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Learning to be literate is crucial for children’s life chances.
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Socioeconomic status has a big impact on how well children read
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Learning to be literate is a highly complex contextualised social practice – not a series of hierarchical skills
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Learning to read is about making meaning. There are no easy, one size fits all recipes.
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Rich literature, real texts should play an important role in any literacy program
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Phonics and other code-based literacy practices are widespread in early years learning contexts in Australia. Where is the evidence that teachers aren’t using these strategies?
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Another test is highly problematic and will disadvantage our EALD (English as an additional language or dialect) learners as well as many in vulnerable situations
If education was like medicine, many controversial education policies, including NAPLAN, MySchool and school funding models, would have been terminated during trial phases due to harm they do to teaching and learning.
If we have learnt anything in 2020, it is that we need to learn to act in education more like we act in medicine. We should stop claiming that there is an extensive evidence base behind suggested educational treatments like the School Success Model without being sure about their possible side effects to children’s learning.