In response to the increasingly politicised arguments
regarding the teaching of reading in schools, Federation commissioned Professor
of Teacher Education and the Arts at the University of Sydney, Robyn Ewing, to
publish a review of relevant research into teaching reading and literacy, and
the role phonics plays within it.
The paper, Exploding SOME of the myths about learning to read: A
review of research on the role of phonics, was
released last Thursday, with a link emailed to all Federation members.
The paper aims to first review the most well-established
predictors for success in learning to read, before reviewing contemporary
research on the teaching of phonics and the role it plays in learning to read.
In the paper, Professor Ewing documents “the advantage to
systematic teaching of phonics alongside other, clearly established known
strategies that foster the development of children’s reading”.
The paper states that research over recent decades
demonstrates “that systematic phonics instruction is a valuable strategy in
helping children learn to read, especially when tailored to meet individual
students’ needs and used with other strategies in a broad and rich literacy
curriculum”.
Federation President Maurie Mulheron said Professor
Ewing’s review shows that the research supports the approach to teaching
reading currently written into the Australian Curriculum, and particularly the
NSW syllabuses.
“The key issues here are professional judgement and
adequate resourcing,” Mr Mulheron said. “Teachers know the students in their
classrooms and need to be free to employ the most appropriate strategies as
required.”
“Similarly, when a teacher identifies a student who is
struggling to learn to read, they need to have immediate access to adequate
resources and supports, such as speech pathologists, to ensure that student
achieves the best possible outcomes.”
Professor Ewing’s paper takes direct aim at the controversial
mandatory synthetic phonics check, which has been implemented in the United
Kingdom, concluding that the research does not support the policy of
implementing such a check in Australian schools.
Federation members interested in learning more about phonics
in the classroom can access professional learning via the Centre for
Professional Learning (CPL) website.