Improving Literacy and Numeracy Outcomes Geoff N Masters

National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy, 2005 National Numeracy Review, 2008 How the World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come out on Top (Barber & Mourshed, 2007) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000)

Research is highlighting the importance of four conditions for improved literacy and numeracy outcomes: high expectations knowledgeable teachers tailored teaching continuous monitoring

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Effective Teachers… clearly communicate literacy and numeracy learning expectations set challenging learning goals for individual students encourage students’ belief in their own capacity to learn HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Effective School Leaders… create a school culture in which every student is expected to learn successfully make literacy and numeracy learning the central focus of the (primary) school set targets for school improvement in literacy and numeracy and monitor progress HIGH EXPECTATIONS

All of the top-performing and rapidly improving systems have curriculum standards which set clear and high expectations for what students should achieve. (Barber & Mourshed, 2007) HIGH EXPECTATIONS Effective School Systems…

set high expectations for all schools, with low tolerance of ongoing poor performance do not accept factors such as low socio- economic status, rurality or Indigeneity as justifications for low performance HIGH EXPECTATIONS

PISA 2000 HIGH EXPECTATIONS PISA 2000 PISA

PISA 2000 HIGH EXPECTATIONS PISA

Effective School Systems… set high expectations for all schools, with low tolerance of ongoing poor performance do not accept factors such as low socio- economic status, rurality or Indigeneity as justifications for low performance set explicit targets for system improvement and allocate resources to achieve those targets HIGH EXPECTATIONS

KNOWLEDGEABLE TEACHERS

Studies that take into account all of the available evidence on teacher effectiveness suggest that students placed with high- performing teachers will progress three times as fast as those placed with low- performing teachers. (Barber & Mourshed, 2007) KNOWLEDGEABLE TEACHERS

Effective Teachers… have high levels of literacy and numeracy knowledge themselves KNOWLEDGEABLE TEACHERS

There is considerable evidence that primary school teachers’ confidence and competence with mathematics are a cause for concern… It is important to describe what mathematics effective primary teachers need to know and use in sophisticated ways. (National Numeracy Review, 2008) KNOWLEDGEABLE TEACHERS Effective Teachers…

have high levels of literacy and numeracy knowledge themselves possess deep knowledge of literacy and numeracy learning processes have a repertoire of evidence-based teaching strategies KNOWLEDGEABLE TEACHERS

Effective Teachers… The National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy recommended that teacher education programs give greater attention to developing teachers’ knowledge of evidence-based approaches to the teaching of reading, including the use of integrated approaches to the teaching of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension.

Effective Teachers… have high levels of literacy and numeracy knowledge themselves possess deep knowledge of literacy and numeracy learning processes have a repertoire of evidence-based teaching strategies are familiar with common learning difficulties and effective interventions KNOWLEDGEABLE TEACHERS

Effective School Leaders… find ways to recruit and retain knowledgeable teachers arrange for coaching and mentoring of junior staff encourage a collaborative professional learning culture that includes the shared analysis and discussion of student work KNOWLEDGEABLE TEACHERS

Effective School Systems… prioritise the recruitment of highly able people into teaching clarify what excellent literacy and numeracy teaching looks like (‘standards’) put in place arrangements to develop teachers’ and leaders’ knowledge of, and skills in implementing, highly effective practices KNOWLEDGEABLE TEACHERS

TAILORED TEACHING

Students of the same age and year level are at very different stages in their literacy and numeracy learning. TAILORED TEACHING

Attainment is only loosely related to age. Wiliam (2007) TAILORED TEACHING

The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him (sic) accordingly. Ausubel (1968) TAILORED TEACHING

In an ideal world, the teacher would have precise and current knowledge of each student’s starting points and also of what assistance each student requires to move to the next level. Fullan, et al (2006) TAILORED TEACHING

Effective Teachers… understand the importance of ascertaining students’ literacy and numeracy ‘starting points’ design learning opportunities appropriate to students’ current levels of readiness and need use evidence-based teaching methods such as direct instruction ensure that all students are appropriately engaged, challenged and extended TAILORED TEACHING

Effective School Leaders… recognise the importance of early intervention ensure teachers have access to diagnostic tools for identifying individual learning needs and difficulties maintain individual learning records that are shared across year levels design school structures and programs to enable differentiated (personalised) literacy and numeracy teaching TAILORED TEACHING

The very best systems intervene at the level of the individual student, developing processes and structures within schools that are able to identify whenever a student is starting to fall behind, and then intervening to improve that child’s performance. (Barber & Mourshed, 2007) CONTINUOUS MONITORING Effective School Systems…

support schools to identify students who are starting to fall behind in their learning (eg, state-wide diagnostic nets) provide additional support for students who are slipping behind (eg, support staff, special education teachers, extra classes) TAILORED TEACHING

CONTINUOUS MONITORING

Effective Teachers… monitor individual progress and provide feedback to guide student action assist students and parents to monitor progress over time, including across year levels CONTINUOUS MONITORING

Effective Teachers… monitor individual progress and provide feedback to guide student action assist students and parents to monitor progress over time, including across year levels provide feedback to parents on ways to support learning use feedback to monitor the effectiveness of their own teaching practices CONTINUOUS MONITORING

Effective School Leaders… use reliable data to drive school-level decisions, interventions and initiatives share performance information across the school and school community build in-school capacity to collect, analyse and interpret data promote a culture of self-evaluation and reflection at all levels of the school CONTINUOUS MONITORING

All top-performing education systems recognise that they cannot improve what they do not measure. (Barber & Mourshed, 2007) CONTINUOUS MONITORING Effective School Systems…

provide schools with assessment resources for monitoring student progress against grade expectations and over time monitor the performance of individual schools, identify underperformance and hold schools accountable for their results monitor system performance over time in improving both quality and equity of literacy and numeracy outcomes (eg, using NAPLAN) CONTINUOUS MONITORING

In Summary Literacy and Numeracy NP initiatives are likely to be more effective if they: 1. are based on a deep belief that all students are capable of excellent progress 2. build teachers’ content and pedagogical content knowledge in literacy and numeracy 3. identify and target teaching on individual learning needs and readiness 4. monitor progress continuously and provide feedback to inform practice

Thank You