IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT CONTENT OF THIS VIDEO: Most research including at MUSEC and MultiLit (Macquarie University), has discredited the use and/or alleged benefits of tinted lenses and overlays (Irlen).
Also, Reading Recovery (as promoted in this documentary) has been a popular remedial reading program in Australian and New Zealand schools for many years, but there has been much international research and local research questioning how effective it really is.
In Australia, Dr Michael Bezzina, director of teaching and learning at the Catholic Education Office in Sydney, offers a compelling reason for Reading Recovery's continued existence. 'We have a success rate of 90 per cent. Kids with English as a second language are doing better than the rest of the cohort. 'We've tracked our ex-Reading Recovery students over 20 years, and by year three those kids who were in the lowest 20 per cent of readers in year one, 20 to 30 per cent are in the top two bands of the NAPLAN test. 1)
The last time Australian children’s reading achievement was benchmarked against that of other countries in 2011, it was the lowest in the English-speaking world. Given the vital importance of literacy it is important we ask ourselves why.
According to leading USA educators, 'Reading Recovery has not met the needs of these lowest performing students. Most significantly, its excessive costs can make it more difficult for a school to provide help for all students in need, especially those who are behind in the upper grades. Thus, Reading Recovery is not a productive investment of taxpayers’ money or students’ time' 2)
Reading is one of the most studied aspects of human behaviour, and we know a great deal about it. Yet the strongly expressed opinions of 'expert educators' and the way schools teach it typically does not reflect the scientific consensus on what works best. 3) Read more....
Meanwhile, Educators are again going into battle over how young students are taught to read amid a new push for a nationwide phonics check.