Dr Kerry Hempenstall

What does evidence-based teaching in literacy mean?

This Presentation adapted

from

Read About It: Scientific

Evidence for Effective

Teaching of Reading

Dr Kerry Hempenstall

Evidence-based education:

The integration of professional wisdom with the best available empirical evidence in making decisions about how to provide effective instruction (Whitehurst, 2002).

Doesn’t supplant the craft of teaching.

Empirical evidence means … ?

Teaching practice is consistent with what is

known about literacy development. So, chosen

approaches are theoretically plausible.

Teaching practice is consistent with

approaches that have been demonstrated to be

effective in evoking skilled reading for

students. So, empirically validated in quality

studies.

Evidence-based literacy education

(Teachers should) engage with the evidence-

based research literature on what works for

students, with and without learning

difficulties, and understand what constitutes

evidence (Australian National Inquiry into the

Teaching of Literacy, NITL, 2005).

Why the need for reform?

“Notwithstanding substantial increases in expenditure

on education over the past decade, national and

international assessments of student achievement in

Australia show little improvement and in some areas

standards have dropped” (Productivity Commission,

2016)

Why a need for reform?One million Australian primary students are at

risk of reading failure – 24% of all students

and 40% of disadvantaged students.

Why the need for reform?

When experience, personality, intuition, or

creativity are the sole determinants of teaching

practice, we risk inconsistencies of

effectiveness across teachers, and thus major

inequalities at the system level.

Why have we not yet seen EBT adopted?

Teachers feel underprepared for the realities of

teaching lacking the necessary content

knowledge and pedagogical skills (Roberts-

Hull, Jensen, & Cooper, 2015).

Little rigorous evaluation of programs is done

within the Australian school system (Productivity Commission, 2016).

Reports have often preceded reform

In GB, the Primary National Strategy (2006-

2015) followed from the Rose Report (2006).

In the USA, the No Child Left Behind Act

(2002) and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA,

2015) arose from the report of the National

Reading Panel (2000).

In Australia?

Might reform occur here similarly?

In Australia, there was the report of the

National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy

(NITL, 2005). It used the term evidence-based

48 times.

The recommendations were never

adopted in this country.

Change in the air?

Australian Government Review of Funding for

Schooling Panel (2011) criticised the:

lack of an evidence-base for educational

programs in Australia.

absence of evaluation of the adopted

programs’ effects on learning.

Change in the air?“The national education evidence base should:

drive improved student achievement through

monitoring of performance,

evaluation of what works best,

dissemination of evidence, and

application of that evidence by educators and

policy makers” (Productivity Commission,

2016 Draft Recommendation 2)

Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group 2015

Universities, as part of the accreditation process,

must provide detailed evidence that their

teaching courses are evidence-based and

integrate professional experience with theory.

2016 Australian Government report Quality Schools, Quality Outcomes.

Requires teachers to use explicit literacy

instruction in schools to help reverse

Australia’s current decline in international

assessments.

Australian Government 2012 Response to Recommendations of the

Dyslexia Working Party

Appropriate teaching strategies, shown

through rigorous, evidence based research to

be effective in developing strong literacy

skills, are to be used in all Australian junior

primary classrooms.

All teacher-training syllabi should include

training in evidence-based reading instruction.

What does the EB literacy research say is important? The Big 5

All students learn best when teachers adopt an

integrated approach to reading that explicitly

teaches five specific areas: phonemic

awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and

comprehension (NITL, 2005; NRP, 2000).

The Big 5: Phonemic awareness

Conscious realization that spoken words can

be decomposed into about 44 discrete single

sounds (phonemes).

It allows hearing the differences among

spoken words, such as house, mouse, louse.

It enables the beginning reader to appreciate

the logic of the alphabetic writing system.

Explicit & Implicit phonics

In an explicit program, students will be taught

initially:

The associations between the sounds

(phonemes) and their associated letters

(graphemes).

Blending (What word do these sounds make

when we put them together mmm-aaa-nnn?”),

and Segmenting (“Let’s sound out this word”).

Implicit phonics

“What sound occurs in each of these words:

mad, maple, moon?”

The words may be pointed to or spoken by the

teacher, but the sounds in isolation from words

are not presented.

Usually, the associations are taught incidentally

within stories rather than systematically.

Systematic?

Systematic instruction includes attention to the

detail of the teaching process.

Instruction largely teacher-directed, based on a

logical analysis of the skills required and their

most effective sequence.

Includes: massed and spaced practice of those

skills (sometimes in isolation from stories),

corrective feedback of errors, and continuous

evaluation of progress.

Report findings

“Direct systematic instruction in phonics

during the early years of schooling is an

essential foundation for teaching children to

read” (Australian National Inquiry into the

Teaching of Literacy, 2005).

Explicit systematic phonics is a vital element

in beginning reading (British Primary National

Strategy, 2006).

Phonics screening check England

The Big 5: Fluency

Fast and accurate word reading develops from

reading practice.

Like skilled musicians and athletes, fluent

readers have developed automaticity enabling

effortless reading.

Fluency allows readers to put all their mental

energies into reading for meaning –

comprehension.

The Big 5: Vocabulary

Vocabulary: The words students must know to

communicate effectively in listening,

speaking, reading, and writing.

Developing a vocabulary is an incremental

process.

Direct teaching is necessary but insufficient.

The average school-age child learns about

3,000-4000 new words per year.

The average number of new words taught in

school in a year is about 300-500.

The Big 5: Reading Comprehension

The ability to understand and gain meaning

from what has been read.

If decoding and vocabulary develop normally,

less than 1% have reading comprehension

problems (Spencer, Quinn, & Wagner, 2014).

A commonality in the various comprehension

strategies taught ― the reader is actively

interacting with or interrogating the text.

Where to find out what works?

Google these sites:

The Early Childhood Technical Assistance

Center

Best Evidence Encyclopedia,

MUSEC Briefings

Promising Practices Network,

What Works Clearinghouse

Education Consumers Foundation

Non EBP for learning difficulties Megavitamins - Allergy treatments - Herbs -

Evening Primrose oil - Vitamin A – Chelation -

Homeopathy

Stimulants – Tranquillizers - Anti-histamines - Anti-

convulsants

Cranial Sacral Therapy - Dolphin therapy

Sensory Integration – Chiropractic – Osteopathy –

Educational Kinesiology - Sunflower Therapy

Behavioural Optometry - Coloured (Irlen) lenses

Brain-based programs, e.g., Dore, Arrowsmith,

Brain Gym, Doman Delacato

Literacy beliefs in conflict with EBT

Teacher initiative, creativity, and intuition

provide the best means of meeting the needs of

all students.

Teaching is ineffectual compared to the impact

of socioeconomic status and social

disadvantage.

Knowledge and skills are usually best

discovered, rather than taught.


It is only the relationship between a teacher

and a child that evokes learning.

Learning to read is as natural as learning to

speak.

Children learn to read by reading books.


Children learn to read by reading books.

Parents’ reading to children is sufficient to

evoke skilled reading.

Good readers skim over words rather than

attending to detail.

Skilled reading involves prediction from

context.

English is too irregular for phonics to be

helpful.

Accuracy is not necessary for effective reading

Good spelling derives simply from the act of

writing.

Attending to students’ learning styles

improves educational outcomes.

For supporting research, Google: “Whole

Language! What was that all about?”

Handwriting & Literacy

Handwriting instruction produced large gains

in the quality, length, spelling, and fluency of

students’ writing (Santangelo & Graham, 2016).

Functional magnetic resonance imaging shows

that the specific hand movements involved in

handwriting support the visual recognition and

recall of letters (Mangen & Velay, 2010).

Spelling & Literacy

Formally teaching spelling enhances reading

and writing (Graham & Santangelo, 2014).

As students become more skilled, they can use

larger graphophonic units and morphemes in

both word recognition and spelling (Nunes,

Bryant, & Barros, 2012).

The adult writer can spell 10,000 to 20,000

words. Weekly spelling lists enable at most

3,800 words during the primary years (Scott,

2000).

Testing enhances learning!

Important as formative assessment of teaching.

Also, testing (retrieval practice) aids

knowledge organisation and accessibility.

Testing reduces forgetting.

All students benefit from it.

(Kornell & Vaughn, 2016; Pan, Pashler, Potter, &

Rickard, 2015).

Predicting the future?

Approaches and programs must produce evidence of measurable gains.

Education faculties’ curriculum changes dramatically as a new generation takes charge.

Teachers routinely become evidence-based in their classrooms – collecting formative data.

Student failure will be readily noticed and addressed systematically.

Overall rates of student failure declines.