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Examining the Impact of ABRACADABRA on Early Literacy in Northern Australia: An Implementation Fidelity Analysis

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 107; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00220671.2013.823369

1940-0675

Jennifer R. Wolgemuth, Philip C. Abrami, Janet Helmer, Robert Savage, Helen Harper, Tess Lea,

Early Childhood Education and Development

ABSTRACTTo address students' poor literacy outcomes, an intervention using a computer-based literacy tool, ABRACADABRA, was implemented in 6 Northern Australia primary schools. A pretest, posttest parallel group, single blind multisite randomized controlled trial was conducted with 308 students between the ages of 4 and 8 years old (M age = 5.8 years, SD = 0.8 years). Findings suggested that computer-based instruction under controlled conditions can improve student literacy, especially for Indigenous students at risk of reading difficulties. The authors examine the fidelity with which the computer-based literacy tool was implemented and the impact of implementation fidelity measures on student outcomes. Student exposure to and use of the literacy tool, and quality of instruction and lesson delivery, were analyzed for their influence on students' literacy outcomes. Implementation fidelity measures accounted for between 1.8% and 15% of the variance of intervention students' scores.Keywords: experimental researchimplementation fidelityIndigenous studentsliteracy AUTHORS NOTEJennifer R. Wolgemuth is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Measurement and Research at the University of South Florida. She is interested in research as an "intervention," examining the processes that yield unintended outcomes for those who conduct, participate in, and interpret research.Philip C. Abrami is a Professor, Research Chair, and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, a multi-institutional educational research centre with headquarters at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. His interests include educational technology, the social psychology of education, instructional effectiveness, research synthesis, and knowledge mobilization.Janet Helmer is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Child Development and Education, Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Her research interests include early childhood and primary literacy, and curriculum, and specifically how to apply these to improving school systems and student outcomes.Robert Savage is an Associate Professor at McGill University, having obtained his degrees from Oxford and Cambridge Universities and his PhD from the University of London in 1998. He has published more than 80 research articles in international journals on children's literacy. Much of his current research is on school-based assessment and preventative early intervention projects for reading and spelling problems.Helen Harper is a Researcher at the Centre for Child Development and Education within the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, Australia. In recent years she has researched a number of literacy interventions in remote Indigenous settings.Tess Lea is an anthropologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. Specializing in the anthropology of policy and organizational ethnography, she has published across health, housing, city and education issues.Notes1The ABRACADABRA software contains instructional materials, professional literature, and a teacher's manual to increase support. The ABRACADABRA tool and all instructional materials are available at http://abralite.concordia.ca/.