This study explores the nature of teachers' understandings of theoretical orientation to reading and the relationships between theoretical orientations to reading and instructional practice. The participants were eleven Grade Five classroom teachers, seven female and four male, in one particular school board in Southern Ontario. A series of three in-depth, phenomenological interviews were conducted with each teacher-participant. Utilizing the concept of theoretical orientation to reading, understandings of and relationships between, theoretical orientation to reading and instructional practice were identified and described by the teachers in this study, from an 'emic' (insider) perspective. The themes of teachers' knowledge and beliefs, personal experiences, and constructivist approaches to teaching and learning emerged as highly influential in determining the kinds of instructional decisions made by the teacher participants. The data illustrate how teachers with a skills orientation to reading instruction supported a focus on explicit skills instruction within balanced, eclectic approaches to reading instruction. The results provide a multi-voice construction, showing how the teacher participants' knowledge, beliefs, personal and professional experiences were reflected not only in their efforts to articulate understandings of theoretical orientations to reading, but also in the characteristics of relationships between their theoretical orientation to reading and instructional practices. Patterns and themes in the data also indicate the need for improved pre-service teacher education, and relevant in-service professional development, to better meet the needs of contemporary teachers of reading at the junior division level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.85158 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Elliott-Johns, Susan E. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Integrated Studies in Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002209159, proquestno: AAINR12838, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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