As the Government prepares for a potentially fundamental shift in the way Kiwi kids are taught to read and write, the Associate Education Minister says she's "prepared for the backlash".
"The achievement of our young people … is too important for us and too important for me not to be prepared for that backlash," Jan Tinetti told Q+A as the Government began to roll out its literacy and math action plan.
In the report, the Government signalled it wanted to make teaching more consistent across all schools. That could include a move away from a "whole language" approach to one of "structured literacy".
Currently, most New Zealand schools follow a 'balanced literacy' approach that emphasises different teaching methods depending on the abilities of different students. That meant the likes of phonics aren't taught systematically.
Associate education minister Jan Tinetti sits down for an in-depth interview about the changes being made to reading education in New Zealand.
The traditional "whole language" approach encourages students to use a story's context, their own experiences, and visual elements to work out how to read a particular word. In contrast, a "structured literacy" approach has a keener focus on the letters - and their corresponding sounds - that make up the word.
James Chapman, Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at Massey University, is among the educators arguing that current methods of teaching students how to read aren't working for all learners.
"The main thing we’ve got wrong with reading instruction is the strategies that young children are taught about how to identify unknown words when they’re reading," he said.
"The predominant strategy has been to figure out, guess or predict what an unknown word might be based on how the sentence and the story is evolving. Or to look at pictures."
Meanwhile, New Zealand children's literacy achievement rates continued to fall in comparison to other countries.
"My colleagues and I have long argued that an important contributing factor is the way in which children are taught how to read," Chapman said of the slipping scores.
"And that has really been misguided in New Zealand and quite heavily entrenched for 30 or 40 years."
Teacher and education researcher Olwyn Johnston says learning should be "evidence based."
When asked if New Zealand's literacy teaching methods were in line with the best scientific evidence, Tinetti said: "I think it's moving that way."
She said there were "elements of New Zealand's literacy" that were in line with the evidence, and "there are some that are not".
"What I want to say about a 'whole language' approach is that we do need to question it. I believe that it's worthy of questioning at this point in time because it has been developed and used on very dated research as we stand at this point in time."
However, there is not yet a scientific consensus on the best way to teach literacy. Tinetti - a former school principal - said some children did learn better by guessing and using visual cues.
"But what is happening in the system at the moment is too many children and too many young people are missing out and being under-served by the system, and that is not good enough.
"We need an approach that is going to work for all children and all young people."
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