Self-Efficacy: One Teacher's Concern for Reading Improvement Students

Ohio Reading Teacher, Fall 2003-Spring 2004 by Halsey, Pamela

Mrs. Blackwell expressed a deep concern that her reading improvement students had very negative attitudes about their reading abilities as well as about being assigned to a reading improvement course. This year, eighteen students were assigned to reading improvement class for seventh grade. She felt using one source of assessment, a standardized test score, was not a sufficient measure of a student's reading ability. While she admitted that each of the eighteen students was a struggling reader, she became concerned about hurt feelings and feelings of jealousy among the students. In this district, seventh grade is the first year students have an opportunity to take an elective course. Students in her reading improvement class were not allowed to choose an elective, because reading improvement was automatically chosen for them. Unfortunately, the pre-registration schedule at the district came before test results were available, and most of these students had chosen an elective before leaving sixth grade. Registration time was also a time when elective teachers encouraged students to take their classes by using posters hung in the sixth grade building and a short presentation at a registration rally. "The children were devastated when they discovered all the fun they were supposed to be having in woodworking would be sacrificed because they would be taking reading improvement," said Mrs. Blackwell.

All eighteen seventh grade students assigned to reading improvement participated in the study. There were seven girls and eleven boys in reading improvement. The reading improvement group included four African-American students, one Asian student, five Hispanic students, and eight White students. An additional eighteen students from seventh grade language arts classes were randomly selected to participate in the study. There were five girls and thirteen boys in the language arts group including four African-American students, four Hispanic students, and ten White students. After permission was obtained from both teachers, students were given letters of consent for their parents to read and sign. Students were informed that they would be asked to complete a questionnaire about reading. Both teachers allowed students to complete the questionnaire while other students read silently. This kept class disruption to a minimum, and often various matters concerning grades, projects, or mini-lessons were discussed with students while other students read.

The RSPS was used to measure reader self-efficacy. The RSPS has thirty-two items represent- ing the four scales including aspects of word recognition, word analysis, fluency, and comprehension and a five-choice Likert response format. The Progress Scale, composed of nine response items which measure a student's perception of her present reading performance compared to her past reading performance, includes statements such as: "I am getting better at reading," "When I read, I need less help than I used to," "I read faster than I could before," and "I understand what I read better than I could before." The Observational Comparison Scale, which measures how a student perceives her reading performance to compare with the reading performance of her classmates, has six response items. Example items in The Observational Comparison Scale are: "I read faster than other kids,""When I read, I can figure out words better than other kids," "I understand what I read as well as other kids," and "I read more than other kids." The Social Feedback Scale measures a student's perception of the feedback she receives from teachers, parents, and peers about her reading ability. This scale has nine response items including: "My classmates like to listen to me read," "People in my family think I am a good reader," and "My teacher thinks I am a good reader." The Physiological States Scale includes eight response items that measure the feelings a student experiences while reading. Examples of response items on this scale include: "Reading makes me feel happy inside," "I feel comfortable when I read," and "I enjoy reading." In addition, the RSPS has one general perception item, "I think I am a good reader. "