Instructional strategies used to enhance reading comprehension among primary school pupils: a study of Starehe sub-county, Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

This study aimed at finding out the reading comprehension instructional strategies adopted by Class 3 primary school teachers and how the between the strategies the teachers used and the pupils‟ comprehension ability. The specific study objectives were to: establish Class 3 teachers‟ awareness of reading comprehension instructional strategies; find out strategies used by teachers; and to establish the relationship between these strategies and pupils‟ comprehension ability. The study adopted the pragmatic philosophical paradigm and was based on Vygotsky‟s Social-Cognitive Theory, Gill‟s Transactional Strategy Instruction, and Pearson and Gallagher‟s Gradual Release of Responsibility Model. The study adopted mixed research design and targeted Class 3 teachers and pupils in Starehe Sub-County, Nairobi County. Data were collected through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and a comprehension test. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative procedures (content analysis). Pearson‟s Product Moment correlation statistics was used to find out the relationship between the teachers‟ choice of reading comprehension instructional strategies and the pupils‟ comprehension ability. The findings revealed that teachers have limited awareness of reading comprehension instructional strategies. They admitted not being aware of most of the instructional strategies and did not use the strategies systematically and consistently in their instruction. Most teachers did not have specific strategies to assist pupils with reading difficulties and emphasised more on fluent reading rather than pupils‟ comprehension abilities. Most teachers taught comprehension based on the activities in the course books. Where they used aspects of some comprehension strategies, this appeared to be the result of cognition, especially borrowing from their experiences when they were pupils in primary school. The most used strategies were use of prior knowledge and prediction. The study found that there was a strong positive correlation between the teachers‟ choice of instructional strategies and the pupils‟ comprehension ability. Teachers from well performing schools tended to use more instructional strategies than those from poorly performing schools. The study recommends review of the pre-service teacher training curriculum to incorporate teaching of comprehension instructional strategies to teacher trainees, conducting in-service programmes and training of English course books developers on how to integrate the comprehension instructional strategies in the pupils‟ and teacher‟s books