Enhancing teachers’ knowledge of reading: Shifting reading instruction in Argentina.

The Buenos Aires literacy intervention project began conducting research in the 2022 school year. A coalition of partners worked to bring the project to fruition and to ensure systematic data collection to allow evaluation. These partners included the Haskins Global Literacy Hub, Aprendo Leyendo by Interlexia, Universidad de la Ciudad de, Buenos Aires Ciudad, Yale Child Study Center, and the University of Connecticut.

In Argentina, the general approach to reading instruction can be characterized as a ‘whole language’ approach, based on the premise that learning to read and write comes as naturally to children as learning to speak and to understand speech. A key element of the whole language approach is that teaching and learning should be driven by engagement with and exposure to the printed word. This approach stands in marked contrast to the systematic and explicit teaching of component reading skills, and what has come to be known as the ‘structured literacy’ approach. Structured literacy approaches are considered better aligned with research on reading development and reading instruction.

In the research conducted in Buenos Aires schools, we compared the reading development of Spanish-speaking first and second graders receiving structured Spanish reading instruction with that of students receiving business-as-usual instruction. The research intervention was a specific Spanish structured reading curriculum, “Aprendo Leyendo;” and it was delivered by teachers who received 40 hours of professional development, throughout the two school years, along with ongoing coaching support (PD). 

A total of 15 Buenos Aires schools were selected by the Ministry of Education for participation, 7 as control schools and 8 as intervention schools. In the two years of the project, 23 teachers from the intervention schools were provided over 20 hours of PD per year in Aprendo Leyendo.

All participating children were native Spanish speakers, and their schools were located within similar areas in Buenos Aires. Student performance data on a Spanish language battery of reading and reading-related measures were collected at four time points, at the beginning and end of each school year. A total of 400-500 children participated at each testing point. Teacher survey data were also collected to assess teacher response to the PD program and to using the Aprendo Leyendo program.

Partners

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