Improving Literacy Skills Across Learning CIDREE Yearbook 2015
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PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THE CIDREE YEARBOOK SERIES: IMPROVING 2001 Turning the Perspective New Outlooks for Education LITERACY SKILLS 2002 A Europe of Differences Educational Responses for Interculturalism 2003 Becoming the Best ACROSS LEARNING Educational Ambitions for Europe 2004 The Integrated Person How Curriculum Development Relates to New Competencies 2005 Different Faces of Citizenship 2015 Yearbook CIDREE Development of Citizenship Education in European Countries – 2006 Schools for Quality What Data-based Approaches Can Contribute 2007 The Education of 4 to 8-Year-Olds Re-designing School Entrance Phase 2008 A Toolkit for the European Citizen The Implementation of Key Competences. Challenges and Opportunities. 2009 Many Voices Language Policy and Practice in Europe 2010 Beyond Lisbon 2010 Perspectives from Research and Development for Education Policy in Europe 2011 Beginning Teachers A challenge for Educational Systems 2012 Create Learning for All What matters? LiteracyImproving Skills across Learning 2013 Balancing Curriculum Regulation and Freedom across Europe 2014 From Political Decisions to Change in the Classroom CIDREE Yearbook 2015 Successful Implementation of Education Policy boritoterv.indd 1 2015.10.30. 15:16:10 Improving Literacy Skills across Learning CIDREE Yearbook 2015 VIOLA BOZSIK Cidree cimnegyediv CS6.indd 1 2015.10.30. 15:41:26 © CIDREE: Consortium of Institutions for Development and Research in Education in Europe, 2015. CIDREE is a network of educational organisations involved in curriculum development and/or educational research, set up in 1991 to establish closer working relationships at a European level. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in an information storage and retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Authors: Bart van der Leeuw, Theun Meestringa Pilve Kängsepp Katalin Varga, László Kojanitz, Ambrus Dobszay, Gergely Wintsche Suzanne Parmenius Swärd Fani Nolimal, Nataša Potočnik Mary Byrne Jean-Charles Chabanne Irmeli Halinen, Minna Harmanen, Paula Mattila Christine Garbe Jones Irwin Editor: Viola Bozsik Peer-reviewers: Petra Aczél Gábor Halász CIDREE national coordinator: Lucia Kákonyi Cover picture: iStock.com/ArtisticCaptures Layout, cover design: Gergely Pattantyus ISBN 978-963-682-946-9 Published in 2015 by: Hungarian Institute for Educational Research and Development (HIERD) Preparation for printing and print: Komáromi Nyomda és Kiadó Kft. (2900 Komárom, Igmándi u. 1.) How to cite this publication: Bozsik, V. (Ed.) Improving Literacy Skills across Learning. CIDREE Yearbook 2015. Budapest: HIERD. C O NTENTS Foreword | Alan Armstrong ............................................................................................................5 Editorial introduction | Viola Bozsik – Gábor Halász, Petra Aczél .........................................6 NETHERLANDS Using Genre to Improve Consistency across the Literacy Curriculum in Dutch Secondary Education | Bart van der Leeuw, Th eun Meestringa ............................................. 16 ESTONIA Using Questions to Support Reading with Understanding among Estonian Students | Pilve Kängsepp ............................................................................................36 HUNGARY Textbooks in a Knowledge-based Society | Katalin Varga, László Kojanitz, Ambrus Dobszay, Gergely Wintsche ............................................................................................46 SWEDEN Upper Secondary School Students’ Encounter with Writing Instructions while Writing Essays at the National Test in the Subject of Swedish | Suzanne Parmenius Swärd ..........62 SLOVENIA Empowering Learners through Improving Reading Literacy and Access to Knowledge – the Slovenian Story | Fani Nolimal, Nataša Potočnik ......................................78 SCOTLAND Improving Literacy – the Responsibility of All Teachers | Mary Byrne ............................100 FRANCE Arts and Literacy: Th e Specifi c Contribution of Art to the Development of Multiliteracy | Jean-Charles Chabanne ................................................................................ 118 FINLAND Making Sense of Complexity of the World Today: Why Finland is Introducing Multiliteracy in Teaching and Learning | Irmeli Halinen, Minna Harmanen, Paula Mattila ...................................................................................................................................136 ELINET Building Content Area Literacy-Expertise among European Teachers of Secondary Schools. A Report about two European Comenius Projects | Christine Garbe ...............154 IRELAND ‘Reading the World’ – Freire, Lyotard and a Critique of Literacy Education under the Postmodern Condition | Jones Irwin .................................................................................178 Foreword Th e CIDREE Yearbook 2015 places important emphasis on one of the fundamental elements for helping children and young people to access learning, progress and achieve their potential. Literacy is central to all aspects of learning and in all the contexts within which learners learn. It enables learners to develop the ‘tools’ that help them to engage in learning, and develop the skills in thinking and expressing that lead to self-confi dence and personal identity. Literacy is critical in every subject, right across the curriculum, in enabling and shaping social interactions, promoting cultures, and laying the foundations for lifelong learning. Th rough careful, well-planned and systematic progress in literacy skills, our children and young people will develop in every element of their education. Who is best placed to lead this learning? Is it possible for one teacher or subject to take charge of such an important and complex skillset? Th e articles in this Yearbook make clear that all teachers can and should have a responsibility for supporting learners in acquiring literacy skills. Indeed, a number of education systems are moving to ensure that everyone who supports children and young people to learn in classrooms and across the school environment, at home through parental involvement, and in community activities knows and understands how they can contribute to developing literacy skills. Looking across the various articles, I can see the clear acknowledgement of the breadth and depth of skills that comprise literacy. Reading, writing, listening and talking are all recognised as key competences, of course. However, the authors also recognise the ways that literacy helps learners to explain thinking, debate, and look critically at the quality and trust to be placed on information, particularly through using the Internet. Teachers also help learners to develop personally and socially through eff ective literacy skills, supporting them to ‘fi nd their own voice’, to question and to be aware of when and how others may seek to infl uence them. Our learners will continue to be exposed to an ever-increasing range of written, electronic, oral and visual texts in all subjects whilst at school, in their everyday lives, and in their future careers. Fast-paced developments in social and digital media, games, networking, advertising and many other initiatives present challenges to education. How can teachers work together most eff ectively to prepare learners for the literacy skills they will need to access their learning across the curriculum now? How can they promote a suffi ciently deep understanding and enjoyment of literacy that will ensure they continue to develop such skills actively throughout their lives? I am sure that the CIDREE Yearbook 2015 will support educators across Europe and beyond to identify, consider and address the key issues. On behalf of all CIDREE members, I would like to thank colleagues from the Hungarian Institute for Educational Research and Development (HIERD) for the coordination and editing of the Yearbook. Of course, thanks are also due to each of the authors for their thought-provoking contributions. Alan Armstrong President, CIDREE 2014-2016 Strategic Director, Education Scotland 5 Editorial introduction Th eme of the CIDREE Yearbook 2015 Th e results of PISA 2009 revealed that 1 in 5 young (15 year old) Europeans struggle with problems of reading comprehension. PIAAC reinforces this troublesome picture: more than 73 million adults in the EU lack basic reading and writing skills, which increases their risk of poverty and social exclusion. Th e European High Level Group of Experts on Literacy was commissioned by Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Youth and Sport in 2011 to oversee the state of literacy in Europe and come up with recommended steps to improve the situation. Th eir fi nal report of 2012 talks about a „literacy crisis”. Th e three main directions of the recommended steps are: 1. creating a more literate environment, 2. raising the level of literacy teaching and providing more reading support and 3. increasing participation and inclusion. Our yearbook aims at presenting how 9 diff erent European countries (Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Slovenia and Sweden) have undertaken steps to address the problem of low literacy levels. Th e volume addresses the topic of literacy on several levels. Readers can learn about specifi c classroom practices, textbooks and exam questions on the micro level,