International Evidence for the Teaching of Reading in New Zealand

Since 2000 average achievement of New Zealand students in reading has declined, based on international measures, and the range of achievement is among the greatest in the OECD. Reasons for the trend are offered in the research literature, and in media commentary, with advocates often citing evidence from the “Science of Reading” in support of a more systematic approach to teaching phonological knowledge and skills in the early stages. This chapter reviews the international evidence about the teaching of reading in the English language, including recent influential reports and meta analyses. The findings of the review are applied to evaluate arguments for change to instructional approaches in New Zealand. This chapter demonstrates that early reading receives much research attention, but the later developments related to reading as a servant to learning across the curriculum, and in real life, are impoverished cousins. The chapter points to evidence in support of some potential changes. Intervention for early readers at risk is still needed, possibly more so than ever before. The position of Reading Recovery (RR) as the dominant provision is eroding as the proportion of schools running programmes declines. Most importantly the focus of instruction must remain on making meaning at all levels of learning to read, through exposing students to a range of rich texts. Improvements in PIRLS and PISA results will occur if students know more about the contexts used in the questions.

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