C CARCINOMA DE LA VESICULA BILIAR ANATOMIA PATOLOGICA

There has been scant focused research on teacher effectiveness in Irish schools. Sugrue’s (1997) work with primary teachers indicated that teaching was perceived as a ‘craft’ and that ‘good’ teachers were born as much as made. Kitching’s (2009) work depicts the complexities and emotional challenges for new teachers.

Devine, Fahie and McGillicuddy (2013) conducted an in depth study in 6 primary schools and 6 post primary schools in Ireland on what constitutes a ‘good’ teacher, This involved 78 extensive observations, 82 interviews and 126 questionnaire surveys. The findings from the ‘Good’ Teacher Questionnaire produced very interesting data. ‘Good’ teachers were identified as having five factors: they have a passion for teaching and learning; they are socially and morally aware; they are reflective practitioners; they effectively plan for and manage learning and they have a love for children/young people. Contradictions are evident ‘between teacher beliefs and observations of their practice, the latter mediated by the socio cultural context of

the school (gender, social class and migrant children), teacher expectations for different types of students and leadership practices within the school’ (Devine et al., 2013, p. 83). This research leads me to pursue what makes for an effective teacher of literacy.

The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life (DES, 2011) posits that a positive attitude and motivation are vital for pupils to improve in literacy and numeracy. It also states that ‘all learners should benefit from the opportunity to experience the joy and excitement of getting ‘lost’ in a book’ (2011, p. 43). Teaching pupils to read is a very complex activity and effective teachers who have an understanding of this complexity can use a range of teaching approaches that produce confident and independent readers.

In May 2012, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA, 2012) published three research reports on Early Childhood and Primary Education. For the purpose of my research I will focus on Kennedy et al.’s report (2012), No. 15: Literacy in Early Childhood

and Primary Education (3 – 8 years). The other reports are No. 14: Oral Language in Early Childhood and Primary Education (3-8 years) and No. 16: Towards an Integrated Language Curriculum for Primary Schools (3-12 years). This research was commissioned in light of the

National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy (2011).

Kennedy et al. (2012) draw on widespread research material on literacy development from other countries and present it to us in the Irish context. It is the most recent and up-to-date research of this magnitude in relation to literacy development in Ireland and presents an excellent summary of literacy in the early years. The report defines Literacy and looks at the theoretical perspectives, stages of literacy development, literacy pedagogy, contexts for literacy teaching, assessment, oral language and literacy, literacy across the curriculum and draws conclusions and synthesizes the implications. To me this document is a very important one and will set the context for future in-service provision for the teachers in Ireland.

Kennedy et al. (2012) report on how important motivation and engagement are in predicting achievement and in determining children’s academic success. Kennedy et al. (2012) describe how a research-based approach to balanced literacy instruction gives attention to the affective dimensions of literacy and develops and builds children’s motivation, engagement and self- efficacy. Closely connected to engagement is the concept of ‘perceived self-efficacy’ which Bandura (1995) defines: ‘Perceived self-efficacy refers to beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations. Efficacy beliefs influence how people think, motivate themselves and act’ (1995, p.2). Self-efficacy is closely linked with self-regulation. Pupils who can self-regulate their own learning and motivation will perform much better. Kennedy et al. (2012) acknowledge that there is no one best method for teaching literacy and highlight a wide range of strategies with which all teachers should be familiar. They outline the importance of teachers teaching in ways that are motivating and engaging for children and they identify ‘the importance of building on success in meeting challenges and creating opportunities for children to develop their agency and sense of self-efficacy’ (2012, p.45). This sense of agency was highlighted by Anne Looney (2014) (CEO of the NCCA for the last decade) who published an article on Curriculum politics and

practice: from ‘implementation’ to ‘agency’ in the recent Irish Teachers’ Journal by the INTO

(2014). She refers to a significant development in the NCCA recently of the NCCA working directly with networks of teachers, schools, early years’ practitioners, parents and others to support innovation in schools and other educational settings. One example is the Aistear Tutor Network, made up of teachers in the infant years form across the country using Aistear (NCCA, 2009). This direct engagement according to Looney (2014) ‘alongside the deliberative engagement with representatives and nominees, is an attempt to include curriculum as practice in the process of developing the national curriculum that represents a nation’s aspirations for its children’ (2014, p. 12). Looney (2014) maintains that these teachers are seen as agents of

curriculum development, and that their practice is valued as a context for innovation. She recommends that we continue our journey towards implementing a ‘motivating curriculum, with its promise of a delicate balance of skills and knowledge, a focus on mastery mindsets, which promotes self-directed and autonomous learning in equal measure and supports child and teacher well-being’ (2014, p. 13).

Rueda (2011b) contends that the goal of education is to produce a learner who has developed expertise, can self-regulate his learning, is motivated and can perform to the best of his ability. Kennedy et al. (2012) argue that this success is dependent on three variables:

(i) levels of teacher and student knowledge and skill, (ii) teacher and student motivation and

(iii) organisational and contextual factors which are situated within the wider social and cultural context (2012, p. 67).

Research on the acquisition of literacy was examined by Kennedy et al. (2012) and the authors looked at key components including word recognition, vocabulary development, fluency, comprehension and the development of writing and spelling. The authors recommend a balance in the elements which support early literacy with due regard for language and vocabulary development, fluency and comprehension (2012, p. 82). In the 1999 Curriculum development of vocabulary was not even mentioned, this was a huge oversight. It can be an indicator of early and later literacy outcomes and is strongly associated with reading comprehension (2012, p. 82). Reading fluency supports the development of reading comprehension. The importance of using a writing process was also outlined, and how handwriting is identified as being important in developing fluency of writing. In Station Teaching handwriting is the focus in the Writing Station in the Infant classes.

Skills and strategies needed for effective literacy teaching include: phonological awareness, phonics for reading and spelling, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and writing are

identified. The authors explain constrained skills which, once mastered, contribute little to literacy development in later life. These include phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, grammar and punctuation. These skills are very important in the Infant classes. However unconstrained skills continue to develop and enhance literacy development. These include oral language, vocabulary knowledge, comprehension and writing. In my empirical study of Station Teaching I observe teachers teaching both constrained and unconstrained skills in the Infant classes.

Kennedy et al. (2012) recommend that teachers implement a balanced literacy framework but this requires high levels of teacher expertise. On reviewing many studies the authors, Kennedy et al. (2012) suggest the following insights into how effective literacy teachers excel: by providing a print rich environment, giving pupils choice and control to select books and topics, by facilitating collaboration in literature discussion groups, by setting tasks at a moderate level of challenge and by differentiating according to child need, by using a metacognitive approach to strategy instruction, by incorporating a wide range of formative and summative assessment data, by providing substantial blocks of time for literacy and by having expert classroom management (2012, pp.180-182). Many of these components are covered by Station Teaching classes.

Furthermore the authors reviewed studies on effective schools of literacy and reported the following characteristics: there is a strong leadership in literacy, there is on-going on-site customised professional development, staff adopt an ‘inquiry as stance’ to determine the effectiveness of changes to pedagogy and assessment, they have designed and implemented a balanced literacy framework, staff collaborate in planning, teaching and reviewing assessments and use a range of formative and summative assessment tools and the schools report strong home-school links (2012, pp. 183-184).

Kennedy et al. (2012) report that research on reading development confirms that ‘the two clusters of oral language abilities – phonological awareness on the one hand and general language abilities (e.g. vocabulary knowledge, syntactic knowledge) on the other- are predictive of later reading ability’ (2012, p. 293). When delays in language development occur they are likely to impact negatively on reading and literacy. Children’s writing development is also supported by language-based activities. Children can describe and explain their own written work in the same way as they explain texts they have read.

The authors look at inquiry-based models that can be deployed in teaching literacy across the curriculum. Activities such as ‘reading, dramatic play and writing can be used to foster creative skills’ (2012, p. 313). With regard to children for whom English is a second language Kennedy et al. (2012) outline the following principles as supportive of development of literacy: oral language development in the context of social interactions, meaningful use of language in a variety of literacy contexts and engagement in comprehension strategies that build oral language discourse skills (2012, p. 314).

The authors conclude by identifying 71 key points and suggest the following 11 implications for future curriculum development:

1. The curriculum should be founded on a broad definition of literacy

2. The curriculum should be informed by a broad range of theoretical perspectives 3. The curriculum should recognise that literacy learning is developmental, constructivist

and incremental in nature

4. The curriculum should be underpinned by a research-based, cognitively-challenging balanced literacy framework

5. Effective literacy instruction should include attention to the cognitive, metacognitive and affective dimensions of literacy

6. The curriculum should emphasise the importance of developing higher- and lower- order skills and strategies

7. The curriculum should recognise the long-term contributions of unconstrained skills 8. Schools and teachers should create collaborative learning environments

9. The curriculum should recognise the key role of parents in contributing to children’s literacy development

10. Assessment in the literacy curriculum should be built on a framework that includes the purpose and uses of reading and writing

11. Professional development should be an on-going process and should be embedded within professional learning communities within schools (2012, pp. 332-333)

Finally the authors acknowledge that the implementation of a research-based balanced literacy framework within the Irish context poses challenges for the system. While the provision of extra time for literacy has been granted, concerns are raised with how this time is to be spent. Schools will all be at a different stage with regard to development planning and will need on- going professional development to help them to engage in self-evaluation and to engage in customised professional development so that they can implement the balanced literacy framework. Cowen (2003) offers this definition and example of an integrated balanced approach:

A balanced reading approach is research-based, assessment-based, comprehensive, integrated and dynamic, in that it empowers teachers and specialists to respond to the individual assessed literacy needs of children as they relate to their appropriate instructional and developmental levels of decoding, vocabulary, reading comprehension, motivation and socio-cultural acquisition with the purpose of learning to read for meaning, understanding and joy (Cowen, 2003, p. 10)

The most recent review of evidence on effective literacy teaching in the early years of school has been written by Kathy Hall (2013) where early years refers to pupils in the 5 to 8 years range. She refers to literacy being multimodal, ‘requiring the integration of pictures, movies, written prose and electronic texts’ (p. 523). Hall (2013) expounds how effective literacy teachers integrate two major aspects of teaching literacy. They provide a wide range of opportunities for their pupils to read and respond to children’s literature and to write for specific purposes as well as attending ‘to the codes of written language – sound symbol correspondence,

word recognition, spelling patterns, vocabulary, punctuation, grammar and text structure’ (p. 524).

The Professional Development Services for Teachers (PDST, 2013) identify how teachers can facilitate the excitement and motivation to read by providing students with:

• interesting and rich texts in a print rich environment

• choice of text matched to children’s stages of development and interests (Lipson, Mosenthal, Mekkelson, & Russ, 2004)

• authentic purposes for reading

• opportunities to explore, interact and experiment with text

• opportunities to be read to every day in a variety of voice tones and expression

• optimal challenge in order towards moving children beyond their Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978)

• opportunities for collaboration and social interaction (Guthrie, et al., 2007) (2013, pp. 3,4).

Afflerbach (2000) in his article on ‘Our Plans and Our Future’ examines ways and means of ‘improving reading instruction, and the centrality of teachers’ professional development to students’ learning to be better readers’ (p.75). This article appeared in a book called Balancing

Principles for Teaching Elementary Reading which was written by members of the

professional community of reading educators (including Afflerbach) and the goal for this book was to represent what they have learned about effective teaching and learning as members of this community. There was a rising call within the profession at this time for a balanced perspective on reading. Afflerbach (2000) expounds that it his firm belief that ‘student success in reading is the result of talented teaching and that successful schools are those that combine effective practice, appropriate materials, and continual professional development for teachers’ (p. 76). I totally concur with his views on this and I feel that it is incumbent on schools to succeed in achieving this challenge.

With the introduction of the NCCA Aistear (NCCA, 2009) programme for children from birth to six years and the National Strategy for Literacy (2011) in primary schools currently and in light of the recent research review of literacy by Kennedy et al., (2012), schools have to engage

in self-evaluation and implement effective strategies to improve literacy in primary schools. Much support has been introduced in disadvantaged schools but not in the ordinary primary schools with regard to implementation of strategies. I now examine research from the United States on effective teaching of literacy.