There is a new free micro-course on teaching phonics fee from the Feds
The Commonwealth Government has paid Uni Adelaide to create the credential which shows how to teach synthetic phonics, “using contemporary evidence-based practices.”
And did the Minister mention it is free? It is indeed, the third Uni A micro credential funded by the Government following one on explicit instruction and another on classroom management which were released last year.
And has he explained why the government is funding work in the pedagogic weed? That as well. “The reading wars are over. We know evidence-based teaching methods work and this free short course will help teachers in the classroom.
“This will support teachers and help to improve how students learn how to read and write,” he said last week.
But since when did the Commonwealth Government start deciding how teaches should teach? Since coalition education minister Alan Tudge stopped suggesting and started threatening Deans of Education who stuck to the orthodoxy that kids use their own knowledge and experience to work things out. Back in 2022, Mr Tudge announced ‘ideological resistance” in teacher training courses had limited the classroom-use of “two highly effective teaching methods,” – explicit instruction and phonics. He added the Coalition Government would use “the full leverage” of its funding for initial teacher education courses “to insist that evidence based practises are taught.”
Mr Tudge is gone but Mr Clare picked up the case: “A lot of teachers tell me they did not feel like they were prepared for the classroom when they finished university … their university course didn’t prepare them well enough to teach things like literacy and numeracy and manage classroom behaviour, and that prac wasn’t up to scratch,” Mr Clare said in 2023.
And woe betide deans who do not listen: Mr Clare added, initial teacher education courses must teach “fundamentals” of maths, English and classroom management, lest they lose accreditation. Or just become irrelevant.
