Abstract:
Attitudes towards learning in education are considered as both determinants and consequences of learning experiences. In school settings, a student's attitude towards learning can influence their entire experiences of education affecting their overall achievement levels and hence, whole life. This study investigated the attitudes of Year 3 Pasifika students and their teachers towards the teaching and learning of reading comprehension. Six students, three Samoan and three Tongan and their two teachers from one school were involved. The rationale for the study was to better understand student and teacher attitudes and implications these might have on motivation to read and understand texts. To capture these attitudes, semi-structured interviews were conducted using a Fijian methodology known as 'Talanoa' because of its qualitative, ecological, oral interactive approach to research in Pasifika culture especially in a face-to-face conversation. The results from student interviews suggest that while all students were keen to read all types of texts, their choice of favourite text is very much dependent on past familiarisations and socialisations thus developing an independent ability to make effective connections with prior knowledge and experience. The second is that all students liked being read to by their teacher especially when the teacher reads with expression for understanding and motivation. From teacher interviews, teachers focused mainly on student literacy 'lacks' including those of their parents rather than on what students bring to classroom teaching and learning. Their interpretations of student and parent attitudes to teaching and learning of reading comprehension suggest that teachers knew their students and their parents well. However, they did not know them well enough to decipher student and parent preferences for learning and academic success. In the student case studies, it was found that while both students liked reading, the high achieving student, taught by one teacher was a more avid and independent reader preferring more informational texts than the low achieving student who was taught by the other teacher. The findings reinforce the importance of student attitudes and student voice in their learning and success of reading comprehension and, equally important the beliefs and attitudes of their teachers towards the teaching of reading comprehension.