Professor Pamela Snow explores how did we get here and where are we going next?
In spite of their wealth and strong performance on many indicators of health and well-being, several English-speaking industrialised first-world nations (Australia and New Zealand included) under-perform with respect to literacy levels by international standards. The ideological influence of Whole Language (and its descendent, Balanced Literacy) plays a significant role here, as does the erosion of essential teacher knowledge about how language works “under the bonnet”. In this presentation, Professor Snow will highlight the challenges in aligning policy and practice with scientific evidence, as well as identifying lessons to be learned from international approaches to this problem.
