FACULTY OF EDUCATION& SOCIAL WORK

University and School Partnerships: Literacy and Students with Additional Learning NeedsFuture Directions Conference

September 3rd, 2010

David Evans PhD | Associate Professor of Special EducationCriss 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 pre-service 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

› 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

Teaching Reading (Snow et al., 2005)

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Reading Components

› … big ideas of reading were addressed:

- Phonological awareness

- Alphabetic principle

- Decoding fluency

- Vocabulary

- Comprehension

- Sight words

- Text reading

… including a modeled reading and explicit instruction …

Within a literacy framework …

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University and School Partnership

› Eight teachers who had been involved in the unit of study, volunteered to participate and were interviewed. The semi-structured 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

Data Collection

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Results

› highlighted the value of linking theory to practice;

› valued having a highly skilled mentor to scaffold their in-school 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.

The Teachers:

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Results

› 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.

Themes from the interviews:

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School Side of the Partnership

› 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

Feedback from a partner principal:

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