Abstracts - Earli

y providing students with training in self-regulation strategies. The use of process analysesshould be intensified in further research.At-school and at-home reading – Review of an intervention program promoting the developmentof reading skillsCaroline Villiger, University of Teacher Education Fribourg, SwitzerlandAlois Niggli, University of Teacher Education Fribourg, SwitzerlandSabine Kutzelmann, University of Teacher Education Fribourg, SwitzerlandPhilippe Leopold, University of Teacher Education Fribourg, SwitzerlandBeat Bertschy, University of Teacher Education Fribourg, SwitzerlandStudies of reading socialization show that the family context plays an important role in developingchildren’s reading motivation and comprehension. School alone cannot provide all the necessaryinput. This presentation reports on an intervention program designed to foster reading based on aprocess of cooperation between the family and the school. Specifically, as part of their homework,children prepare texts that they then continue working on at school. In a training course, parentswere given instruction in actions and behaviors that enhance children’s independence and decreasepractices of a directive/controlling nature. Some sessions were attended by both parents andchildren. The aim of these sessions was to teach the children to use simple reading strategies athome. Teachers were trained to direct children working in groups to formulate questions of theirown about set texts. These questions served as the basis for team tournaments, with childrenscoring points for each correct answer. In addition to the set texts, children were given theopportunity to read and discuss books they had chosen themselves in a literary circle. Extractsfrom these books were presented to the class in the "Readers’ Theatre". Thus, the programinvolved both motivational and cognitive activities. A total of 255 fourth graders in 14 classesparticipated in the project. 92% of the children’s parents underwent parent training. Eachexperimental class was matched with a control class. Effects of this quasi-experiment are currentlybeing analyzed with repeated measures analyses of variance, controlling for pre-trainingdifferences between the experimental and control groups. The dependent variables of primaryinterest are reading motivation, reading comprehension, and reading fluency.G 1830 August 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 0.100CSymposiumEffective tools for evaluating teacher professional developmentChair: Manfred Prenzel, Leibniz-Institute for Science Education (IPN), GermanyChair: Christian Ostermeier, Leibniz-Institute for Science Education (IPN), GermanyOrganiser: Christian Ostermeier, Leibniz-Institute for Science Education (IPN), GermanyOrganiser: Manfred Prenzel, Leibniz-Institute for Science Education (IPN), GermanyDiscussant: Kurt Reusser, University of Zurich, SwitzerlandTeacher professional development is discussed as one of the key factors in improving classroominstruction. Thereby it is argued that conventional approaches to teacher professional developmentseem not to be meeting the needs of teachers and therefore are considered less effective than– 409 –