The Lingering Effects of Covid-19 on Reading Outcomes in High-Poverty Areas: Introducing Paired Reading to Support Pedagogy and Student Reading in a Post-pandemic Context in Chile by Maria Cockerill, Pelusa Orellana, Nancy Tello, & Allen Thurston

Reading proficiency is key for economic participation, yet international PISA test results highlight continued challenges (OECD, 2018a). In Latin America, all countries scored below the OECD mean (487) in PISA reading tests, with a mean score of 452 in Chile (OECD, 2018a), with 32% of Chilean students not achieving baseline levels (OECD average is 23%). The bottom 20% in terms of socio-economic status scored a mean of 409 in reading (OECD mean=487 for all students). Given that 30 points represents one school year, the poorest children in Chile were 2.6 years behind the mean for OECD reading scores (OECD, 2018b). Since extensive school closures reduced student learning hours during Covid-19, improving reading remains urgent here, and could be supported by a technique such as Paired Reading.

Paired Reading is a cost-effective, evidence-based peer tutoring collaborative learning technique shown to have a positive impact on student reading ability in various parts of the world (Thurston and Topping, 2007; Tymms et al., 2011; Thurston and Cockerill, 2015, Thurston et al, 2019). Given the evidence-base, Paired Reading was ready to expand, and a contextualized version was developed for Latin America (Thurston and Cockerill, 2021).

Paired Reading is a form of peer-tutoring with a specific technique. Teachers are trained to supervise and facilitate the Paired Reading delivery, including student allocation into appropriate tutor and tutee pairs. Paired reading consists of students participating for 10-16 weeks in 30-minute collaborative reading sessions. Students work in pairs within their class and read together using a self-selected text. Each pair consists of a student-tutor whose task is to help their tutee select a book at the correct level, support them in oral reading, formulate questions and discuss the text, and to provide praise during the activity. The student pair begin by choosing a book together which must be above the independent reading ability level of the tutee, but below that of the tutor and appropriate to their interest, to allow the tutor to help the tutee through the error correction process. Pairs read aloud together, followed by the tutee reading alone. During reading the tutor undertakes error correction when necessary and praises the tutee during reading. The tutor also asks the tutee questions before, during and at the end of each reading session. Finally, every Paired Reading session ends with a period of self and peer assessment including recording thoughts in a Paired Reading journal.

To mitigate the effects of Covid-19 school-closures, Paired Reading was introduced to teachers and grade 3-6 students from high poverty areas in Santiago, Chile in 2022. Seven teachers were trained over two sessions. Full teaching and learning resources were provided, including student books for the program. In total, 253 students from third to sixth grade participated. Of these, 164 students were randomly allocated to receive Paired Reading and 89 continued with usual teaching as a wait-control group. Pre and post tests were completed by students using a standardized Reading test with high reliability; staff completed an online survey post implementation; Paired Reading observations were undertaken in seven classrooms over three days during implementation; and school absence data was collected.

Despite teacher training, contextualized resources and delivery of the technique, the findings indicate there was no difference in reading outcomes for the students who engaged in Paired Reading. It is accepted that implementation fidelity is important to the success of any pedagogical intervention. Implementation fidelity indicators include adherence to the design of the intervention and the content/resources that it delivers (McLeod et al, 2013). Findings suggest a variety of factors affected the implementation of Paired Reading in this study: (1) delivery was curtailed to 6 weeks, compared to the 10-16weeks recommended; (2) higher than average teacher and student absences resulting from the lingering effects of Covid-19 pandemic continued to affect delivery; and (3) classroom observations indicated that staff required additional support to adhere to delivery design compared to UK iterations of the programme. These factors may have contributed to the null effect of the program in this context.

A supported structure to ensure implementation adherence in a recent study of Paired Reading in Colombia, resulted in positive reading outcomes for Latin-American children from high poverty areas (Thurston et al, 2023), and we suggest a similar supported structure is necessary in Chile. For effectiveness, we therefore suggest delivery of Paired Reading should adhere to the recommended dose of 10-16 weeks; greater teacher mentoring, and support be provided to ensure student training of the technique and program resources are well used by teachers and students; and a structured framework to monitor delivery during implementation be included to ensure fidelity to program design.

About the Scholars

References

Cockerill M., & Thurston A. (2015) Improving Fidelity to Treatment During Randomised Controlled Trials in Schools by Engaging Teachers in the Design Process during a Developmental Study. Collaborative Learning: Developments in Research and Practice. Gillies, R. (ed.). Nova Science Publishers, Inc: NY. 

McLeod, B. D., Southam-Gerow, M. A., Tully, C. B., Rodriguez, A., & Smith, M. M. (2013). Making a case for treatment integrity as a psychosocial treatment quality indicator for youth mental health care. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 20(1), 14–32. 

OECD (2018a). PISA 2018 results. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/pisa-2018-results.htm

OECD (2018b). PISA 2018 results: What students know and can do. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/5f07c754-en/1/2/6/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/5f07c754-en&_csp_=6aa84fb981b29e81b35b3f982f80670e&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book

Thurston, A., Cockerill, M., & Craig, N. (2019). Using cooperative learning to close the reading attainment gap for students with low literacy levels for Grade8/Year 9 students. International Journal of Education Research, 94, 1-10. https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/using-cooperative-learning-to-close-the-reading-attainment-gap-fo

Thurston, A., & Topping, K.J. (2007). Peer tutoring in schools: Cognitive models and organisational typography, Journal of Cognitive Educational Psychology, 6, 356-372.

Thurston A., & Cockerill M., (2021). Manual: Tutoria entre Pares (2021), Queen’s University Belfast. https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/manual-tutoria-entre-pares-2021

Thurston, A., Bernal, G., Cockerill, M., Nisperuza, L. MacKenzie, A., O’Keeffe, J., Orellana, P. & Chang, T-H (2023). Results from a Phase 2 exploratory trial of Paired Reading in Spanish language in Colombia. In: International Journal of Educational Research Open. https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/results-from-a-phase-2-exploratory-trial-of-paired-reading-in-spa-2

Tymms, P., Merrell, C., Thurston, A., Andor, J., Topping, K., & Miller, D., (2011). Improving attainment across a whole district: school reform through peer tutoring in a randomized controlled trial. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 22(3), 265-289.