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

Abstract

 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 experimental preschools spent about 35-40 minutes on average per week on foundational skills, reading skills and the two comparison preschools about 50-180 minutes per week on average. Pre-tests in October showed no significant difference between the experimental and comparison groups on any of the dependent variables. Post-tests in May revealed that phonological awareness had on average increased from 5.1 to 8 correctly identified initial sounds of words in the experimental group and from 4.4 to 5.9 initial sounds in the comparison group. Letter knowledge increased on average from 15.7 to 36 correct letter names in the experimental group and from 23 to 28 letter names in the comparison group. Letter naming fluency increased on average from 3.2 to 12.5 correct letter names per minute in the experimental group and from 7 to 12.8 letter names per minute in the comparison group. Letter sound knowledge increased on average from 5.5 to 17.6 correct letter sounds in the experimental group and from 7.2 to 9.7 letter sounds in the comparison group. Letter sound fluency increased on average from 2.4 to 9.1 correct letter sounds per minute in the experimental group and from 3 to 5.6 letter sounds per minute in the comparison group. Word-decoding skills increased on average from 0.6 to 4.3 simple words and from 0.6 to 4.2 nonsense words in the experimental group and from 1.5 to 1.8 simple words and from 1 to 1.6 nonsense words in the comparison group. In May, 90% of the experimental group had some decoding skills compared to 52% of the comparison group. ANCOVA tests with pre-test scores as covariates revealed that the experimental group outperformed the comparison group on all post-test measures in spring, except letter naming fluency. Effect sizes ranged from eta2 = 0.14 to 0.36 on significantly affected dependent variables, reflecting that K-PALS had a considerable impact on the skills of the experimental group. LSD post-hoc analyses revealed that significant differences were most often found between participants in the preschool where 45 K-PALS lessons were conducted and participants in comparison preschools. Results indicate that the Icelandic version of K-PALS can be adequately implemented by preschool teachers, thus significantly improving important foundational reading skills of 5-6 year old children in Iceland.