Coverage of reading and reading instruction in initial teacher education is highly contested, with the "reading wars" representing decades of debate concerning approaches that should be promoted to teachers-in-training. Empirical evidence strongly endorses explicit and systematic teaching of code-based skills as a starting point,…

The author of this paper considers the influence of Paulo Freire's pedagogical philosophy on educational practice in three different geographical/political settings. She begins with reflections on her experience as a facilitator at Freire's seminar, held in Grenada in 1980 for teachers and community educators, on the integration of work and study.…

This article reframes the concept of comprehension as a social and intellectual practice. It reviews current approaches to reading instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse, indigenous and low socioeconomic students (SES), noting an emphasis on comprehension as autonomous skills. The four resources model (Freebody & Luke, 1990) is…

Defines a school-based reading policy and explores the issues involved in setting up a program, including awareness and use of school resources, recording student progress, evaluation, parental involvement, and classroom organization and teaching methods. (FL)

Discusses curriculum statements produced in Victoria containing different views on how to teach English. States that the differences are due to the beliefs that either language is learned as a whole and with a purpose, or in parts as directed by the teacher. (EL)

Explores the largely unexamined years of English teaching between the 1910s and 1960s in Australia in order to supplement available forms of English curriculum history. Contends that an examination of teacher training curriculum and materials for this period would provide a useful way of further investigating the kind of English…

Traces the theoretical sources of self-questioning instructional research. Summarizes such research in three areas: spelling; reading comprehension; and summarization. Considers important caveats on self-questioning instructional research and practice. Mentions nascent curriculum development that is explicitly based on metacognitive theory and…

Whole language approaches to the teaching of reading and writing have received broad support by United States advocates of "critical pedagogy." This paper outlines a case study of the Australian implementation of whole language inservice courses for the teaching of literacy in elementary schools. Drawing from post-structuralist theory…

Results of 6 experiments with 109 Australian preschool children favor training in phoneme identity over segmentation as a component of initial reading instruction because it is easier to implement and its relation to alphabetic insight is stronger. Implications for the initial reading curriculum are discussed. (SLD)

Describes the Language Development Project--the first national curriculum project in language education in Australia. (HOD)

Arguing that being "literate" carries a different expectation from even the recent past, this book asserts that schools must explicitly teach the nature of language, and that students must be given clear criteria for, and support in, achieving excellence in controlling the different types of written language used in their various fields…

This document contains 43 papers on many aspects of adult literacy: "Literacy, Human Rights and Equality of Opportunity" (Einfeld); "Overcoming Illiteracy" (Marquet); "The Literacy Issue" (Crocker); "Literacy and Civil Liberties" (O'Gorman); "Designing a Tutor Training Program for Tutors of ESL"…