Low health literacy levels put patients at greater risk for poorer compliance and access to care, which leads to worse patient outcomes. Nurses must understand health literacy to improve health literacy for their medical surgical patient population. It is necessary for a formal education program on this topic. The purpose of this project was to increase medical surgical nurses' awareness and knowledge of the importance of health literacy and to introduce the REALM-SF tool to assess a patient's literacy level, allowing a nurse to better individualize the education provided to the patient. Lewin's change management theory was key in the development of this project with attention to his three stages of change acceptance. The practice focus question was, "Will medical-surgical nurses show an improvement in their knowledge of health literacy when comparing measurement of knowledge pre education and immediately post education?" The HL-SF12 for registered nurses tool was used to collect data for this project as a pre- and post-implementation knowledge assessment. Thirty-one medical surgical nurses participated in this education session. The results of this analysis show that there is a significant gap in medical-surgical nurses' knowledge of health literacy. However, all participates showed a significant increase in their scores from pretest to posttest after the educational module, which signifies that this education program was successful. Assessing health literacy is a major step towards improving the delivery of patient education by nurses and assists the patients in the management of their medical problems. All of this leads to positive social change by making sure that the education provided by the nurses is understood and received well by the patients and their families.

Children who have experienced developmental, social, or economic risks may benefit more from attending high-quality preschool intervention programs than their more advantaged peers; thus, programs that have delivered high-quality experiences may have served as a protective factor for these children to help reduce the achievement gap that has existed at school entry. The overarching purpose of this dissertation was to examine best practice in providing systemic early literacy interventions as a protective factor against school failure for young at-risk children. The three studies comprising this dissertation included analyses of systemic early literacy interventions for young children at risk of reading and school failure due to (a) developmental delays, (b) low socioeconomic status, or (c) English language learner status. Consistent with previous literature, the researcher found that children participating in a responsive early literacy intervention program were better prepared for kindergarten than were non-participating peers. Responsive early literacy interventions were defined as purposeful instruction designed to meet the educational needs of children by implementing an embedded-explicit or balanced approach to teaching. Attendance in high-quality early education programs - especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds - was linked to lasting effects on indicators related to student achievement.

The current study examined the experiences of adolescents considered to be at-risk for academic underachievement in an after-school reading intervention program (called the Vocabulary Learning Project, or VLP), with the goal of identifying the individual and social contextual factors that influence their engagement in the literacy intervention. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 adolescent participants post-intervention to gain their personal insights on relevant contextual experiences, resulting in the identification of key factors that are associated with student engagement at the behavioral, affective and cognitive levels. The findings from this study serve as an important indicator of some of the multiple influences on the literacy engagement of at-risk adolescents. This has implications for the design of future interventions developed for the purpose of improving the academic achievement, and ultimately the economic and personal advancement, of adolescents living in urban, marginalized settings.

The current study examined the experiences of adolescents considered to be at-risk for academic underachievement in an after-school reading intervention program (called the Vocabulary Learning Project, or VLP), with the goal of identifying the individual and social contextual factors that influence their engagement in the literacy intervention. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 adolescent participants post-intervention to gain their personal insights on relevant contextual experiences, resulting in the identification of key factors that are associated with student engagement at the behavioral, affective and cognitive levels. The findings from this study serve as an important indicator of some of the multiple influences on the literacy engagement of at-risk adolescents. This has implications for the design of future interventions developed for the purpose of improving the academic achievement, and ultimately the economic and personal advancement, of adolescents living in urban, marginalized settings.

The achievement gap is a historic and pervasive issue of social justice in education. the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has further stalled student achievement in reading and math, amplifying the urgency for accelerating student learning to close the gap. The third grade is a critical year for literacy in education; if students have not mastered grade level literacy skills by then, they are likely to continue to fall behind, which can diminish academic opportunities and significantly reduce their economic potential. This study seeks social justice in education to add to the literature by elucidating strategies to improve third-grade literacy. Grounded in quantitative analysis, this longitudinal study employs a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design to evaluate the relationship between third-grade student engagement in two concurrent literacy interventions, Smarty Ants and Achieve3000 Literacy, and student reading outcomes. To this end, the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied with a control for pretest scores while evaluating the relationship between engagement and outcomes. Results of each ANCOVA show statistical significance between student engagement in the literacy interventions and their Lexile outcomes. Despite the small sample size, results of the analyses verify that there is statistical significance in the relationship between student engagement levels in the programs, individually and concurrently, and their Lexile outcomes in Achieve3000 Literacy during the 2020-2021 academic year within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the strength of correlation results in the ANCOVAs and the t-tests, this was especially true for engagement in Achieve3000 Literacy and more so for combined engagement. The study concludes with a discussion of these findings, an articulation of the significance of the study, as well as recommendations for future practice and study.

No description available.

This thesis studied young, struggling readers, all of whom had participated in the Reading Recovery literacy intervention, and investigated whether differential progress was made by children learning English as an additional language when compared with their native, English-speaking peers. The children were assessed on a pre- and post-test basis on literacy measures associated with reading comprehension in a UK context. Following a Pilot Phase, 52 children who were learning English as an additional language, and 48 native, English-speaking children were recruited from twenty-three primary schools in 8 local authorities across the UK. The children were administered standardised literacy measures, including the British Abilities Scale (BAS) single word reading test, the British Picture Vocabulary Scales (BPVS) vocabulary knowledge test, the Phonological Assessment Battery (PHAB) pseudo-word reading test, and two reading comprehension measures: the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) and the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC). Statistical analyses were conducted on the data and the results indicated that differential progress was made by the groups, after initial levels of decoding or vocabulary were covaried. The first research question investigated the differential progress made by the two groups, and over the course of the intervention, the EAL children made more progress after controlling for initial skills at entry. After controlling for initial vocabulary levels, the EAL group made more gains than their NS peers, as measured by the BAS single word reading assessment. The second research question examined differential predictors of reading comprehension, and multiple regression analyses showed that vocabulary was a stronger predictor for EAL learners, whereas decoding was found to be a stronger predictor for NS learners. The findings suggest that it is important to develop the vocabulary abilities of EAL learners, as the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension acquisition was found to be stronger for this group than for the NS group. The findings also suggest that NS children’s decoding abilities must be supported, as the relationship between single word reading and the acquisition of reading comprehension was found to be stronger for this group than for the EAL group.

A research report submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education by combination of coursework and research Johannesburg; 2015 / The purpose of this qualitative research report was to explore teacher’s views as perceptions regarding one of South Africa’s Literacy and Numeracy intervention strategy. The specific area in this regard, was to explore the two major tools that are gaining popularity within teacher development studies. These tools namely the usage of scripted lesson plans and coaches were also used in this intervention strategy to develop teachers in the selected underperforming schools throughout Gauteng Province. This research aimed to find out from six participants in two different schools how they perceived using these scripted lesson plans and having coaches in their classrooms who helped them interpret and use the lesson plans they were provided with. The research evaluates the knowledge the participants gained from this experience and once the coaches no longer visited their classrooms and schools, the teacher’s experience of using the scripted lesson plans without the coaches’ supervision. The participants in this report expressed how they appreciated the coach-mediated lesson plans provided for them in the Gauteng Primary Literacy and Mathematics Strategy program. However the participants stated problems with the pacing of the lesson plans where some teachers felt that the lesson plan pacing was too fast for their learners and how some of the activities did not fit the context of their schools. The participants stated that they had a problem with the structure of the content in the lesson plans and the fact they taught too many different concepts in one week. This they stated was confusing for the learners and themselves. With regards to the coaches mediating the lesson plans, the participants showed a sense of appreciation at having someone who would help them unpack the lesson plans, but expressed the need for the coaches to model the teaching pedagogues, which was ultimately never done, rather than just talking them through them. The attitude or interpersonal skills displayed by the coach became one of the big issues that either influenced the reception or rejection of the coaches’ presence in classrooms. The one thing all participants’ concurred on was the supply of other resources such as posters and flashcards, which they stated they found very useful as a stimulus for the learners.

No description available.

The purpose of this qualitative, participatory action research study was to explore and describe the nature of a reading culture in a rural secondary school before and after a literacy intervention. Themes of reading culture were investigated within the framework of systems theory and with interpretivism as epistemological paradigm. A secondary rural school was conveniently selected as part of ongoing FLY and STAR1 studies on resilience and rural schools. Language teachers (n=6, male=1, female=5) were purposively selected to participate in the literacy intervention. The literacy intervention was developed with phonetic acquisition as basis to develop reading skills. The intervention was implemented in two two-day phases, with a three-month gap in between. Pre- and post-intervention data were collected by means of three focus-group interviews with the teacher-participants. These interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis. In addition, the school site (classrooms, notice boards) was observed (documented by means of field notes, visual data, and researcher journals). Textual documents (minutes of staff management team meetings) were analysed to investigate the nature of the reading culture at the school pre- and post-intervention. The following themes emerged from thematic analysis: the reading culture in (i) the learners’ system, (ii) classroom system, and (iii) school system in the rural secondary school. Subsequent to a literacy intervention, changes in the reading culture were evident. It was found that the reading culture in a rural secondary school may be affected negatively by the following systemic factors: learners enter this education phase without adequate reading capacity, the language of learning and teaching is an additional language for both learners and teachers, secondary school teachers are not trained to teach (secondary school) learners to read, and the isolated and scarce-resourced nature of a rural school also compounds the difficulties of nurturing a reading culture. Nonetheless, certain systemic factors contributed to enriching the reading culture in the rural secondary school. In the teacher system, the literacy intervention programme addressed teachers’ need for training to help secondary school learners to learn to read. At post-intervention in the learner system, learners received the required learning support to read, their participation in classroom activities in the classroom system improved, and they read more and with greater confidence. In the school system, effective management and use of the library contributed to the reading-culture post-intervention. The role of leadership to implement reading initiatives was another contributing factor at the school-system level. Education-system support by the Department of Education in the form of reading resources and the introduction of a policy providing for a reading period also proved valuable to enriching the reading culture. In terms of the community system, the reading-culture initiative led to collaborative networking with neighbouring primary schools in fostering joint capacity development in the literacy intervention. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted