The West Australian 7th July 2014 by Daniel Mercer
“Children would be taught to read and write using an intensive phonics-based system under a future Labor government, Mark McGowan declared yesterday.
Seizing on growing support for more traditional teaching methods, the State Opposition Leader said he wanted to introduce so-called explicit instruction across more WA schools.
Under the back-to-basics method teachers explain and demonstrate the sounds represented by letters and work with individual students to help their understanding.
Stressing that explicit, or ‘direct’, instruction was not the same as rote learning, Mr McGowan claimed the practice had achieved ‘remarkable success’ in trials at WA schools, including Ballajura Primary School, where he said literacy rates had improved markedly.”