Reciprocal and Semantic Mapping Instructional Strategies as Predictors of Pre-Service Teachers’ Performance in and Attitude to Reading Comprehension: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

The significance of reading comprehension as an integral part of English language and education has been emphasised over time. Yet students’ poor performance in reading comprehension has been on the increase. There have been various efforts at improving teachers’ strategies of teaching reading comprehension but the results have not justified these huge efforts. Thus, there is need to look up to other strategies that could be used to improve the quality of reading among pre-service teachers with a view to improving their performance and attitude to reading comprehension and subsequently improve the reading comprehension of their students. Against this background, this study investigated the effects of reciprocal and semantic mapping instructional strategies on pre-service teachers’ performance and attitude to reading comprehension. The study also examined the moderating effects of verbal ability and gender on pre-service teachers’ performance and attitude to reading comprehension.

The effectiveness of the intervention programme was determined using a pre-test, post-test, quasi-experimental design. 180 pre-service teachers in two Colleges of Education in Nigeria participated in the study. 14 research questions and hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The instruments used were Reading Comprehension Achievement Test, Attitude to Reading Comprehension Questionnaire, Verbal Ability Test, Instructional Guides and Semi-structured Interviews. The quantitative data collected were analysed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), T-Test and Scheffe Post-hoc Analysis. Analysis of the quantitative data in post-treatment round revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the experimental group and control groups in reading comprehension. Those exposed to reciprocal instruction obtained highest reading comprehension achievement scores. Also, treatment made a significant difference to pre-service teachers’ attitude to reading comprehension. The analysis recorded significant effect of gender on pre-service teachers’ performance in reading comprehension while there was no significant effect of gender on pre-service teachers’ attitude to reading comprehension. Also, verbal ability had no significant effect on pre-service teachers’ performance and attitude to reading comprehension. A semi-structured interview was conducted before and after the intervention with a sample of 30 participants of which 10 were in control groups and 20 in experimental groups. Analysis of the qualitative data from the pre-treatment interviews conducted with the pre-service teachers in both the experimental and control groups revealed negative attitude of pre-service teachers towards reading comprehension but in the post-treatment interviews the experimental group demonstrated positive attitude towards reading comprehension.

The findings gave empirical support to constructivism theory, one of the most widely used educational theory to explain what students can achieve in learning when they are presented with learning strategies that foster collaboration and active engagement of all members of the learning community. It is therefore recommended that teachers should be trained to understand the importance and use of participatory learning strategies and how students learn more when they interact with their peers. Future research should be directed towards examining the effectiveness of the instructional strategies on undergraduate level pre-service teachers.