Australia Association for Research in Education
teaching reading
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 …
A new phonics test for Australian six year olds is a BAD idea
The recent announcement by Education Minister, Simon Birmingham, of a nation-wide phonics assessment for six year olds is of great concern to me. I believe, as do many of my fellow literacy expert colleagues, this new test will not help improve our literacy levels. Australian children have been “marking time” or “falling behind” when compared on international …
Teaching literacy is more than teaching simple reading skills: it can’t be done in five easy steps
If we truly care about all Australian children and young people becoming literate I believe it is vital we understand and define the complexity of literacy. The conflation of different terms like reading instruction and literacy is not very useful. While reading is part of literacy, literacy is a much bigger concept which is continually …
This is how Australian teachers are taught how to teach children to read: not just phonics
There is a lot of misinformation out there, as well as ill informed commentary, about how we prepare teachers to teach reading and writing in Australian schools today Of course you have heard the argument that teachers do not teach phonics any more and worse, that many early career teachers do not even know how …