Title: Enhancing Literacy Skills through Teacher Strategy Instruction: A Longitudinal Study
Programme: APVV
Acronym: ELISIT
Principal investigator: Mgr. Urban Kamila PhD.
Cooperating organization: Trnava University in Trnava – Faculty of Education
Annotation: This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher-led strategy instruction intervention focused on enhancing literacy skills in 3rd and 4th grade students. The intervention will involve teacher training in implementation of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies into their classroom instruction over one academic year. The project employs a randomized controlled trial design, with students assessed at multiple time points (pre-test, mid-test, post-test, and delayed post-test). The overarching goal is to analyze the impact of this ecologically valid intervention on students’ strategic reading behavior, metacognitive skills, reading comprehension, and reading self-efficacy. Additionally, the project will evaluate how providing strategy instruction affects teachers themselves. Quantitative data will be supplemented with in-depth qualitative interviews targeting the teacher’s experience during the intervention, in order to gain a comprehensive understanding. This basic research project provides crucial longitudinal data on real-world applications of evidence-based literacy practices into elementary classrooms. The anticipated outcomes – six scientific articles in journals indexed in WoS/Scopus and one practical methodological guide for teachers – related to enhancing students’ reading abilities and effective professional development have a potential to meaningfully impact classroom practice in Slovakia.
Project duration: 1.7.2024 – 30.6.2027
Team:
Institute for Research in Social Communication, SAS
- Mgr. Kamila Urban, PhD.
- Prof. PhDr. Oľga Zápotočná, CSc.
- Doc. PhDr. Zuzana Petrová, PhD.
- PhDr. Marek Urban, PhD.
- Mgr. Peter Šebáň, PhD.
- Mgr. Matúš Brziak
Trnava University in Trnava – Faculty of Education
- Mgr. Markéta Filagová, PhD.
- PaedDr. Jaroslava Magulová, PhD.
- Mgr. Patrícia Jakubcová
- Mgr. Tereza Šimončičová
Contact: kamila.urban@savba.sk
Title: Effective reading behaviour strategies studied at key stages of literacy development
Programme: APVV
Project No: APVV-19-0074
Acronym: ELD-ET
Principal investigator: Prof. PhDr. Oľga Zápotočná, CSc.
Applicant: Institute for Research in Social Communication, SAS
Cooperating organization: Comenius University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Library and Information Sciences
Annotation: The project responds to current trends in literacy research in today’s information society. These trends are about searching for new more complex models of reading behaviour in the evolving information and media environments. The research aimed at investigating new forms of reading requires combination of traditional assessment methods with new and more sensitive tools. The emphasis is placed at transdisciplinary collaboration, considering current trends with existing knowledge developed in psychology, education and library and information sciences. The interdisciplinary research team will attempt to demonstrate and empirically support the premise that, despite the increasing cognitive demands on reading in ICT setting, the nature and quality of reading remains the same. Its development depends on stimulating language and literary environment during the early childhood. In this research the stimulating environment is represented by the implementation of the new language teaching conception (Zápotočná, Petrová, ŠVP, 2016) in selected nursery schools. The long-term effects of the programme will be studied using various cognitive linguistic and metacognitive indicators of early literacy in preschool age children and compared both with the reference groups of children monitored in 2016–2019 and longitudinally. Their predictive validity as regards text comprehension, reading strategies and information behaviours will be explored using the same sample of children attending school education. The eye tracking method will be used to investigate the direct effect that various forms of literary communication have on the quality and intensity of reception in preschool age children. This makes it possible to more accurately diagnose reading performances at subsequent stages of reading development and reading and information behaviours in different information environments, with a view to their use in information interventions in ICT settings.
Project duration: 01.07.2020 – 30.06.2024
Team:
Institute for Research in Social Communication, SAS
- Prof. PhDr. Oľga Zápotočná, CSc. (Principal investigator)
- Mgr. Kamila Urban, PhD.
- Doc. PhDr. Zuzana Petrová, PhD.
Comenius University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Library and Information Sciences
- PhDr. Ľudmila Hrdináková, PhD. (zástupkyňa vedúcej projektu )
- Doc. PhDr. Pavel Rankov, PhD.
- Mgr. Katarína Buzová, PhD.
- Mgr. Jakub Fázik, PhD.
- Mgr. Annamária Brijaková (doktorandka)
Contact: olga.zapotocna@savba.sk
Project proposal (document pdf)
Title: Language and cognitive impacts of socio-economic, cultural and educational conditions in preschool age on the development of literacy in primary education
Programme: VEGA
Principal investigator: Mgr. Urban Kamila PhD.
Annotation: The aim of the project is to monitor the long-term effects of the new concept of pre-primary language education on the development of several indicators of language literacy. The main focus will be on the language and cognitive precursors of the development of reading literacy in interaction with non-cognitive factors, monitored in the continuity from preschool to younger school age with a specific focus on several characteristics of the family and kindergarten environment. These will be represented in the project by the level of implementation of SEPPE, socio-economic status of the family, cognitive, metacognitive and non-cognitive stimulating online environment. Methodologically, the project will use comparisons of specific research samples with several reference groups monitored in 2016-2019. The examination of the long-term effects of the socio-economic status of the family will be supplemented by secondary analyses of relevant data from the PIRLS and PISA testing in cooperation with NÚCEM.
The project follows scientific research activities connected to the conceptualization, development, implementation and evaluation of the new State Educational Programme for Pre-primary Education (SEPPE) in Kindergartens (2016). The aim of the present project is to examine the long-term effects of the new concept of language education on the development of several indicators of language skills sensitive to the limits of social and cultural environment. The language and cognitive precursors of successful development of reading literacy (comprehension, metacomprehension, narrative production, etc.) in interaction with non-cognitive factors (motivation and interest), will be monitored continuously from the preschool to younger school age with a specific focus on characteristics and parameters of the quality of educational and family environment. These will be represented in the project: by the level of SEPPE´s implementation through the selection of excellent kindergartens in cooperation with the State School Inspectorate (1); by the socio-economic status and cultural capital of the family (2); by research of digital technologies and their impacts on cognitive, metacognitive and non-cognitive precursors and by Slovak adaptation of supportive online environment in international cooperation (3). Methodologically, we will compare the present research sample with two reference groups monitored in 2016-2019. The examination of the long-term effects of the socio-economic status of the family, including the possibility of compensating its limits by the quality of pre-school education, will be examined by secondary analyses of data from PIRLS and PISA testing.
Project duration: 1.1.2021 – 31.12.2024
Team
- Mgr. Kamila Urban, PhD. (Principal investigator)
- Prof. PhDr. Oľga Zápotočná, CSc.
- Doc. PhDr. Zuzana Petrová, PhD.
Contact: kamila.urban@savba.sk