Editorial introduction.
Unsworth, Len
This issue includes contributions from the United States, New
Zealand and Australia, highlighting the international reach of the
Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. We welcome international
submissions and the perspectives they bring and look forward to both
well established and novice Australian authors using this journal to
publish their work for a national and international audience.
Our first paper in this edition is about reading comprehension in a
US school, and its conclusions are very relevant to Australian
education. Kathleen Clark and Michael Graves have researched the
differential effects of literature teaching with contrasting levels of
autonomy: teacher directed and open ended instruction. Year Four and
Five children were tested on their comprehension and enjoyment of two
high quality pieces of children's literature. The results suggest
that teacher directed instruction is more effective in younger grades
and when used with more challenging texts. The authors also make
pertinent comments about the merits of other reading strategies
frequently used with literary texts.
Sean Hawthorne's article examines factors that help or hinder
engagement with writing tasks. His study into the writing practices of
Year 10 English students in New Zealand classrooms not only confirms
previous findings about the conditions that best nurture student
writing, but also identifies a number of other factors that are
effective in realising this goal, including student choice, relevance of
writing topics, and the opportunity to negotiate tasks. Of particular
interest is the finding that girls are more influenced by teacher
guidance and by perceptions of self-efficacy than boys. This study also
identifies the provision of appropriate feedback as an important factor
in success, and this is especially interesting in the light of our next
article.
The efficacy of oral feedback in children's writing
development is the subject of a detailed investigation by Janet Hawe,
Helen Dixon and Enid Watson. They examine data from three NZ primary
classrooms to discover what kind of feedback was given about
children's mastery of various written genres and whether it
corresponds to best practice. Although the teachers in each classroom
were giving good feedback in terms of how well children's work
corresponded to genres, it tended to be corrective rather than
developmental. This results in students who are passive about their
writing, and dependent on teacher guidance rather than self-monitoring.
The authors identified one type of feedback, not used sufficiently, that
moved students forward. It encouraged dialogue between teacher and
students, resulting in "a criss-crossing of ideas, thoughts,
opinions and feelings". In this way students are enabled to become
"insiders" of the writing process and have agency over their
learning.
The next article by two researchers at the University of New
England will be of particular interest to early childhood and primary
teacher educators. It concerns a controversial subject: the phonological literacy of teachers. The article firstly examines the current teaching
of phonological knowledge in the light of recent national and
international reports that call for teachers to be better informed about
this crucial aspect of literacy acquisition. The authors then describe
an electronic module they have created for tertiary students that
introduces this specialised knowledge in a strategic and accessible
fashion. Designed for independent study, and using features such as
soundbites and interactive tasks, the module explains how language
functions at this foundational level, and relates it clearly and
meaningfully to classroom practice.
Our final paper is Robyn Henderson's provocatively named
article "A boy behaving badly, but good at literacy". She
examines the findings of a single case study situated within a larger
research project that investigates the literacy development of children
of itinerant farm workers. The subject is a boy whose family had moved
to a country region for the summer harvest. Despite his pronounced
anti-social behaviour, he defied stereotypical expectations of his
literacy level by achieving a very high degree of success. Whilst some
teachers viewed his behaviour as tough and oppositional, interpreting
his stance through metaphors of prison, one teacher viewed him through a
wider lens, understanding that he was really a student who wanted to fit
in and achieve. She offered ways to construct himself as a learner that
overcame the conflict between apparently oppositional discourses. The
significant finding of this study is that teachers must constantly
reflect on their own stereotypical constructions of classroom behaviour
so that even the most challenging students have every opportunity to
prosper.
This edition concludes with three reviews of important new
publications on assessment, new directions in childhood literacy
development, and genre writing in secondary History.
