Individualisation of learning in mainstream school children

Abstract

AbstractIn order to assess the effects of individually selected learning programmes groups of year 2 and 3 mainstream school children used individualised techniques for learning new spellings. Techniques ranged from phonic to visualisation to multi-sensory methods. Each child was directed to use a particular technique based on the findings of a trial phase in which several different methods were used with each child when learning sets of word spellings. The method that produced the fastest rate of learning for the individual child was chosen from this trial phase. The child was encouraged to use this method whenever new spellings had to be learned. No further alterations or additions were made to the school curriculum. The effectiveness of the individualised methods was assessed by comparing the children’s improvements in spelling ability with matched control children in schools where the normal curriculum was followed, together with extra sessions involving free writing/drawing tasks. The findings indicated that both year 2 and 3 children given the individualised method showed significantly larger increases in spelling ability over the school year. These results suggest that individualising learning may be a valuable tool in the effective teaching of literacy and can be used to produce significant advances in learning about spelling.