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Excellence and Equity in Literacy Education pp 171–193Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Meeting the Needs of Beginning Readers through Differentiated Instruction

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Abstract

In Chapter 6 of this volume, Tunmer, Greaney, and Prochnow argued that the rigidly constructivist approach to literacy instruction in New Zealand has been a major contributing factor to the failure of New Zealand’s national literacy strategy and the large variation in literacy scores on international surveys, such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Prochnow, Tunmer, and Arrow, in Chapter 7 of this volume, extended this argument by showing that the failure to respond adequately to differences in literate cultural capital at school entry triggers Matthew effects in reading, which further helps to explain New Zealand’s comparatively high levels of variability in test scores. In this chapter, we argue for differentiated instruction as an approach that is better suited to overcoming the differences in literate cultural capital at school entry than the current “one-size-fits-all”, rigidly constructivist method.

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Authors
  1. Alison W. Arrow
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  2. James W. Chapman
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  3. Keith T. Greaney
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Education, Massey University, New Zealand

    William E. Tunmer (Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology) & James W. Chapman (Professor of Educational Psychology) (Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology) &  (Professor of Educational Psychology)

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© 2015 Alison W. Arrow, James W. Chapman, and Keith T. Greaney

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Arrow, A.W., Chapman, J.W., Greaney, K.T. (2015). Meeting the Needs of Beginning Readers through Differentiated Instruction. In: Tunmer, W.E., Chapman, J.W. (eds) Excellence and Equity in Literacy Education. Palgrave Studies in Excellence and Equity in Global Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137415578_8

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