Below is an excerpt from a post on Scenes from the Battleground – an excellent blog. Thank you.
When I finished my teacher training, I knew nothing about teaching children to read. I don’t think I was the only one. This excerpt below sounded rather familiar:
Lies, Damned Lies and Things You are Told During Teacher Training
July 24, 2013
This is intended as a short warning for those who have just started, or are just about to start, being trained as a teacher. I don’t want to tar all who train teachers with the same brush, but certain claims are all too commonly made to those training which should be treated with scepticism or even outright denial. I’m not going to argue against them here, just suggest that if you hear any of these you look into it yourself.
I’ll start with those I find most dishonest.
1) The effectiveness of phonics is not supported by the evidence. People are still being told this. Sometimes it’s obscured by talk of “mixed methods” or phonics methods which aren’t synthetic phonics, but basically it is a lie. There is nothing else in education research to compare with the overwhelming evidence for phonics. Some denialists are just misled, but many, particularly those in universities, appear to be just lying. Argue with them and they will soon resort to the same weasel words and half-truths that homeopaths and other pseudo-scientists use.
Reblogged this on The Echo Chamber.