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Some Good News Stories About Direct Instruction

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Some Good News Stories About Direct Instruction Some good news stories about Direct Instruction Dr Kerry Hempenstall, RMIT Workshop materials, articles and links may be viewed or downloaded from Kerry’s webpage at: http://www.rmit.edu.au/staff/kerry_hempenstall Direct Instruction may not be rocket science but it is effective KEVIN DONNELLY 18 August 2012 The Australian Teachers should be teachers, not facilitators, when it comes to educating schoolchildren NOEL Pearson may not be an educationalist by training but when it comes to his advocacy of Direct Instruction and knowledge about what best works in the classroom, he outshines most academics in teacher training institutes and universities. Since the late 1960s and early 70s, beginning teachers have been taught that more formal, structured and teacher-directed models of classroom interaction are outdated and ineffective. In the jargon much loved by academics, teachers are called on to be facilitators and guides by the side. Whether associated with what was known as child-centred learning, or its more recent cousin, personalised learning, the assumption is that children must take control and direct their own learning. Open classrooms, children working in groups, teachers no longer standing at the front of the room and lots of noise and activity are all manifestations of this progressive and new-age model of classroom interaction. Memorisation and rote learning are condemned as drill and kill, whole language, where beginning readers are told to look and guess and phonics and phonemic awareness go out the window, reigns supreme and mental arithmetic and reciting poetry are obsolete. There's only one problem: what has become the current orthodoxy in teacher education is the least-effective and most costly in terms of energy and time. Best illustrated by a US study titled Project Follow Through that evaluated various models ranging from child-centred to teacher-directed, the most successful method of teaching is Direct Instruction. The more traditional approach involves carefully structured, highly focused lessons where teachers are in control, where children are given a clear and succinct idea of what needs to be mastered and where there is immediate feedback. When detailing the results of Project Follow Through, the Australian Council for Educational Research's Rhonda Farkota writes: ``Student-directed learning had consistently more negative outcomes than those achieved in traditional education on all measures of basic skills, cognitive development, and self-esteem.'' The University of Melbourne's John Hattie, in his analysis of what most influences student learning, also places Direct Instruction highly. Hattie notes that the prevailing fashion in teacher education departments is to undervalue Direct Instruction in favour of more politically correct options such as personalised learning. John Sweller, an academic at the University of NSW specialising in how children best learn, also supports Direct Instruction when he writes: ``Information should always be presented in direct rather than indirect form. This principle applies equally to all educational contexts but flies in the face of much educational theory of the last few decades''. That Direct Instruction is so successful stands to reason. Children, especially boys, need a structured, orderly environment where there are clear guidelines about what needs to be accomplished and where there is immediate feedback. In order to be creative and to master higher-order skills, children first need to learn the basics so that they become automatic. Repetition and rote learning are necessary, especially in areas such as reading, where those children who have been taught to look and guess quickly become frustrated. Open classrooms, where children have the freedom to move around, direct their own learning and teachers act as guides by the side, are ineffective, noisy and create an environment where busy work is often confused with constructive and essential learning. That Australia's teacher training academics largely ignore the research proving the benefits of Direct Instruction should not surprise. Many, such as the Queensland University of Technology's Allan Luke, have made a career out of the new pedagogies and they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. It's also the case, given the cultural Left's control of teacher education, that academics favour what they consider to be a more empowering and liberating model of classroom interaction where teachers, instead of being authority figures, are reduced to being one learner among many. As noted by Jennifer Buckingham when detailing why the education establishment refuses to acknowledge the central role of a phonics and phonemic awareness model of teaching early reading, many educators prefer misguided theory to evidence- based research. One of the defining characteristics of Julia Gillard's education revolution is its statist, one-size-fits-all approach in areas such as a national curriculum and national teacher certification and training. Increasingly, such initiatives are linked to funding and, as a result, schools will have no choice but to implement head office dictates. One hopes that Pearson and the Cape York Aboriginal Academy at Aurukun have the ability and resources to escape such a fate and to continue embracing Direct Instruction. Their students deserve no less. News Remote school shifts gears for brighter future BY MICHAEL GORDON AURUKUN 11 August 2012 The Age 2 THE last time Tony Abbott visited Aurukun, a remote indigenous community on the west coast of Cape York, a young and angry girl pulled a kitchen knife on him when he arrived late one morning at her home as volunteer truancy officer to inquire why she wasn't at school. "We were standing in the courtyard of the house and suddenly she picked up a knife and rushed in my general direction," the Opposition Leader recalled yesterday. "It was all over in a couple of seconds and she passed a couple of feet from me, but it was pretty disconcerting." Mr Abbott volunteered in the role for 10 days in 2009, and says his first thought after the episode was for his offsider. "And I thought to myself: 'You've got to take your hat off to these guys. It's often pretty challenging work'." Yesterday, he returned to a school transformed and a community that is safer and happier thanks to welfare reforms and the closing of the tavern — but still has some distance to go. Abbott arrived with a posse of business figures to volunteer for what Noel Pearson calls "sweat equity" — a working bee at the school. James Packer was a late scratching, along with Ryan Stokes and Andrew Forrest. "But he made a very substantial donation," Abbott said. Among those who did arrive for a mix between Backyard Blitz and The Renovators in the north Queensland heat were Wesfarmers' Richard Goyder, ANZ's Graham Hodges, Rio Tinto's David Peever and retailer Gerry Harvey. Abbott's sense of excitement and satisfaction was palpable. "This could not be more different to what it was three years ago. Three years ago, the kids couldn't sit still for longer than 10 seconds, almost none of them could read a simple story and the classroom was a hubbub of distractions." The transformation of the school is the product of a partnership between the Queensland education department and the Pearson-inspired Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy, with a form of teaching known as "direct instruction" delivering staggering results. School principal Patrick Mallett says school attendance is up from around 38 per cent in 2009 to be in the 70s and that a majority of students are either approaching or exceeding national benchmarks. 2 The key is not just an emphasis on scripted lessons and consistency, but being able to pinpoint where a child is in his or her literacy and numeracy development and make adjustments to maximise progress. "To be at the coalface where daily we see children's lives transformed is an absolute privilege," says Mr Mallett, 48. The transformation isn't confined to the classroom. Back in 2005, I visited Aurukun with the then Treasurer Peter Costello and witnessed elders including Rebecca Wolmby and Martha Koowarta plead for welfare reforms to force parents to take responsibility. A trial of income management reforms began three years later, followed by the closure of the tavern. Mrs Wolmby, 78, is now a director of the community's justice group and a volunteer in an after-school program called Culture Club. She says there are still problems with sly-groggers who bring alcohol into the community, and with gambling, and with the lack of jobs. But things are much, much better. Her worst fear is that the tough stand on alcohol will be relaxed. "If they put the tavern back, they'll be fighting all the way home." Her fervent hope is that the transformation continues. Leading a local learning revolution By MICHAEL GORDON NATIONAL EDITOR AURUKUN 13 August 2012 The Age 4 NICOLE Peeler considered herself a well-travelled Victorian, but she had never heard of Aurukun when she set off with her partner to explore the east coast of Australia after qualifying as a teacher from Ballarat University in 2010. An ad for a boat with an Aurukun address on a noticeboard at Weipa, in far north Queensland, prompted an internet search that revealed the town was home to a small indigenous community on the west coast of Cape York — and it had a school. Ms Peeler applied for a job as a casual, with the aim of staying for a term and earning enough money to extend their holiday. Now, she and her partner, Bryce Coxall, 25, a case manager, are into their third year at the school and have no idea when they will leave. Both are part of a gentle revolution that is transforming some of Queensland's most underperforming schools into hubs of learning, with the result that some of the state's most remote schools, in alcohol-free communities with minimal services, are increasingly sought after by teachers wanting to make their mark.
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