Jennifer Chew reviews 'Reading the Evidence: Synthetic Phonics and Literacy Learning' (ed. M.Clark) + more on denialists
Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:35 pm
Jennifer Chew, advisor to the UK Reading Reform Foundation, reviews this book written collaboratively by people from the UK and Australia. The book was written to time with discussions in Australia regarding the promotion of systematic synthetic phonics and the possible adoption of a national phonics check. Thus, this review is very important and invaluable for those in favour of phonics and the phonics check:
http://rrf.org.uk/messageforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6392
http://www.iferi.org/iferi_forum/viewto ... ?f=2&t=934
http://rrf.org.uk/messageforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6392
It is clear that the authors of this book are amongst the 'phonics denialists' - a description used by blogger Andrew Old - see this thread here:I’ve now read the whole of the Clark book: ‘Reading the Evidence: Synthetic Phonics and Literacy Learning’. I’d be interested in any comments from others who have read it. See also the thread headed ‘Recent blog-post by Greg Brooks’.
Nick Gibb is repeatedly criticised in the book for his enthusiasm for synthetic phonics (s.p.) and the Phonics Screening Check (PSC).
5 of the 7 authors cite the 2006 Torgerson, Brooks and Hall review and all 5 accept its conclusion that there is no definitive evidence showing that s.p. is more effective than analytic phonics. This suggests that these authors, who set store by ‘reading the evidence’, are nevertheless unaware of Johnston and Watson’s 2014 and 2016 critiques of the Torgerson et al. analysis or have chosen to ignore them. See Johnston R.S. and Watson, J. (2016) The trials and tribulations of changing how reading is taught in schools: Synthetic phonics and the educational backlash. In K Durkin, HR Schaffer (Eds) The Wiley Handbook of Developmental Psychology in Practice: Implementation and Impact, pp 203-221, and Johnston, R. and Watson, J. (2014) Teaching Synthetic Phonics, 2nd edition. Sage (Learning Matters).
The relationship between s.p. and comprehension is mentioned over 20 times in the book – some authors say that there is a lack of evidence that s.p. has an impact on comprehension, while others assume that it has no impact or even a negative impact. The book actually ends with the negative-impact type of assumption. The chapter is by Henrietta Dombey, and the final two paragraphs are as follows:
http://www.iferi.org/iferi_forum/viewto ... ?f=2&t=934