di: Direct Instruction data shows learning growth

[Kerry Hempenstall]

RMIT Classification: Trusted

Some good news from Oz:

Direct Instruction data shows learning growth. THE AUSTRALIAN 3/8/20
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/direct-instruction-data-shows-learning-growth/news-story/4d04b37bf6347d8d75bb0c169cf2d7eb
Direct Instruction data shows learning growth At university in Ballarat, Colin Kiel was immersed in the theory of “student-led” learning, a teaching method sometimes described as belief in a child’s ability to share in decisions about what happens next in the classroom. What he learned as a teaching graduate on arrival at Ali Curung, 1100km down the Stuart Highway from Darwin, could not have been more different. Mr Kiel is now the principal at Ali Curung’s Alekarenge School, where the rigid Direct Instruction method was rolled out as part of a program funded by the Australian government in 34 schools in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia between 2015 and 2019. He said students’ families were itinerant, which presented challenges. According to the MySchool website, only 4 per cent of students enrolled at Alekarenge attended there 90 per cent of the time or more in 2019. However, Mr Kiel said Direct Instruction had helped students who were now in Years 5 and 6 to make steady gains. He said thanks to Direct Instruction, a girl who could match only five sounds to letters as a Year 6 student four years ago was now a fluent reader. Direct Instruction has critics and supporters in academia. A parliamentary inquiry is being asked to consider the program’s success in very remote schools in terms of growth — that is, the improvements the students made over time — rather than snapshot comparisons with other students.
This follows a critique of Direct Instruction in the Journal of Indigenous Education by John Guenther and Samuel Osborne that found the program “has a potential to be associated with educational harm to at least some students”. Education expert Jennifer Buckingham described that criticism as flawed, in part because it included data from the first four months of 2015 when Direct Instruction was just beginning. The parliamentary inquiry into education in remote and complex environments is considering an alternate analysis of Direct Instruction by Good to Great Schools Australia, which implemented the program for the commonwealth. Good to Great Schools analysed the same school data for reading, writing, spelling and grammar and punctuation scores and found in all areas that Direct Instruction schools showed significant growth compared with others. In reading, Direct Instruction schools averaged 124 per cent growth between 2015 and 2017. The average growth for comparable ages was 34 per cent for very remote Indigenous schools. Good to Great Schools co-chair Noel Pearson said one of the strengths of Direct Instruction was that each child was thoroughly assessed before being placed in a lesson that allowed them to have some success immediately. “You have to start where they are at,” he said.



Regards,


Kerry


Dr Kerry Hempenstall,

Senior Industry Fellow,

School of Education,

RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

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