1 What counts as progress in developing adults’ reading skills? Sue Partridge SPEC Ltd. and founder of

The background to my research 30 years involvement in adult literacy 20 years experience in adult dyslexia diagnosis and support A mission to help teachers increase the range of strategies they use to support adults’ reading in a more effective way The final stages of a doctorate in education with the Open University 2

My research questions Q1. What counts as an improvement in reading skills for adults? Q2. What are the practical and ethical issues in measuring improvements in reading skills ? Q3. How far do Kruidenier’s (2002) 4 components of reading (alphabetic, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension), elucidate the characteristics of adults’ reading skills and the improvements they can make ? Q4. How far do individual differences impact on an adult reader’s capability to improve? Q5. What are the features of good support for adults’ reading skills that most influence their improvement and how? Kruidenier, J. (2002) Research-based principles for adult basic education reading instruction, Portsmouth, NH, National Institute for Literacy. 3

Methodology Mixed methodology case study with qualitative and quantitative analysis Assess-intervene-reassess format with 10 adult learners in the main study Co-researchers included skilled practitioners in the FE and AE sector Learners ranged in skill levels from E1 to undergraduate level Individual differences encompassed age, gender, ethnicity, dyslexic/non-dyslexic, educational history 4

Interesting features Assessment methodology Length of intervention Range of intervention tools Practical and ethical considerations Levels of detail – small sample size, but richness of information 5

Progress measures Dependent variables: changes in speed, accuracy, comprehension, performance on WRAT 4 word recognition Tutor and learner evaluations Detailed observations of what was happening Reflections on policy and practice in the sector 6

Reading speed Is faster better? 5/10 learners in my study slowed down Three learners who slowed down increased their reading accuracy score 7

Reading accuracy It depends on the level of the text and the text type... Getting the right level of readability in the text used for assessment can have as much of an influence as any gain in skills Not quite a significant group improvement (p= 0.18) 8

WRAT 4 word recognition What counts as a significant change? The group improvement came close to being statistically significant (p= 0.07) Yet none of the 10 learners in my study made an improvement in score that could be considered significant above and beyond test error. A typical confidence interval spans 12 or 13 standard points (for 90% confidence). 9

Reading comprehension How do we measure this in a useful, reliable and valid way? 10

Reading vocabulary 11 The benefits of making vocabulary development a separate process prior to reading text But no easy way to measure progress

Profile analysis Individual differences The power of observation and problem solving to elucidate progress 12

Dissemination and next steps Finalise the Ed D thesis A book to publicise some different strategies for supporting adults’ reading skills See also: 13