Australia Association for Research in Education
teaching literacy
Now grammar is back again. And again. And again.
It was with some surprise that we recently read newspaper reports that ‘Grammar is back’ in NSW schools. …
We all love a good story (and you can join in)
The role of story for humankind is a given: we live storied lives. Reading rich literature is always …
COVID coaches: tutoring only works when backed by quality teaching directed at the students who really missed out
The injection by NSW and Victorian State Governments of more than half a billion dollars on tutoring programs to help students catch up after Covid-19-related disruptions to normal schooling is welcome. However, there is a need to ensure the intervention is more than an economic ‘sugar hit’ and that it leads to sustained improvement in …
A 21st Century approach to emergent literacy: No flashcards in preschool please!
We believe children need a strong emergent literacy foundation in the years prior to school in preparation for …
Multimodal texts surround us. What are they? How can we use them in our teaching?
The ways in which we communicate with each other in today’s world are wide ranging. We live in a time where politicians tweet national policy announcements, a YouTuber can have 75 million subscribers from around the world, and pre-teen children communicate using images on Instagram. It seems strange then, that assessment practices in schools largely …
‘Invisible’ literacies are literacies for the future. What are they? Why is teaching them vital?
“We have so much pressure on us to teach literacy in our classrooms. The arts are not valued …
New research shows what makes a difference in teaching literacy and why ‘evidence-based’ is not enough
Public discourse about schooling generally assumes that it’s in crisis. The script goes something like this: There’s a problem and it’s big – really big! Test results show us Australia is going downhill and teachers need to be accountable. There are ‘evidence-based’ solutions but teachers are not using them. If they did, literacy standards would …
Seven things teachers agree on about teaching reading in Australia. Stop all the political haranguing over phonics
There is widespread agreement among educators and school communities about the importance of teaching phonics and other code-based literacy practices in early years classrooms. Why, however, is phonics instruction, one of the processes teachers use in helping children learn to read, so foregrounded by government policymakers and bureaucrats in Australia these days? Why is one …
Learning to write should not be hijacked by NAPLAN: New research shows what is really going on
You couldn’t miss the headlines and page one stories across Australia recently about the decline of Australian children’s writing skills. The release of results of national tests in literacy and numeracy meant we were treated to a range of colour-coded tables and various info graphics that highlighted ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ and that dire, downward trend. …
Arts-based approaches to teaching literacy: stop all the testing and do this
Millions of dollars have been spent on targeted programs to improve literacy and numeracy learning outcomes around Australia. However this year’s NAPLAN data shows stagnation in terms of data improvement, with a downward shift in performance levels for writing. We don’t believe this lack of movement in data is matched by a lack of impact …