Social Disparities and the Teaching of Literacy

NIESR Occasional Paper 54

The need to raise literacy standards in England, and to eliminate illiteracy, has been evident for many decades but success has been only tenuous. This book reports on comparative visits to literacy lessons in Swiss and English schools to see, first, what can be learnt as to the reality of pupils' higher literacy attainments there and, secondly, to elucidate differences in Swiss schooling methods relevant to future reforms in our schooling here. Issues discussed include: teaching styles; the greater emphasis of their literacy curriculum on transactional writings rather than a classical canon; complexity of English spelling and the possibility of a graduated programme of reforms; changes needed in our methods for the teaching of reading in primary schools; changes in nursery and early-years schooling to provide better support for slow-maturing children; and flexibility in the twelve months' age-grouping of each class.

£12.50 + £2.50 p&p, paperback, NIESR Occasional Paper 54, 2001

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