The original aim of the study was to trial an assessment procedure,
HOWZAT, designed to sample the oral language, reading, and cognitive
style competencies of seven year old children. The evaluation of
the pilot study indicated that the procedure was limited in the
extent to which the original aims could be attained.
A follow up study with amended aims, items, and procedure was
conducted and evaluated. The second study was a descriptive,
empirical study of the responses of a sample of seven year old
children to eighteen items - most of which contained distortions of
written language forms. The procedure required the children to make
decisions about the acceptability of the items and to discuss and
justify their decisions. The sample consisted of thirty children,
ten from each of three reading ability groups. The allocation of
children to groups and ranking within each of the groups according
to reading ability was done by their respective teachers.
The children's responses to the items and some of their response
behaviours were analysed in two major ways.
In the item analysis it was found that the children had similar
response patterns to the items that were distorted semantically,
syntactically and in conventions of print but responded differently
to the graphophonically distorted items.
The patterns of response to the different kinds of distortions were
interpreted in terms of the intrusive effect of the distortions on
the children's expectations about written language.
Different response patterns were also found between and within the
three ability groups. Children perceived by their teachers as being
better readers demonstrated competence in finding and using
strategies for dealing with the task and items. Individual profiles
were presented to illustrate these differences.
The conclusion reached in the evaluation was that the use of
distorted materials had produced interesting results but was not
justified on ideological grounds. However, the procedure was judged
to have some potential as an action research methodology to explore
children's reasoning with print and strategy learning abilities, and
to probe their linguistic development and performance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219255 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Philp, Lynne M., n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Lynne M. Philp |
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