Every child can learn

Last week, data on the reading skills of 4th-grade elementary school students in Brazil were released. The assessment was conducted by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), based on data collected in 2021 from a sample of 4,941 children. The results reveal an extremely concerning picture, with 62.2% of Brazilian students scoring at the low level of the international benchmark in reading comprehension. (For more information, see: Analysis of Brazil’s PIRLS Results and Brazil in PIRLS 2021 – Executive Summary)

It is worth noting that the study measures learning necessary for children to learn about and through reading increasingly complex texts, at a stage following initial literacy. For this data to inform decision-making by public education administrators, it is essential to consider the type of engagement in literacy practices to which children actually have access during the literacy cycle. If reading instruction in the early years of schooling is guided by fragmented and mechanical work with language elements that are disconnected from the text, children are likely to reach 4th grade with a limited conceptual and procedural repertoire to face the specific comprehension challenges posed by new textual genres and diverse reading purposes. The application during the pandemic period requires a careful approach when making generalizations. Ernesto Faria, founding director of Interdisciplinarity and Evidence in Educational Debate (Iede), states that the diagnosis requires further investigation, but the scenario does not appear to be related solely to the pandemic.

Understanding the possible paths to address this scenario requires a more refined understanding of the contexts of use and learning that are promoted in schools, not only in Portuguese Language classes, but in reading work across all subjects. To this end, LEPES/USP and the Education Laboratory (Labedu) have developed an instrument that aims to investigate the reasoning developed by teachers to describe, justify, and propose lessons focused on reading texts: MARPP, an acronym for “Mapping of Teachers’ Pedagogical Reasoning.”

MARPP captures teachers’ choices and preferences regarding ways to teach and develop reading skills in their students. To do this, it explores which objectives, practices, and interactions they consider when planning reading situations, and questions which strategies teachers incorporate before, during, and after reading, when the goal is to promote text comprehension.

The observed practice of teachers in the classroom depends not only on their knowledge or repertoire of teaching strategies, but also on the contextual conditions and limitations that arise in daily life. Understanding practice is relevant, but understanding the way teachers think about their practice and how such thinking changes over time is equally relevant, as it reveals the purposes and expectations that underpin daily planning and how teachers believe their lessons can and should be.

Having the possibility to map teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and relate such mapping to students’ reading results can provide inputs to transform the current scenario. Research instruments, such as MARPP, that allow for deeper understanding of how reading instruction has been carried out will be fundamental for designing training processes that support teachers and networks in developing students’ reading proficiency. In this orchestrated effort, it will be necessary to bring together perspectives and knowledge accumulated over recent decades, combining the know-how of researchers from different fields and the various professionals who make education happen on a daily basis: teachers, coordinators, principals, and technical teams from Education Departments.