This book is based on the idea that instruction carries in-built risks, and instructional practices can be counterproductive unless used with care. Referencing a wide range of approaches to increasing effectiveness, Instructional Risk provides an explanation of why some forms of instruction are less powerful than they should be. Elaborating on rather than advising against these forms of instruction, it illustrates how teachers can use instructional practices effectively through managing risk and being adaptive in their use of them in the many and dynamic microsystems of the classroom. The book is unique in bringing together disparate evidence from a range of research areas and across core curriculum areas of English Language Arts, mathematics and science, for a theory of 'Instructional Risk'; the basic proposition for which is that instructional approaches carry known and predictable risks. The book focuses on the expertise required to overcome risks, which are exaggerated for children from communities not well served by our schools. The book is also a critique of research that is 'programmatic' and limited to experimental evidence and summaries of that evidence which are uncritically developed into statements about 'What Works'. Made to be both an explication of the theory through repeated examples as well as a technical resource, this book will be vital reading for lecturers and postgraduate students of Education and Educational Psychology.

Originally published in 1987, Being Skilled presents a new model of how children learn to read, and in particular those who learn quickly and precociously. Bringing together ideas from such diverse sources as cognitive and developmental psychology and behaviour analysis perspectives on learning, Stuart McNaughton has produced a more complete theory based on a study of homes and classrooms, and the characteristics of reading behaviour in these settings. Within this theory reading is seen as a symbolic skill with structural properties that partly determine development; but it is also a social practice, in which learning is achieved through problem-solving and the performing of tasks set by particular environments. Drawing on extensive research carried out in Britain, North America and Australasia, McNaughton examines how interactions between teacher and child direct the task of learning to read, and how the relationship between home and school can be a well-matched or a poorly-matched setting in which learning may occur. Being Skilled will appeal to advanced students, researchers and theorists in education and development psychology and to anyone interested in the learning of complex skills.

Originally published in 1987, Being Skilled presents a new model of how children learn to read, and in particular those who learn quickly and precociously. Bringing together ideas from such diverse sources as cognitive and developmental psychology and behaviour analysis perspectives on learning, Stuart McNaughton has produced a more complete theory based on a study of homes and classrooms, and the characteristics of reading behaviour in these settings. Within this theory reading is seen as a symbolic skill with structural properties that partly determine development; but it is also a social practice, in which learning is achieved through problem-solving and the performing of tasks set by particular environments. Drawing on extensive research carried out in Britain, North America and Australasia, McNaughton examines how interactions between teacher and child direct the task of learning to read, and how the relationship between home and school can be a well-matched or a poorly-matched setting in which learning may occur. Being Skilled will appeal to advanced students, researchers and theorists in education and development psychology and to anyone interested in the learning of complex skills.

Professional learning networks (PLNs) have been promoted as one way of improving practice in research methodologies and frameworks aimed at the improvement of practice. However, such networks are not yet the norm and there is a growing need for books that provide a theoretical and practical account of how to develop and utilise networks effectively. Mei Kuin Lai and Stuart McNaughton address this need by providing a theoretical and practical account of how PLNs focused on collaborative analysis of data can be integrated into design-based research interventions to improve practice and student learning outcomes. Drawing primarily on examples from a design-based research intervention, the Learning Schools Model, topics covered include theoretical approaches to understanding networks, network purposes and features, constraints and enablers and future directions in utilising networks within design-based research. This intervention is one of the few demonstrations of a consistent and replicable effect of analysing and discussing data in networks on student outcomes within a wider design-based intervention design. The authors discuss the constraints and enablers of the context that influence how PLNs might be implemented across different contexts. Examples of how PLNs can demonstrate fidelity to the general structure of effective networks while adapting to local variations are also provided, enabling readers to conceptualise and design similar networks appropriate to their context.

There is an increasing focus on research-practice partnerships that adopt research designs aimed at improving educational practice while advancing research knowledge. There is now a need for books that provide a theoretical and practical account of successful research designs that have been tested and replicated over time and contexts. This book addresses this need by providing the first comprehensive account of the Learning Schools Model (LSM), a design-based research-practice partnership that has been tested over 15 years and across contexts and countries (n=5). This model has successfully built teacher and school capacity and improved valued student outcomes for primarily indigenous and ethnic minority students from lower socio-economic communities. The quality of research into the model has been recognised locally and internationally. The International Literacy Association reprinted a paper on the original model in their volume "Theoretical models and processes of Reading (6th Ed)". The authors won the University of Auckland's Research Excellence Award (2015), awarded for research of demonstrable quality and impact, for their research into the Model. This book addresses several gaps in the existing literature on research-practice partnerships. Firstly, understanding applications in contexts beyond the USA where much of the seminal work is located adds to our collective understanding of contexts in terms of constraints and enablers. Secondly, we provide a theoretical account of partnership development and demonstrate how these are practically developed in situ to address the known need for stronger theoretical understandings of partnership development and better training in developing partnerships. Finally, our book demonstrates how research can be both responsive to context and yet have robust and replicable research designs that improve valued student outcomes over time and contexts. This in turn provides an alternate research approach for countries where randomised control trials are often the "gold standard" for interventions.

This book is based on the idea that instruction carries in-built risks, and instructional practices can be counterproductive unless used with care. Referencing a wide range of approaches to increasing effectiveness, Instructional Risk provides an explanation of why some forms of instruction are less powerful than they should be. Elaborating on rather than advising against these forms of instruction, it illustrates how teachers can use instructional practices effectively through managing risk and being adaptive in their use of them in the many and dynamic microsystems of the classroom. The book is unique in bringing together disparate evidence from a range of research areas and across core curriculum areas of English Language Arts, mathematics and science, for a theory of 'Instructional Risk'; the basic proposition for which is that instructional approaches carry known and predictable risks. The book focuses on the expertise required to overcome risks, which are exaggerated for children from communities not well served by our schools. The book is also a critique of research that is 'programmatic' and limited to experimental evidence and summaries of that evidence which are uncritically developed into statements about 'What Works'. Made to be both an explication of the theory through repeated examples as well as a technical resource, this book will be vital reading for lecturers and postgraduate students of Education and Educational Psychology.