Reciprocal Teaching as a School-Wide Inclusive Strategy
type: CreativeWork
description: Informed selection, development and implementation of inclusive teaching practices are critical with the move towards more inclusive education evident in recent major policy changes in New Zealand. In this thesis, guiding questions for validating inclusive teaching practices were extended to include a school-wide approach. These questions guided a review of the literature on reciprocal teaching (RT), a metacognitive method for teaching reading comprehension, to examine its potential as an inclusive method. They were also used to examine the findings from two implementation studies using RT within inclusive and culturally diverse urban classrooms in a school-wide approach. In the high school study, RT was introduced after a systemic analysis showed the need for a school-wide approach to pervasive reading comprehension problems. In a collaborative effort between departments, English, social studies and learning support teachers were supported in incorporating RT into the regular curriculum and timetable. Four classroom teachers with two support teachers were trained and ran eight RT groups for the lowest reading comprehenders within seven classrooms. In the primary school study, RT was incorporated into four Year 4 and 5 inclusive classrooms at syndicate level. Half of each class (Group One) was matched on reading comprehension (high, medium, and low) and in prior experience of RT, with the other half of each class (Group Two). Group One completed the intervention in the first part of the year, whilst Group Two formed a no treatment comparison condition. Group Two completed the intervention in the second part of the year. In both studies, teachers and teacher aides were trained and supported into the use of the new procedure, including in-class observations, feedback and regular discussions during intervention. In the primary school study, specific adaptations to the RT method were also made by read aloud, tape-assisted, and prior repeated practice methods, for studen…
abstract: Informed selection, development and implementation of inclusive teaching practices are critical with the move towards more inclusive education evident in recent major policy changes in New Zealand. In this thesis, guiding questions for validating inclusive teaching practices were extended to include a school-wide approach. These questions guided a review of the literature on reciprocal teaching (RT), a metacognitive method for teaching reading comprehension, to examine its potential as an inclusive method. They were also used to examine the findings from two implementation studies using RT within inclusive and culturally diverse urban classrooms in a school-wide approach. In the high school study, RT was introduced after a systemic analysis showed the need for a school-wide approach to pervasive reading comprehension problems. In a collaborative effort between departments, English, social studies and learning support teachers were supported in incorporating RT into the regular curriculum and timetable. Four classroom teachers with two support teachers were trained and ran eight RT groups for the lowest reading comprehenders within seven classrooms. In the primary school study, RT was incorporated into four Year 4 and 5 inclusive classrooms at syndicate level. Half of each class (Group One) was matched on reading comprehension (high, medium, and low) and in prior experience of RT, with the other half of each class (Group Two). Group One completed the intervention in the first part of the year, whilst Group Two formed a no treatment comparison condition. Group Two completed the intervention in the second part of the year. In both studies, teachers and teacher aides were trained and supported into the use of the new procedure, including in-class observations, feedback and regular discussions during intervention. In the primary school study, specific adaptations to the RT method were also made by read aloud, tape-assisted, and prior repeated practice methods, for studen…
author: Westera, Wilhelmina Julia
language: en
license: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm
date published: 2002
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:04:34Z
provider: University of Auckland
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: ResearchSpace@Auckland

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2292/767