South Africa has low literacy levels and teachers face multiple challenges in their endeavours to elevate levels of literacy. This is especially prevalent in rural and township schools where teachers face the additional challenges of isolation, limited resources and access to professional development. This article reports on the findings and…

As evidenced by national data, a large proportion of students in middle school, content area classrooms in the United States (U.S.) may be considered developing readers. Evidence-based literacy practices and explicit instructional practices can support these students' literacy development. Yet, research suggests that teachers often miss…

To better understand how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted pre-service teachers' development of self-efficacy beliefs, two cohorts of pre-service teachers were studied. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the development of teacher self-efficacy beliefs was examined. One cohort facilitated an in-person reading remediation to students…

Reading, like all areas of human learning, is complex and multidimensional. Educational psychology has an opportunity to contribute further to a science of reading, and potentially to a science of reading instruction, by expanding its traditional theoretical and methodological orientations to embrace this complexity. Topics central to this effort…

This qualitative study explored the perspectives of literacy teachers in grades 3-6 regarding how the Science of Reading (SoR) has influenced teacher beliefs and instructional practices in relation to fostering students' critical literacy skills. The research was framed around the following three questions: What are literacy teachers' current…

The use of Evidence-based Practices (EBPs) in schools is heavily emphasized in educational research and policy; however, many teachers do not use EBPs for reading instruction and intervention. Previous research on the limited use of EBPs in classrooms has primarily focused on teacher characteristics, such as their attitudes or beliefs toward these…

Over 50% of K-3 students struggle with literacy skills at a southeastern Louisiana school. The issue continues despite teachers attending weekly professional development sessions to improve literacy instruction. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of K-3 teachers regarding their instructional strategies to teach students. The…

Students are not acquiring grade level reading skills at an alarming rate while research provides the what and how of effective reading instruction. This qualitative descriptive case study was designed to understand and describe the perceptions and practices of general and special educators of reading related to their knowledge and delivery of…

Literacy coaches serve in a multitude of roles and play a critical role in bridging district and school priorities (Walpole and Blamey, 2008; Steckel, 2009). Currently, coaches and teachers are navigating a national policy shift to Science of Reading (SoR) aligned instruction, and educators want more than a new curriculum (Schwartz, 2022). This…

Current literature exists centered on Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework, its components, and ways in which MTSS is intended to support all students. Yet, there is a gap in the literature that examines how elementary schools are implementing it. This dissertation study sought to understand what the MTSS framework implementation at…

Teacher shortages, especially in special education, have been an issue for several decades causing districts to examine leadership practices that support long-term special education teacher retention. Another concern is the disproportionate reading scores of students with disabilities compared to their general education peers. This has created a…

Rigorous school curriculums and end-of-course exams have brought the need for literacy interventions at the high school level to the forefront. However, implementation of literacy interventions at the secondary level is often overlooked due to the assumption that students have mastered reading comprehension in elementary school. The current…

Purpose: Nearly 50 years ago, Durkin (1978-1979) conducted a seminal observation study on reading comprehension teaching in Grades 3 through 6. She reported that teachers rarely taught reading comprehension (less than 1% of instructional time). Since then, we have gained substantial knowledge about teaching reading comprehension. We aimed to…

This article explores the unique contributions of 2nd-grade emergent bilingual (EB) students' talk-turns vs. those of their teacher on students' expressions of comprehension during interactive read-aloud discussions in a pull-out classroom. They engaged in eight video-recorded, interactive read-aloud discussions across four books. This mixed…

This study aimed to investigate whether elementary school students have different reading strategies based on various levels of text-diagram integrative processing and whether these reading strategies remain consistent or change over a three-year period. The study followed 176 students from grades four to six and observed their eye movements while…