Proceedings of the International Education Conference
Year: 2023
DOI:
[PDF]
How Much Phonemic Awareness Is Enough?
Prof. Dr. Florina Erbeli, M. Bishop, M. Goodrich and M. Rice, Y. Xu
ABSTRACT:
Purpose:
Research on how much early phonemic awareness (PA) instruction is optimal has produced inconclusive answers. We conducted a non-linear meta-analysis to estimate the optimal cumulative dosage of early PA instruction with an associated maximum effect size in preschool through first-grade students.
Method:
Sixteen experimental and quasi-experimental primary studies (35 effect sizes) on PA instruction effectiveness that reported cumulative dosage data were included. There were 613 students in treatment and 542 students in control conditions.
Results:
The cumulative dosage response model took a concave parabolic form (an upside-down U shape). Specifically, PA instruction effects improved with increasing dosage up to 10.20 hours of instruction (dmax = 0.74), after which the effects declined. Moderator analyses revealed these results were generalizable for students at-risk for reading disabilities and across various PA skills. Furthermore, moderator analyses showed that for small-group PA instruction and PA instruction with letters, the dosage response curves exhibited a convex parabolic form (a U shape), with effects continually increasing with increasing cumulative dosage after 15.41 and 16 hours of PA instruction, respectively.
Discussion:
Overall, our findings highlight the importance of planning the optimal cumulative dosage of early PA instruction to improve PA instruction efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
keywords: phonemic awareness, dosage