What Teachers Need to Know About Learning Difficulties by Peter Westwood (2008)

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.Unfortunately, thesemethods are not widely used by classroom teachers.�% Much is known about effective instruction that can reduce failure rates.But teachers-in-training are not specifically exposed to this research andthey are encouraged to use student-centred approaches.�% Learning to read is problematic for students with learning difficulties.Effective methods for teaching reading are known and should be used.�% Effective methods for teaching mathematics are required to prevent thehigh failure rate that is common in this subject.In Chapter 1, attention was drawn to the fact that many learning difficultiesare caused or exacerbated by inappropriate teaching methods.Due to thefairly disappointing standards achieved by too many students in recentyears there have been demands in several countries for schools to adoptteaching methods that have been carefully evaluated for their efficacy,rather than employing methods based on teachers personal intuition,style, or preference (e.g., DEST, 2005; Moran, 2004).Recent emphasis onthe importance of evaluating the effectiveness of methods of instructionbefore they are adopted for widespread use in schools applies not only to5556 L E ARNI NG DI F F I CUL T I E Smethods used for general teaching purposes but also those used for rem-edial intervention (Wheldall, 2007).In the past, some educators have suggested that student-centredconstructivist approaches such as activity methods, project work, resource-based learning, discovery maths and whole-language approach to literacyhave most to offer students with special educational needs (e.g., Goddard,1995; Kroll, 1999; MacInnis & Hemming, 1995).These approaches oftenemphasise social interaction more than mastery of curriculum content, andare deemed to be more accommodating of differences among students.However, research evidence does not support this viewpoint (Swanson &Deshler, 2003; Vaughn et al., 2000).Student-centred approaches requiremuch more initiative, persistence and independent learning ability thanmost students with learning difficulties possess (Kirschner et al., 2006;Mayer, 2004).What has research said about teachingmethods?The evidence clearly indicates that students with learning difficulties makebest progress in academic subjects under teaching methods that are direct,explicit and well structured (Ellis, 2005; Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2002;Rowe, 2006a; Swanson & Deshler, 2003).They do less well with methodsthat are unstructured, open-ended, and rely on incidental learning throughactivity and discovery (Carnine, 2000; de Lemos, 2004; Mastropieri et al.,1997; Pincott, 2004).This fi nding applies particularly to the beginningstages not only of reading, writing and mathematics but also subjects such asscience, geography, technology and other skills-based and knowledge-basedareas of the curriculum.Wilen et al.(2000) comment that research showsthat a systematic approach has benefi ts for young children, students withlearning difficulties and students of all ages and abilities during the fi rst stagesof learning informative material, or material that is difficult to learn.Rowe (2006b) refers to a very successful professional developmentresearch program (Working Out What Works) conducted by the AustralianCouncil for Educational Research designed to help teachers cater moreeffectively for students with learning diffi culties in Years 4, 5 and 6.Inparticular, the program encouraged teachers to use direct and explicitinstruction for basic academic skills and this brought about significantTEACHI NG STUDENTS WI TH L EARNI NG DI FFI CULTI ES 57improvement in students achievements in literacy and numeracy.Improvements were also noted in students attention to task and theirgeneral behaviour.Rowe reports that the most effective methods werefound to be direct instruction, strategy training and a combination ofdirect instruction with strategy training.This finding confi rms a largebody of extant research evidence that indicates the superior effects of directteaching over student-centred discovery methods for teaching basic skills(see Ellis, 2005 for a comprehensive review).The use of direct teaching methods in the early stages in no way pre-cludes students from ultimately developing independence in learning.Indeed, early direct teaching facilitates greater confidence and indepen-dence in later stages of learning.Over many decades, despite the popularityof student-centred, activity-based approaches, clear evidence supports thevalue of appropriate direct teaching (e.g., Kirschner et al., 2006; Mayer,2004), often delivered through the medium of interactive whole-classlessons (Dickinson, 2003).In general, effective teaching methods are those that provide all studentswith the maximum opportunity to learn by increasing academic engagedtime and maintaining high levels of on-task behaviour.Academic engagedtime refers to the proportion of lesson time in which students are cogni-tively focused on their work.This active involvement includes attendingto instruction from the teacher, working independently or with a groupon assigned academic tasks and applying previously acquired knowledgeand skills.Students who are receiving instruction directly from the teacherattend better to the content of the lesson than students who are expectedto find out information for themselves.Effective lessons, particularly thosecovering basic academic skills, tend to have a clear structure, with effectiveuse made of the available time.Effective teaching not only raises theattainment level of all students but also reduces significantly the prevalenceof learning difficulties and disengagement (Rowe, 2006b) [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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