School report calls for teachers to go ‘back to basics’ on grammar, punctuation and reading SAMANTHA MAIDEN NATIONAL POLITICAL EDITOR THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH OCTOBER 12, 2014 12:00AM TEACHERS need remedial lessons in grammar and Western civilisation is being demonised in schools according to a major review of Australia’s national curriculum. The 297-page report, to be released today, calls for a “back to basics’’ focus in English using phonics, or sounding out words to help children learn to read. But in the most controversial recommendations, it warns the history of Western civilisation is underplayed and calls for a greater emphasis on traditional literature and poetry. “Australia’s development as a nation is often presented in a negative light, ignoring the positives. The opposite is the case when dealing with indigenous history and culture,’’ the report states. “It would be better if priorities like Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures are taught as essential content related to particular units of work rather than scattered across the history curriculum and various subjects. History should be revised in order to properly recognise the impact and significance of Australia’s Judaeo-Christian heritage.’’ Amid concerns the report will reignite a new culture war in Australian schools, Prime Minister Tony Abbot insisted that the report was “not about ideology.’’ “Students need to be able to read, write, count, think and know enough about Australian and world history to have some understanding of why things happen as they do,’’ he told The Sunday Telegraph. “This is not about ideology, it’s about a better life and better job prospects for young Australians. It’s about getting back to basics, improving teaching and building a stronger economy.’’ Professor Barry Spurr, who reviewed the English curriculum for the report, warned that a generation of Australians were never taught grammar at primary school in a rigorous way. “The admirable aspiration in the curriculum raises a fundamental issue: how are teachers who may themselves be untrained and unskilled in grammar (having come from a system in their own schooling where it was not taught — to be educated and supported in Years 3-6 ?’’,’’ he said. Dr Fiona Mueller, another reviewer of the English curriculum noted that teachers were struggling. “The reality, which cannot be overstated, is that generations of Australian teachers have had little formal study of foreign languages,’’ she said. “They are also likely to be the product of decades of English teaching that contained little or no formal focus on grammar or punctuation.’’ Students need to be able to read, write, count, think and know enough about Australian and world history to have some understanding of why things happen as they do - Prime Minister Tony Abbott While phonics or sounding out letters to help children learn to read is a strong focus in the new national curriculum, the report warns that too many teachers are adopting an approach that also borrows from the discredited whole language approach. The whole language approach, which grew from the ideas of linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, suggested that reading was a “psycholinguistic guessing game” “The English curriculum mistakenly adopts a model made up of “a little bit of phonics and a little bit of whole language’ and the curriculum is not explicit or systematic,’’ the report states. “While there is no doubt that the English curriculum deals with phonic and phonemic awareness in a more detailed way there is room for improvement.’’ The report argues that the early childhood years should be treated differently and focus solely on a back to basics approach of literacy and numeracy. “This is especially so in terms of the teaching of reading. In simplified terms the first two or three years are about ‘learning to read’; then comes ‘reading to learn’,’’ the report states. “We are told by early childhood teachers and academic experts in the early years of education, and those with expertise in reading and the early years, that Foundation to Year 2 should have been focused on literacy and numeracy — not the hard and fast introduction of discipline-based content.’’ dailytelegraph.au/news/nsw/school-report-calls-for-teachers-to-go-back-to-basics-on-grammar-punctuation-and-reading/story-fni0cx12-1227087469010
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 04:00:01 +0000
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