3.5 Major Approaches to Literacy Teaching and Learning

Summary

This video script delves into the history of pedagogy, highlighting four key segments that represent major approaches to teaching and learning literacy. It discusses the evolution from traditional didactic methods to more immersive and critical literacy practices. The script emphasizes the importance of balancing these pedagogical traditions to foster a comprehensive understanding of literacy, including authentic, situated learning, and the application of functional literacy in real-life contexts. It also underscores the necessity for educators to select appropriate pedagogical strategies and assess their impact on learning outcomes.

Takeaways

• 📚 The script discusses the history of pedagogy, focusing on four segments that capture ideas found in major approaches to teaching and learning.
• 🌐 It emphasizes the importance of a balanced approach to literacy pedagogy, combining various traditions and practices for effective learning.
• 🏫 Authentic pedagogy, also known as progressive pedagogy, is highlighted as an approach that encourages learning through immersion, similar to how oral language is acquired.
• 📖 The script mentions the whole language movement and process writing as examples of authentic literacy, where learners develop a love for reading and writing through engagement with texts.
• 📝 Didactic literacy is described as an approach that focuses on overt instruction and conceptualizing, teaching formal rules and literary concepts to improve writing and reading skills.
• 🔍 Critical literacy is the newest tradition discussed, which involves analyzing texts for social issues, agendas, and biases, such as sexism or racism, to understand their impact on society.
• 🔧 Functional literacy is about learning to apply textual forms appropriately for specific purposes, such as report writing in scientific contexts.
• 🔄 The script advocates for a repertoire of pedagogical activity types that can be mapped against practices found in literacy pedagogy over the past century or two.
• 🔄 It suggests that educators should understand the value of each pedagogical approach and make informed selections to achieve the intended learning outcomes.
• 🔄 The idea of pedagogy as a repertoire allows for movement between different ideas and practices, maintaining a balance of all four major components of literacy pedagogy.
• 🛠️ The 'Learning by Design' project mentioned in the script works on the concept that pedagogy should be a diverse set of activities, reflecting a wide range of practices and ideas in literacy education.

Q & A

What is the main idea presented in the video script about pedagogy?

The main idea is that pedagogy should incorporate a balance of different approaches, including authentic, didactic, critical, and functional literacy, to create a comprehensive and effective learning experience.

What is authentic pedagogy or progressive pedagogy?

Authentic pedagogy, also known as progressive pedagogy, emphasizes learning through immersion and developing a natural feel for reading and writing, similar to how we learn oral language.

How does the whole language movement relate to authentic pedagogy?

The whole language movement is an example of authentic pedagogy, advocating for learning to read and write through immersion in language, rather than through explicit instruction of grammar and rules.

What is the concept of didactic literacy?

Didactic literacy focuses on overt instruction and conceptualizing, where learners are taught formal rules and concepts with the idea that understanding these will improve their writing and reading skills.

How does critical literacy differ from other literacy approaches?

Critical literacy goes beyond just understanding texts; it involves analyzing the social issues, agendas, and biases within texts, encouraging learners to critically assess the purposes and impacts of the texts they encounter.

What is the purpose of functional literacy?

Functional literacy is about learning to apply textual forms and genres appropriately for specific purposes, such as report writing in science, with an emphasis on practical application and performance.

What does the term 'transform practice' refer to in the context of literacy pedagogy?

Transform practice, also known as applying in the script, refers to the ability to demonstrate competence by performing and applying knowledge effectively in various contexts.

Why is it important for educators to understand the different pedagogical approaches mentioned in the script?

Educators need to understand these approaches to make informed choices about which methods to use, to track the outcomes of their teaching, and to ensure a balanced and effective learning experience for students.

What is the 'learning by design' project mentioned in the script?

The 'learning by design' project is an initiative that explores the idea of pedagogy as a repertoire of different activity types, drawing from a wide range of practices and ideas found in literacy pedagogy over the past century or two.

How does the script suggest educators should approach teaching literacy?

The script suggests that educators should not focus on a singular approach but instead maintain a balance of all four major components of literacy pedagogy, moving fluidly between them to suit different learning contexts and needs.

What is the historical context of literacy pedagogy mentioned in the script?

The script refers to the evolution of literacy pedagogy over the past century or two, indicating a long-standing tradition of developing and refining methods for teaching reading and writing.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Evolution of Literacy Pedagogy

This paragraph delves into the historical development of pedagogical practices, focusing on the evolution of literacy teaching methods. It introduces the concept of 'authentic pedagogy' or 'progressive pedagogy', which advocates for learning through immersion rather than overt instruction. The paragraph discusses the idea of using whole language and process approaches in teaching literacy, drawing parallels to how we learn oral language. It emphasizes the importance of a balanced approach that incorporates various traditions and pedagogical alternatives, such as situated and experiencing learning, which involves everyday real-life application of literacy skills, and didactic literacy, which focuses on formal instruction and understanding of literary structures. The paragraph also touches on critical literacy, which involves analyzing texts for social issues and agendas, and functional literacy, which is about applying literacy skills for specific purposes.

05:00

🛠️ Balancing Pedagogical Approaches for Effective Learning

The second paragraph continues the discussion on literacy pedagogy, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that integrates different pedagogical methods. It introduces the concept of 'transform practice' or 'applying' as a form of functional literacy, which is about demonstrating competence in literacy through practical application. The paragraph stresses the importance for educators to understand the value of each pedagogical approach and to make informed choices based on their intended outcomes. It also highlights the project 'Learning by Design', which views pedagogy as a repertoire of different activity types that can be mapped against various literacy practices. The goal is to move fluidly between different pedagogical ideas to create a comprehensive and effective learning experience.

Keywords

💡Pedagogy

Pedagogy refers to the methods and practices employed in education and teaching. In the video's context, it is the overarching theme that explores different approaches to teaching literacy. The script discusses various pedagogical approaches such as authentic pedagogy, didactic pedagogy, and critical literacy, illustrating the evolution and diversity in educational methods.

💡Authentic Pedagogy

Authentic pedagogy, also known as progressive pedagogy, emphasizes learning through immersion and real-life experiences rather than through formal instruction. The script mentions that this approach encourages developing a love for reading and writing by immersing students in texts relevant to their lives, aligning with the idea of learning oral language naturally.

💡Immersion

Immersion in this context is a teaching method where students are placed in an environment rich with language and texts to learn naturally, similar to how we learn our native language. The script uses the whole language and process writing movements as examples of immersion, where the focus is on developing a feel for language rather than memorizing abstract rules.

💡Didactic Pedagogy

Didactic pedagogy is a teaching approach that focuses on direct instruction and explicit teaching of concepts and rules. The script contrasts this with immersive methods, describing didactic literacy as an approach where students learn grammar, sentence structure, and literary conventions through overt instruction.

💡Critical Literacy

Critical literacy is the concept of analyzing texts for social issues, agendas, and the embodiment of societal problems like sexism or racism. The script highlights the importance of this approach in helping students understand the underlying purposes of texts and their impact on society, thus promoting a critical analysis of reading materials.

💡Functional Literacy

Functional literacy is about learning to read and write for practical purposes, focusing on the application of literacy skills in real-life situations. The script discusses the importance of learning genre-specific writing, such as report writing for scientific purposes, to effectively apply literacy skills in various domains.

💡Transform Practice

Transform practice, also referred to as applying in the script, is about demonstrating the competence gained through learning. It is the ability to perform and apply knowledge in practical situations. The script positions this as one of the four major components of literacy pedagogy, emphasizing the importance of practical application of skills.

💡Conceptualizing

Conceptualizing in the context of the script refers to the process of learning and understanding abstract concepts, particularly in the realm of language and literature. It is associated with didactic pedagogy, where students learn formal rules and concepts to improve their reading and writing abilities.

💡Literary Texts

Literary texts are written works, such as novels, poems, and plays, that are analyzed for their structure, themes, and literary devices. The script mentions the use of formal language to describe the experience of reading and the features of literary texts, which is a part of the didactic approach to literacy.

💡Learning by Design

Learning by design is a project mentioned in the script that explores the idea of pedagogy as a repertoire of different activity types. It suggests that educators should have a range of teaching methods at their disposal to cater to different learning needs and contexts, reflecting a balanced approach to literacy education.

💡Balanced Focus

A balanced focus in the script refers to the idea of integrating various pedagogical approaches to create a comprehensive learning experience. It is about not favoring one method over another but instead using a combination of all the traditions and methods discussed to enhance learning and knowledge-making.

Highlights

The map captures four segments that represent the history of pedagogy and major approaches to it.

Authentic pedagogy, also known as progressive pedagogy, emphasizes learning through immersion rather than overt instruction.

Authentic literacy is exemplified by the whole language and process writing movements, promoting a natural development of reading and writing skills.

The immersion model suggests that students develop a feel and love for reading and writing by being exposed to texts from their lives.

Situated and experiencing learning is often referred to as authentic literacy, involving everyday real-life learning.

Didactic literacy focuses on overt instruction and conceptualizing, teaching grammar and literary formalisms explicitly.

Traditional literacy pedagogy aimed to develop formal language to describe literary texts and reading experiences.

Critical literacy is the newest tradition, recognizing texts as carriers of social issues and agendas.

Critical analysis of texts is essential to understand their purposes and the societal issues they reflect.

Functional literacy is about learning to apply textual forms appropriately for specific purposes, such as report writing in science.

Transform practice or applying is about demonstrating competence through performance in various literacy areas.

Educators must understand the value of each pedagogical approach and make informed selections based on their appropriateness.

Pedagogy should be a repertoire of different activity types, reflecting practices found throughout literacy pedagogy's history.

Learning by design project emphasizes the importance of balancing different pedagogical ideas and moving fluidly between them.

A balanced focus in pedagogy incorporates all historical traditions and uses them effectively in teaching.

The importance of understanding the biases and purposes of what is being taught in any domain for effective learning.

The necessity for educators to track the outcomes of their pedagogical choices to ensure they align with intended learning outcomes.

Transcripts

about actually represents the whole

history of pedagogy what we've done here

with this map these four segments is

captured some ideas which which are also

to be found in all of the major

approaches to pedagogy and in the next

sections of this this series of videos

we'll be looking at those different

approaches so let me track back and look

at the origins of each of these ideas

deeper in in pedagogical practice the

practices of teaching and learning

literacy what comes along actually about

a century ago probably a little bit more

than a century ago is something that we

call authentic pedagogy progressive as

pedagogy it's often called or authentic

literacy and examples of that include

the whole language movement the process

writing music movement so the idea there

was look you don't need to learn and

it's boring to learn and it's overly

abstract to learn by this overt

instruction all this grammar and rules

and literary formalisms let's develop a

pleasure for reading and writing by

immersion because after all we learnt

oral language by immersion we learnt to

visualize and see the world by immersion

so why don't we learn to read and write

by immersion that's the kind of theory

behind it more or less so here what we

can do is we can you know we can bring

in texts from students lives we can

immerse them in new texts and there's no

need to talk explicitly about any of

this stuff because you will develop a

feel for it you'll develop a love for it

through through this immersion model

okay so that's another whole history in

in literacy pedagogy and what we're kind

of saying by having both of those

components of the history is actually we

need all of this right it's not enough

to say you know one focus a singular

focus one way or other is not enough we

want to build a balanced focus which

recruits all these traditions and uses

all of them the model literacies

pedagogy aggregates major pedagogical

alternatives and

and pistol biologically the area that we

call situated and experiencing is often

called authentic literacy it's children

doing everyday we're all learners not

just children of course our being

immersed in everyday real life learning

authentically working with numbers or

with nature or with history so that they

are experience it and the practice is

situated in everyday life didactic

literacy focused nearly exclusively on

what we call you know conceptualizing or

overt instruction so what we did is we

did grammar you know we did nouns and

verbs and clauses and sentences and this

was a kind of a the idea was that if we

learned all these for these formal rules

and we learn all these concepts we'd

become better writers and as readers we

learn to detect certain canonical

features of literature like there are

you know introductions and there are

conclusions there are Dana Manson in

novels and there's you know this there's

a lot of the you know what we can

develop a formal language to describe

literary texts to describe the

experience of reading so in other words

what what traditional literacy pedagogy

did was focus nearly exclusively a lot

of the time on overly instruction or

conceptualizing now what happened and we

call this didactic literacy that's the

word we use to describe that and

there'll be more we'll talk more about

that as as we move on through this video

series and through the chapters of the

book we call a virgin or conceptualizing

is called in terms of pedagogical

alternatives didactic pedagogy or

deductive literacy that is when an

instructor or a teacher tells you what

you need to remember what you need to

learn off by heart and you work in a

very abstract kind of way the most

recent of all these traditions though is

a tradition called critical literacy

which is the idea that texts are loaded

with social issues they're loaded with

agendas and

want to achieve certain things texts

embody sexism or racism and that in fact

a lot of the issues that we have in

society come up in the text that we do

in literacy so a critical analysis of

the purpose purposes of texts is

important critical literacy or critical

pedagogy that is an important area also

because kids need to understand how many

the meaning of what they're learning in

any particular domain and its biases and

its purposes and how it works for

different purposes and different

communities the whole tradition of

functional literacy is on about okay

literacies for purposes let's learn how

to do it functionally let's learn how to

apply appropriately and also it does

involve functional analysis as well but

it's about appropriate use so let's

learn the genre of report writing so we

can do science effectively and let's

reproduce these textual forms because

application is pretty important so

functional literacy is a whole

traditional of its own and we've kind of

tried to capture this as one of just one

of these four major components and

literacy pedagogy fourth quadrant here

that we've called transform practice or

applying is sometimes termed functional

literacy in the literature and it is

about being able to perform what you

know it's the competence that you have

and how you demonstrate it all educators

need to understand the value of each of

these pedagogy the purpose of these

pedagogy and how appropriate they are

they are it requires them to make

selections from these choices and then

to track whether the outcome is as was

intended to be very explicit to

understand the choices that are

available and the effects they have on

learning and knowledge making this idea

about critical analysis we want to keep

that idea as well but what we want to do

is keep a balance of all of those four

ideas and in fact what we

to do is we want to move between one

idea in another another so the idea

around the pedagogy we develop here

which we've had a project called

learning by design in this project we've

been working on this idea that pedagogy

is a repertoire of different activity

types and in fact those activity types

mapped against or reminiscent of a lot

of practices and ideas which to be found

throughout all literacy pedagogy

practices over the last century or two

since literacy pedagogy has become a

thing