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Foundation for 

Learning and Literacy

Fact Checks

Few people would disagree with the idea that decisions about teaching should be informed by scholarship, research evidence and knowledge and understandings gained from professional practice. Often, however, as Rachel Gabriel (2020) points out, research findings are reported from a single perspective that can be misleading and cause confusion.

The Foundation for Learning and Literacy will respond to such misrepresentations with Foundation Fact Checks.

Explore our Fact Check resources below: 

Teaching writing in Australian classrooms

This Foundation for Learning and Literacy Fact Check responds to recent misinformation about the teaching of writing in both primary and secondary classrooms in Australia, and briefly examines some facts about teaching writing in Australian classrooms.

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Teaching phonics ‘first’ is not new

We need to focus on meeting the needs of individual children in helping them learn to read rather than teaching ‘a method of reading’ (Reid, 2006, p.16). No one method can be the ‘right’ method for all children – quality teachers will draw on a diverse range of strategies and approaches to teach to the diverse needs of the children in their classrooms.

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A Note About Fact Checks

The Foundation Committee has developed the following set of principles to help you evaluate information about learning and literacy.

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Fact Check on Defining Effective Reading

Continued and often heated debates about how teachers and parents can best help young children learn to read are closely related to different definitions of, and understandings about, what effective reading is. This Fact Check discusses two approaches to defining effective reading and argues that it is imperative to adopt a definition of reading that privileges meaning-making.

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Fact Check on What Makes for Systematic Teaching of Phonics

Some recent public commentary around learning to read and write is misleading and false. One such claim is that that all students should receive the same synthetic phonics program in the same sequence and in the same way and for the same amount of time. This is not supported by research.

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Fact Check on Clarifying a Balanced Literacy Approach

Recently in press articles, some commentators have provided a misleading view of what many systems, schools and educators know as a ‘balanced literacy approach’ claiming it does not attend adequately to phonics instruction. It is important that the expertise of those teachers and school leaders who are effectively using a balanced literacy approach is not undermined.

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