Projects / Programmes
Encouraging early and academic literacy within family, preschool and school
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.09.00 |
Social sciences |
Psychology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S260 |
Social sciences |
Psychology |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.01 |
Social Sciences |
Psychology and cognitive sciences |
early literacy, academic literacy, preschool, school, teachers' attitudes, intervention program, action research
Researchers (6)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Developing reading literacy is a process starting in early developmental periods, beginning with the development of language, emerging reading and writing skills, which represent the basis for the development of academic literacy and its use in the context of formal education. The encouragement of the development of pupil's reading and writing competences in primary school is one of the basic general objectives of compulsory education. Taking into account the continuum of literacy, it is important to recognize and develop a variety of different approaches and strategies for promoting children's cognitive processes in different developmental periods as well as for developing their early as academic literacy.
The proposed research project will include three contextually related studies, which will focus on the promotion of language competence and reading literacy in three different age groups of children and adolescents, namely in children in early childhood, who will attend preschool within the last year before entering school; in children and adolescents attending the 4th and 8th grade of primary school.
The first study will be based on the scientific knowledge on the role of sociocultural factors (e.g., symbolically rich environment, supporting literacy activities such as shared reading, engaging in symbolic play and conversation) in the development of language and early reading and writing skills, which are found to be the protective factors in the process of literacy development. The purpose of the first study will be the development of a program, which will enable preschool teachers to encourage children's development of language an early reading and writing skills in the last year before starting school. The designed program will be based on the theoretical background and will include examples of activities and ways of encouraging the development of cognitive and memory strategies, storytelling, metalinguistic awareness, use of language in different functions, graphomotor skills of children within the zone of proximal development, both during the planned activities in various areas of the preschool curriculum as well as unplanned activities, such as routine activities, free play, reading together and work with books. The aim of designing and monitoring the program for preschool teachers and their assistants will be the promotion of children's higher levels of language development and early literacy, both in the short term (after the completion of the teachers' systematic work with children) as well as long-term (one year after the completion of the program, in the first grade of primary school), and the development of a model for promoting early literacy, which could be used by professional workers in preschools.
The purpose of the second study is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of the program for encouraging reading and writing skills of pupils included in the 4th grade of primary school through the strategies of marking and summarizing. We will develop a program for training the pupils to work with informative text by using the strategies of marking and summarizing as well as for educating the teachers to implement the program in the classroom. During and after the completion of the program, we will assess the effectiveness of the program and develop a model for encouraging the development of the described strategies to improve pupils' reading comprehension, which also affects their understanding of the subject matter and consequently, their academic achievement.
The aim of the third study is to integrate and coordinate the activities for developing reading literacy of pupils in the 8th grade of primary school. To this end, we will develop a program and educate the teachers on the use of modern approaches to encouraging pupils' literacy. The teachers will implement the designed approaches in their teaching practice. The evaluation of the program implementation will be carried out both during the im
Significance for science
The results of the project will be of a great importance for the development of the science and the profession since we plan to study the problem that is currently very important in Slovenian as well as in the international scientific and professional areas. The studied problem is also identified as particularly important in a broader social environment due to the long term effects of lower or higher level of children’s/adolescents’ literacy on their knowledge, education, career and social inclusion.
The importance for the scientific development lies in the fact that we plan to design the programs for promoting literacy based on modern theoretical and empirical findings about the factors and teaching strategies that are important for promoting reading literacy in children and adolescents of different ages. On the basis of these findings we will design models which will be adequately supported with scientific evidences and which will include different factors and strategies for stimulating early and academic reading literacy. Furthermore, by identifying the long-term effects of our programs, we will contribute to current scientific knowledge about the importance of stimulating the reading literacy within preschool and school, and to the search of the new solutions and approaches.
The designed models will be of a great importance for the development of the professional field, and will consider the role of the teacher as well of the children/pupils and parents in the process of promoting literacy at various levels of education. The obtained results will allow us to draw conclusions about the ways in which a professional worker in preschool and school can stimulate children’s and pupils’ reading literacy in effective ways, and how we can, in long term, change the beliefs and related practices of professionals that are connected with the understanding of the concepts of literacy and the importance of promoting reading literacy.
Significance for the country
Reading literacy is one of the individual’s basic competences that enable his/her successfulness in the education process and at the same time in their career and their entrance to the labour market. The formation of programs and approaches that promotes an individual’s acquisition of highest levels of literacy and enable the development of literacy as lifelong learning can have long-term contributions to a more literate society and at the same time to a more efficient economy.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2016,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2016,
final report
