The TransAcquisition Study Design

Abstract

The design of the study undertaken in kaupapa Māori schools in New Zealand is described. It begins with an account of the pilot study which preceded the main intervention. The four major areas revealed by the pilot to need further work are discussed. The informational video used with parents in order to gain their consent for the study is described. This showed how the culturally appropriate kahikatea metaphor was a successful explanatory tool. The pilot study also showed the need for the sequencing of each task in the phases and enabled the connection to be made between that task sequencing and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. The tasks themselves were the operation of the cognitive and linguistic understanding that occurs in the zone. Another crucial improvement to the study design prompted by the pilot study was the addition of a standardised measurement tool. Ministry of Education Reading Running Records were adopted as the most reliable instrument with which to assess changes to student decoding and comprehension scores. The Running Records also provided motivating information to the students prior to the TAP intervention study.