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In this episode of the ERRR we’re speaking to Dr Lorraine Hammond about her paper, Teachers Taking up Explicit Instruction: The Impact of a Professional Development and Directive Instructional Coaching Model. I was excited to interview Lorraine on this paper for two main reasons. The first is that it explores coaching, and not just any coaching, but coaching that clearly positions the coach as an expert other. This is in contrast to how coaching is often promoted, with the coach being more of a support, asking questions of teachers, and prompting the answers to come from them. In addition, Lorraine’s paper is about supporting the establishment of explicit instruction within schools to target literacy development. And she certainly has some inspiring stories of turning around literacy outcomes.
Lorraine is an academic from the School of Education at Edith Cowan University. Her research interests include high impact instruction, literacy based learning difficulties and instructional coaching.
Lorraine is currently conducting research on the impact of instructional coaching to support schools to take up explicit as well as working on the Kimberley Schools Project and research on literacy based learning difficulties.
Lorraine is the President of Learning Difficulties Australia and the Chair, Deputy Chair and a Board Member of three high performing primary schools and one Perth high school.
In 2016 Lorraine was recognised by the Australian Government with a National University Teaching Excellence Award and in 2017 by the Australian Council of Educational Leadership with an Educational Leadership Award for her work in schools.
Lorraine considers herself a practical academic and enjoys nothing more than working directly with teachers and students in classrooms.
Also, Happy 2 year anniversary! This ERRR episode, being our 24th, marks 2 years of the Education Research Reading Room podcast. Thanks for coming along for the ride so far and here’s to another year of learning about learning together. Also, if you have been enjoying the ERRR so far, please consider supporting the podcast by making a monthly donation on Patreon. Just go to patreon.com/errr. Thanks so much to the people who have signed up as patrons since last episode : )
Links mentioned in the show
Article by @DrLSHammond about evidence-based programs to literacy instruction. Here's the list: MiniLit and MultiLit, Little Learners Love Literacy, Get Reading Right, Jolly Phonics, Sounds Write, Write to Read, Read Write Inc and Letters and Sounds.
Lorraine also suggests these Direct Instruction products: Teach Your Child to areas in 100 Easy Lessons, Reading Mastery & Corrective Reading.
Finally, listeners who enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more on literacy will likely enjoy this podcast too. Hard Words: Why aren't kids being taught to read?
Please consider supporting the Education Research Reading Room Podcast
If you're keen to help the ERRR podcast to stay independent and sustainable, please consider making a one-off or monthly donation through https://www.patreon.com/errr. Audio engineering, room hire, and audio-file web hosting cost Ollie upward of $70 per episode, and any donation (even as much as a cup of coffee), to help cover these costs is greatly appreciated : )
Listen to all past episodes of the ERRR podcast here.
Another helpful resource: For an excellent guide covering what Instructional Coaching is, a summary of the research evidence for Instructional Coaching, guidance for how to set up coaching in a school, advice on how to select and train great coaches, and more, check out the Steplab Beginner's Guide to Instructional Coaching.