Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies: Effects on phonological awareness, letter sound knowledge and fluency, and decoding skills of preschool children in Iceland

• Main Authors: Pétursdóttir, Anna Lind, Ólafsdóttir, Kristín Svanhildur
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2016
• Subjects: Peer tutoring; preschool; phonological awareness; letter knowledge; reading; Samvinnunám; leikskóli; hljóðkerfisvitund; stafaþekking; lestrarfærni; Fuchs; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/netla/article/view/2430

In Iceland, many children struggle with learning to read. At the end of 2nd grade, 36% of students are reading below comprehension level (Ásgeir Björgvinsson, Guðrún Edda Bentsdóttir, & Hildur B. Svavarsdóttir, 2015). Reading difficulties often start early, set in quickly and over time become increasingly difficult to remediate. Providing children with a firm foundation in reading skills during preschool may prevent reading difficulties later on. After an extensive metaanalysis, the National Reading Panel (2000) concluded that the younger the child is when reading remediation starts, the better the outcome. Effective early intervention has the potential of preventing reading failure, at least for a large proportion of struggling readers (Coyne, Kame’enui, Simmons, & Harn, 2004; Torgesen, 2002). Most children in Iceland attend public preschools. Traditionally, play has been the major approach to promoting early literacy but the use of more explicit teaching methods is increasing. This study examined the effects of KPALS (Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies, Fuchs et al., 2001) on phonological awareness and other foundational reading skills of 5-to 6-year-old preschool children in Iceland. K-PALS is a peer-mediated program that involves pairing higher- and lower performing children to practice foundational reading skills. Participants were 57 children, 5- to 6-year-old, in the oldest cohort of four public preschools in the greater capital region of Iceland. The experimental group (20 girls and 10 boys) was instructed with K-PALS two to four times per week, for a total of 30-45 sessions, which each lasted around 30 minutes. Each K-PALS lesson started with teacher-led instruction followed by cooperative learning in pairs. K-PALS lessons were conducted with 81.3 to 96% fidelity. The comparison group (15 girls and 12 boys) was instructed by other methods in supporting emerging literacy, including formal sessions aimed at increasing phonological awareness and letter (sound) knowledge. The two ...