One in three teachers needs training to teach children to read and write, new study reveals

‘Teaching things like typing, and even handwriting, is hardly feasible.’ Here’s why some high school students still struggle to read and write.

Hannah Towndrow and brother Callum tackle some extra study at their home in Tallebudgera, Queensland, on Wednesday. Picture: Natasha Bita

Teachers are spending as little as 15 minutes a week instructing children to write in primary school, an academic study reveals.

Edith Cowan University researchers have discovered that the time dedicated to the explicit teaching of writing in primary school each week varied from 15 minutes to 7½ hours.

Evidence that writing lessons can be relegated to just 15 minutes out of a child’s 30-hour school week is one explanation for Australian students’ declining literacy standards.

The survey of 310 primary school teachers across Australia found most spent three hours a week – the minimum recommended time – on writing activities in classrooms.

Some teachers reported students spent only 15 minutes a week learning to write. The maximum time was 90 minutes daily.

“Teachers place more time on teaching spelling than on any other writing activity,’’ the ECU report states.

“Most teachers don’t teach typing, and little attention is placed on teaching handwriting, planning, and revision strategies for writing.’’

Even in the early years, teachers spent between 20 minutes and five hours a week to teach kindergarten kids to write, while in year 1 instruction time ranged from an hour a week to an hour a day. On average, teachers spent 1½ hours a week teaching spelling, and an hour a week teaching grammar.

More than half the teachers said they had never taught students to type, while handwriting instruction averaged just half an hour a week.

The researchers said it was “of concern’’ that students spent so little time learning to write or type. “Whether via paper and pencil or typing, proficient automatic writing is expected to enable writers to focus on idea-generation to maximise writing production,’’ the report states.

“Effective writing relies heavily on the writer’s ability to access and retrieve alphabet letters in memory and automatically.’’

One educator said teachers did not have time to teach writing. “The curriculum is just too tight; teaching things like typing, and even handwriting, is hardly feasible,’’ the teacher stated.

The study found nearly one in three teachers felt their university had not trained them to teach children to read and write. “About 30 per cent of teachers believed their undergraduate preparation was poor or inadequate,’’ it said.

One in three teachers had never assigned homework for writing, and one in four had never asked parents or guardians to read something their child wrote at school. Just one in 10 teachers taught grammar, punctuation or capitalisation every day, though one-third taught spelling daily.

Chief investigator Anabela Malpique said providing adequate writing instruction and practice in schools was an ­“essential cornerstone of writing development’’.

“Teachers in our study reported that they needed more support in learning how to teach writing,’’ she said.

Dr Malpique urged parents to encourage children to write at home, including shopping lists and diaries: “Giving them a hug, a pat on the back, or a thumbs-up after reading something they wrote at school or at home will raise students’ motivation, and motivation for writing is key.’’

The findings were based on teachers’ lesson schedules before Covid-19, but three out of four said the pandemic had affected writing instruction.

Literacy specialist Jennifer Buck­ingham, director of strategy at MultiLit, said writing needed to be taught explicitly for at least half an hour a day in primary school.

“It should be taught in the context of learning other curriculum areas so it is integrated with knowledge building,’’ she said. “This means students will eventually spend several hours each day doing writing of some kind.’’

Students’ struggles with literacy is creating brisk business for tutoring companies such as Cluey Learning, whose head of primary English, Rick Molineux, said reading required “more practice than could ever be achieved within the classroom alone … The biggest gains in reading are made when children read, often with personalised one-to-one support from an adult.’’