Evaluation of "Klassekist Super Spellen" : A Dutch method of spelling

Dutch language instruction and Mathematics are core subjects in the Netherlands. An important part that is taught during Dutch language instruction is spelling. Spelling is the way words are written and includes all the official rules for written language (Kennisplatform voor het onderwijs, 2016). As a result of the literature research of Nijhof (2006) about effective instruction for spelling for a primary school in the Netherlands, the method “Klassekist Super Spellen” is developed for Dutch spelling instruction. Because Klassekist is in practice for seven years now in the fourth grade in the Netherlands and is in practice at approximately 50 primary schools, the question was raised by the developer of Klassekist how well the method works. Therefore, the following research questions were formulated for this study: “To what extent are the aspects of effective spelling instruction and the interim objectives of the fourth grade, that are formulated by the SLO, met by the method?” and “To what extent are the potentially different scores on the Cito test of the fourth grade dependent on the method of spelling that is used?” A literature review of effective spelling instruction has been conducted, in which the results are compared with Klassekist. A checklist with the interim objectives that are formulated by the SLO and the Cito scores of 355 students from their third grade (year of 2014-2015) and their fourth grade (year of 2015-2016) are used. The literature review showed that Klassekist contains many aspects of effective spelling instruction. The checklist revealed that the major interim objectives are treated within Klassekist. Results of the scores from the Cito student monitoring system did not show a significant effect of Klassekist. Recommendations for practice and for further research are discussed.