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Disciplinary knowledge of K-3 teachers and their knowledge calibration in the domain of early literacy

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Abstract

Recently, investigators have begun to pay increasing attention to the role of teachers’ domain-specific knowledge in the area of reading, and its implications for both classroom practice and student learning. The aims of the present study were to assess kindergarten to third grade teachers’ actual and perceived reading related subject matter knowledge, and to investigate the extent to which teachers calibrate their reading related subject matter knowledge by examining relationships between actual and perceived knowledge. Results indicated that while teachers demonstrated limited knowledge of children’s literature, phoneme awareness, and phonics, the majority of these same teachers evaluated their knowledge levels quite positively. Teachers demonstrated some ability to calibrate their own knowledge levels in the area of children’s literature, yet they were poorly calibrated in the domains of phoneme awareness and phonics. These findings suggest that teachers tend to overestimate their reading related subject matter knowledge, and are often unaware of what they know and do not know. Implications for the design of teacher education at both the preservice and inservice levels are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, 4511 Tolman Hall, 94720, Berkeley, CA

    Anne E. Cunningham & Kathryn E. Perry

  2. University of Toronto/OISE, Toronto, Canada

    Keith E. Stanovich & Paula J. Stanovich

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  1. Anne E. Cunningham
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  2. Kathryn E. Perry
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  3. Keith E. Stanovich
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  4. Paula J. Stanovich
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Correspondence to Anne E. Cunningham.

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Note: This research was funded through the National Science Foundation IERI 00-74 Initiative to Anne E. Cunningham, University of California, Berkeley. acunning@uclink.berkeley.edu

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Cunningham, A.E., Perry, K.E., Stanovich, K.E. et al. Disciplinary knowledge of K-3 teachers and their knowledge calibration in the domain of early literacy. Ann. of Dyslexia 54, 139–167 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-004-0007-y

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