Message from the Headmaster

‘Start children off on the way they should go, and
even when they are old they will not turn from it’

Proverbs 22:6

Dear Students, Parents and Carers

The Learning Wars – How Should Teachers Teach?

Those following the media will be aware of the current discussion of Direct Instruction (DI), also known as Explicit Teaching. This has been of such prominence it has even been the subject of newspaper editorials. It represents another swing of the pendulum wherein, over decades, the perceived wisdom has fluctuated. Direct Instruction places the emphasis on teachers actually teaching, in the sense that they are the source of curriculum knowledge and authority in the classroom. This is a transmission model as knowledge proceeds from the teacher to the student. To many, this seems axiomatic. What else would teachers do? 

When I commenced my teaching career (52 years ago!), the education progressives were in the ascendency. The notion of the teacher as “the sage on the stage” was passe, to be replaced by the teacher as “guide on the side”. This was a style of teaching which suited the concept of discovery learning, as well as teaching methodologies such as groupwork. A more recent form of this is Project Based Learning (PBL). Underlying this pedagogy is a deep-seated commitment to child centred learning. 

Progressive education has played out in a variety of ways. As a young English teacher in the 1970s, if I had specifically taught grammar and spelling, I would have been disciplined. The emphasis of the time was to move away from such restrictive practices and let students explore language for themselves, wherein errors would be naturally corrected over time by deep immersion in language through reading and writing. English teachers were encouraged to put away the red pen as heavy correction of errors made students despondent. 

The struggles between the progressives and conservatives have been against the background canvas that student facility with literacy, as seen through standardised testing, has been declining. This decline has led to a move away from full student agency towards explicit teaching. The “learning wars” have been most marked in the decades long struggle between the advocates of whole language learning and the supporters of phonics. The former take the view that students will learn to read by reading, i.e. as they are increasingly immersed in language, they will learn the conventions of language, including spelling and punctuation, without the stifling approach of mechanical teaching of these aspects. Their opponents argue that reading and writing must be taught specifically and, in early childhood education, that means teaching phonics, including children sounding out letters and learning to use them to form words. In the last 15 years, partly on the basis of comprehensive research through Macquarie University, the advocates of phonics have been triumphant. At least for now, the language wars are over. The Department of Education have moved all of their schools into the Explicit Teaching camp. 

What then should Shore do? Able teachers have always been eclectic in their approach, tailoring their teaching methods (pedagogy) to the needs of each particular class at that particular time. Professional teachers can “pivot”, i.e. vary their teaching methodology according to need, including in a single lesson. They need not be captive to either of the polarities. They know that there are some areas of teaching which absolutely require rote learning. There are others where students need to be given a greater degree of creative independence as that is what the curriculum and its assessment methodology require. This being the case, my message to our academic staff at Shore is that, within the learning programmes specified by curriculum leaders (including Stage Leaders in Prep and Heads of Department in Senior School), they have freedom and trust to vary their methodology according to their perception of their class/es. 

As students proceed through the curriculum, the onus will be on increasing their independence as learners. This will be necessary in order to master the Higher School Certificate, where NESA are increasingly moving away from setting examinations which allow students to simply memorise material without processing it through unseen questions, requiring them to think in the exam room and apply their knowledge and skills to new situations. This creative freedom will be necessary if they are to be lifelong learners, a bracket of skills which appear to be essential to contend with rapidly changing workplaces and society. Direct Instruction alone will not be suitable for the development of skills and attitudes. There is certainly a place to apply the wisdom of Proverbs: “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6), but in this culture, students will want to unpack and interrogate that somewhat. Students need to move beyond transmissional learning to transformational learning where, under the guidance of teachers, they can apply previous learning in new situations in order to exercise their emerging skills base. 

Where then does Shore stand in the learning wars? Nowhere and everywhere. Teachers are the interpreters of what students need at any point along the spectrum of possibilities. Whole language learning or phonics? Explicit Teaching or Discovery Learning? To these couplets, all and both. Teaching is an art and a craft in the hands of skilled practitioners. 

Dr John Collier
Headmaster