What works for whom? A study of the differential effectiveness of instructional characteristics.

Recent studies show that the average reading performance of Flemish elementary school students is declining and that the group of low-achieving students is increasing. In addition, the average learning gain for reading of Flemish elementary school students is small. The contribution of generic instructional characteristics to students' reading performance has been extensively reported. Using a differential effectiveness approach, this research project aim is to add to the existing knowledge base by investigating to what extent generic instructional characteristics contribute to differences in learning performance and learning gains for reading for low- and high-risk students. Amongst other things, low-risk and high-risk groups are based on students’ reading achievement and background characteristics such as home language). Following the dynamic model of educational effectiveness, it will be investigated how characteristics such as time management, goal and task orientation, structure, questioning, modelling and interaction can improve the instructional quality of reading strategies for these groups of students and finally, students’ learning gain for reading comprehension. On the one hand, observations and studies with a longitudinal design will be used to determine how these characteristics relate to the development of students’ reading skills. On the other hand, the focus will be on the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of a professional development program that focuses on these instructional characteristics within the context of reading education.