Teachers’ own use of reading strategies: Does it transfer to their teaching?

ABSTRACT

Despite ample evidence about the value of reading strategies in developing learners’ comprehension skills and overall academic literacy, there continues to be very little explicit and continuous reading strategy instruction in classrooms, and teachers remain reluctant to take it on.Acompounding factor seems to be that, at a teacher-training level, little attention is paid to the professional development of comprehension instruction. This study investigates to what extent student teachers’ own use of reading strategies transfers to their teaching. A group of 61 student teachers were asked to read a text and complete a survey identifying the reading strategies they applied. They then compiled comprehension lesson plans which were analysed for evidence of strategy use. The results show that teachers’ strategy use does not transfer to their teaching. This emphasises the need for the explicit teaching of comprehension development skills at teacher training level.

Keywords:

• explicit strategy instruction
• reading instruction
• teacher training courses
• transfer of reading strategy use