0 Education Minister Christopher Pyne has committed $22 million to fund a big expansion of Direct Instruction (DI) following on from a pilot teaching program on Queensland's Cape York.
The grant vindicates a campaign by Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson to have schools adopt the methods after a promising introduction to Cape York communities, including Noel Pearson's home town of Hope Vale which was the third community on Cape York to sign up to the pilot program, after Aurukun and Coen. In Hope Vale, a mainly indigenous town of about 1000 people, 350km north of Cairns, DI has been credited with dramatic improvement in results and attendance at the local primary school. The attendance rate at Hope Vale school has climbed to 90 per cent and teachers say the children are more engaged, as well as more academically successful. (The Australian, 1/7/14)
The DI method adopted in Cape York is called Full Immersion Direct Instruction (FIDI): a specific, high fidelity implementation of the Direct Instruction (DI) approach. It is a systematic model that has been perfected by the creators of Direct Instruction based on over 40 years of experience. It is designed to provide school-wide Direct Instruction to all students, all relevant grade levels (beginning with school entry) and all core academic programs. For more information go to the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy website.
Aurukun primary school, which was one of the worst performing schools in Queensland, was the first to pilot the approach. For the first term, there was chaos in the classrooms; at times, 65 of the 200-odd students were in "time out’" areas due to their disruptive behaviour. But before long the school saw dramatic improvements in behaviour and attendance. The Aurukun school principal has seen the success of the FIDI approach: "If you do DI in a failing school, and you do it with fidelity, it provides an entire logic and you can turn around a failing school with this program," he says. "Direct instruction is the keystone to school reform." (The Australian, 5/7/14)
The success of the pilot program was validated by a 2013 report by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). The ACER report found that DI not only improved student performance, but lifted the professional standards of teachers (read the full report here).
One of the components of the program used in the Cape York trial has been the REWARDS® family of reading and writing intervention materials which are specifically designed for struggling learners in grades 4 to 12. Silvereye is the Australian distributor of the REWARDS program and has supported the Cape York pilot through provision of subsidised REWARDS materials.
