the elephant in the classroom (Kevin Wheldall)

Fortunately, all of chapter one is available through google books: Developments in Educational Psychology (Second edition published in 2010)

What then is the elephant in the classroom? The unspoken (or rarely admitted) truth is that educational progress is not being delayed because of a shortage of funding for schools. Children's school performance is not being impeded by their being too few teachers. Educational standards are not slipping because parents do not care and students are lazy these days. The elephant in the classroom, that many educationalists claim not to see, is that the quality of teaching in our schools is simply not good enough. It is not good enough because it is largely based on educational theory and methods for which there is little or no empirical supporting evidence for efficacy or which have been discredited. The education provided to children in our schools is largely ineffective because the education system ignores the extant scientific research evidence on what we know to constitute effective instruction and best teaching practice.
- from Chapter 1: When will we ever learn? Or the elephant in the classroom by Kevin Wheldall

Read the whole chapter through the link above. I am so impressed by Kevin Wheldall's writings. I picked up a second hand copy of this book through amazon, here, for $18 plus $18 shipping.

Why Jaydon can't read

Over the past few days there has been another breakout of the "reading wars" in the pages of The Australian. These articles are behind a paywall. Here are some extracts, with original links, from my delicious bookmarks.

Fortunately, the original and far better researched article by Jennifer Buckingham, Kevin Wheldall and Robyn Beaman-Wheldall is available: WHY JAYDON CAN’T READ: THE TRIUMPH OF IDEOLOGY OVER EVIDENCE IN TEACHING READING

The format of this wonderful article is that it asks and answers questions, makes assertions and backs up everything with evidence (72 endnotes to studies and further articles).

I'll just provide the subheadings which comprise the questions and assertions and encourage you to read the original:

• What is effective reading instruction?
• Why do so many children still struggle to learn to read?
• Many teachers are not using the most effective methods for teaching reading
• The ‘Peter effect’ in language skills—One cannot give what one does not possess
• Teacher education does not prepare teachers to use effective reading instruction
• Why are teachers not taught or required to use effective evidence-based reading instruction?
• What can be done?

When reading this article, I shook my head frequently in amazement at the inability of those in charge to get it right. Then, later, I realised that part of this head shaking also represented admiration of the authors for their erudite explanation of effective reading instruction combined with a detailed analysis of why it's not happening.

Direct Instruction Indigenous Meme Warfare

I've uploaded the outline of this research proposal at the learning evolves wiki: DI_indigenous_memes

DIRECT INSTRUCTION FOR INDIGENOUS STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY IN MEME WARFARE (RESEARCH PROPOSAL)

CONTEXT: appalling basic literacy and numeracy rates amongst indigenous Australians, especially those who live in remote regions.

PERCEPTION: We literally see the world according to the memes in our minds

The Direct Instruction (DI) approach is a good attempt to solve a number of practical problems that arise for teachers of severely disadvantaged students who have poor skills at reading, writing and comprehending English and Maths.

HYPOTHESIS: Many can't see the value of DI because of the synergistic influence of a plethora of mind memes which act as blinkers and filters to influence their perception. The rejection of DI is not based on research or science as is claimed but results from a deep, internally coherent world view. ie. the rejection of DI is more part of a cultural, psychological, philosophical and political world view and not scientific as is usually claimed.

The memes are grouped under various subheadings: (1) culture, (2) rights, morality, compassion, justice (3) social class, (4) "real learning", (5) creativity, (6) philosophy, (7) institutionalised inertia and (8) computer lib. The identified memes are often associated with a "progressive" world view / education and form a large part of the cultural background of "progressives". It will be argued that some of these memes are refutable, some of them are valid in a more general sense but not in the particular context being discussed (basic education of severely at risk students) and some are more or less correct and should contribute to the educational environment that ought to be developed. However, when combined together synergistically these memes are likely to evoke a critical response to DI in any context and act to block its possible implementation. The critical response is often emotionally charged, that is, part of a culture war.

WHERE IS THE ARGUMENT HEADING?

Try to imagine the process involved in changing from the anti DI mindset to a pro DI mindset, or vice versa for that matter.

Discussion points arising -

Self awareness and self examination of one's own deeply held biases or beliefs is a difficult process

When people argue that science or evidence supports their viewpoint what does this mean? This requires not only looking at the evidence but also looking at the model of science that is being evoked here

In a few of his essays Noel Pearson outlines the dialectical concept of the radical centre where the best elements from both sides of the political divide are combined into a coherent policy. Yet it could be argued that his currently favoured educational policy, Direct Instruction, is going too far to one side of such a centre.

Direct Instruction (full immersion) is an educational framework that can transform a community of poor learners to become fair learners. Naturalist approaches such as unguided constructivism have failed. Nevertheless, there are limits to Direct Instruction and a framework of guided discovery to promote higher learning is outlined (based on the educational ideas Montessori, Bruner and Vygotsky).