The Effective Teachers of Literacy project

This study was commissioned to help the Teacher Training Agency and teachers in England to understand more clearly how effective teachers help children to become literate. The findings are based on close examination of the work of a sample of teachers whose pupils make effective learning gains in literacy and of a sample of teachers who were less effective in literacy teaching.

The aims of this research were to:

1. identify the key factors of what effective teachers know, understand and do which enables them to put effective teaching of literacy into practice in the primary phase;
2. identify the strategies which would enable those factors to be more widely applied;
3. examine aspects of continuing professional development which contribute to the development of effective teachers of literacy;
4. examine what aspects of their initial teacher training and induction contribute to developing expertise in novice teachers of literacy.

The project was directed by David Wray and Jane Medwell

A summary of the findings of this project can be downloaded here.

A full report of the project was published in book form in 2002. Publication details are as follows:

Wray, D., Medwell, J., Poulson, L. & Fox, R. (2002) Teaching literacy effectively London: RoutledgeFalmer