and primary education in the community of Catalonia were consulted: Real Decreto 1513/2006, 7 December, 142/2007, 26 June and 181/2008, 9 September. Estatut d’Autonomia de Catalunya, 1979, Article 3 and 131.3 from Estatut d’Autonomia de Catalunya, 2006.

5. The following documents regulating preschool and primary education in the community of Madrid were consulted: Decreto 17/2008, 6 March, BOCM 61, March 2008, Decreto 22/2007, 10 May and BOCM 126, 29 May 2007.