The learning and teaching of reading continues to be a source of contention in New Zealand education. In recent years, proponents of structured literacy approaches have argued for more attention to be paid to what they term the "science of reading". They have emphasised skill development and argued against the inclusion of other…

Guided reading is an established and important approach in the pedagogical repertoire of teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand. Despite evidence suggesting that a strong foundation of literacy learning must be built before introducing guided reading, early initiation to this most intensive form of reading instruction has become commonplace. This study…

This paper adds to the nascent literature on teaching research methods and what students learn from courses and assessment. Postgraduate students are often confronted with large amounts of reading, and the content of material can be intimidating. Convincing them also to engage critically with readings is even more difficult. We report on a…

Findings are presented from a two-year longitudinal study involving the "Quick60 Foundation" programme for beginning readers. This programme is a 32 week whole-class literacy curriculum that systematically and explicitly teaches key early literacy skills. End of Year 2 literacy performances of students receiving this programme during…

This study examined if professional development with teachers would increase children's literacy skills in low socioeconomic early childhood settings in New Zealand and would lead to changes in teachers' beliefs and practices and children's abilities over an 8 week intervention period. Research indicates that children who have alphabetic and…

New Zealand schools increasingly use inquiry to understand and address complex and persistent issues. This requires schools to have committed Lead Teachers with deep knowledge about inquiry. The collection of studies in this book have been compiled by the research team at the Woolf Fisher Research Centre, University of Auckland, to illustrate the…

The nature of literacy is an issue of global debate. When the National Literacy Strategy [NLS] was introduced into UK schools it was arguably the most ambitious educational reform programme in the world, and the controversy necessarily intensified. How can the impact of such reforms be assessed? In its ten year history the NLS affected every…

This paper describes an experiment carried out at International Pacific College (IPC) as part of an EAP (English for Academic Purposes) paper taught in year one of the BA programme. The trial was aimed at instilling students with the motivation to self-monitor their pronunciation, attempting to raise it to an internationally acceptable level of…

Focuses on the issues of skills in reading instruction in New Zealand. Feels that instruction can maintain a reciprocal and mutually supportive relationship between teaching word-level strategies and comprehension strategies. (MG)

Reports a study that assessed the effects of reciprocal teaching on the comprehension of poor reading comprehenders who read nonfiction material in a regular classroom. Heterogeneous reading groups from two elementary classes participated in reciprocal teaching. Data analysis showed there were significant improvements in comprehension that were…

Intended for teachers, this book on beginning literacy examines questions and solutions concerning literacy theories and practices. Chapter 1, "An Open Approach to Literacy," explores some assumptions about literacy and characteristics of a model for language learning. Chapter 2 presents historical viewpoints and current practices,…

Data drawn from 3 cycles of data collection for the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) were analyzed to identify the levels and distributions of literacy skills in the adult populations of 20 countries. The following were among the main conclusions: (1) in 14 of the countries, at least 15% of all adults have literacy skills at only the…