Transcript University and School Partnerships: Literacy and Students

University and School Partnerships:
Literacy and Students with Additional
Learning Needs
Future Directions Conference
September 3rd, 2010
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
& SOCIAL WORK
David Evans PhD | Associate Professor of Special Education
Criss Moore | NSW Department of Education and Training,
Sydney Region
Historical Background
› Children’s Centre
- Need to change
› University and School Partnership to …
- enhance learning outcomes for pre-service teachers for teaching
reading through research and practice.
- improve learning outcomes for students experiencing difficulties
in learning to read
Historical Background
› 1000+ pre-service teachers
have worked with a mentor to
reflect, organise, and analyse
knowledge their professional
knowledge
› 1000+ children in schools
experiencing difficulties in
reading provided with 1:1
instruction
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Presentation Aims
› Highlight the benefits of a collaborative, school-based project
for pre-service teachers in developing and enhancing their
professional knowledge about quality literacy programs for
students identified with additional learning needs
› Reflect on the benefits for students with additional learning
needs
› Highlight the responses from schools and their communities
to this collaborative program
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What does research tells us?
› Reading is an essential skill for success in our society
› In NSW 15 to 20% of students are two or more years behind
at any one time (Commonwealth of Australia, 2005)
› Students who are experiencing difficulties in learning to read
in Year 4 will still be experiencing difficulties in Year 9 unless
strategic intervention occurs (Juel, 1988)
› Research has shown that programs to assist students catch
up are unable to achieve this goal; further research required
(Vaughn et al., 2010)
The Challenge
› How do we ensure that all students succeed in learning to
read by their fourth year of school - including Indigenous
students, those from low socio-economic backgrounds and
students who have disabilities (Melbourne Declaration, 2008)
› To prepare pre-service teachers for teaching reading to
students with language related learning difficulties, and those
with unspecified reading problems (Commonwealth of Australian, 2005; NSW
Government, 2010a, 2010b)
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Commonwealth Report
› 34 Australian teacher educational institutions were surveyed
and reported that:
›
-
Less than 10% of time in compulsory units is devoted to preparing preservice teachers to teach reading.
-
Less than 5% of total instructional time during pre-service teacher
preparation is devoted to teaching reading (Commonwealth of Australia, 2005)
Further, pre-service teachers report:
-
they are not well prepared to teach reading
- even less prepared to address the needs of diverse learners (Rohl & Greeves,
2005)
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Research Recommendations
› The teaching of reading requires teachers to have expert
knowledge and practical skills for working effectively in the
classroom (Snow et al., 2005)
› Research provides recommendations for what to teach and
the need for pre-service teachers to learn how to teach
reading. Minimal research on “how” is available (Evans et al., 2006)
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Research Recommendations
› Can be achieved through field-based experiences, receiving
regular feedback from an expert in the teaching of reading,
and the opportunity to reflect (Darling- Hammond & Hammerness, 2005)
• Partnerships between schools and universities offer ideal
opportunities for pre-service teachers to gain a
comprehensive experience in research to practice while being
mentored by experts (Dawkins et. al. 2009)
• Problems in finding suitable placements in schools (Top of the class:
Report on the inquiry into teacher education, 2007)
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Framework for Professional Learning
Teaching Reading (Snow et al., 2005)
› Declarative knowledge
- Able to recall knowledge about the teaching of reading
› Situated, can do knowledge
- Becoming cognizant of the differing big ideas of reading
› Stable procedural knowledge
- Aware of how this comes together to formulate procedural knowledge
› Expert, adaptive knowledge
- Sophisticated level of professional knowledge
› Reflective, organised, analysed knowledge
- Well versed in research, master teacher, responsible for learning
professional development activities in school or department
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Reading Components
Within a literacy framework …
… including a modeled reading
and explicit instruction …
› … big ideas of reading were
addressed:
- Phonological awareness
- Alphabetic principle
- Decoding fluency
- Vocabulary
- Comprehension
- Sight words
- Text reading
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University and School Partnership
Data Collection
› Eight teachers who had been involved in the unit of study,
volunteered to participate and were interviewed. The semistructured interviews investigated the conceptual and
procedural knowledge beyond pre-service teacher training in
their role as classroom teachers.
› Completed questionnaires investigating the knowledge and
skills used when teaching reading
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Results
The Teachers:
› highlighted the value of linking theory to practice;
› valued having a highly skilled mentor to scaffold their inschool experience;
› were positive about the course overall;
› acknowledged the merging and interaction of the knowledge
from this course and what was learned throughout their
teacher training;
› described their current reading program as balanced and
detailed the elements for reading and how they were
integrated and inter-dependant on one another; and
› talked about interaction between decoding and
comprehension strategies.
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Results
Themes from the interviews:
› Value of being able to identify specific needs of students
through assessment and designing focused reading
programs;
› Having knowledge on how language disorder impacts on
literacy learning;
and
› Having the opportunity to discuss with peers and mentors
strategies and skills for teaching reading.
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School Side of the Partnership
Feedback from a partner principal:
› Students learning to read
› Excitement and Engagement
› Examination of current practice through observation
and discussion
› Whole school change in the teaching of literacy
requested by experienced teachers
Take Home Message:
The Partnership between the University of Sydney, Sydney
Region Learning Assistance Team and DET schools impacts on:
how well pre-service teachers are prepared for teaching our
students
how well students with language disorders and reading difficulties
recieve additional assistance
parents and community members