Our research

Overview

The Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) emerged from controlled research trials funded through the Better Start National Science Challenge. The success of the research trials led to larger scale implementation of the BSLA in junior school classroom throughout New Zealand, supported by the Ministry of Education. We have published a number of studies highlighting the effectiveness of the BSLA to developing foundational literacy skills in 5- 7-year-old children.

Much of our research is Open Access, which means complete articles are freely available to read online. The links below lead directly to our Open Access articles, which are updated as we publish further.

This article describes the effectiveness of BSLA in the early school years:
Gillon, G., McNeill, B., Scott, A., Gath, M., Macfarlane, A., & Taleni, T. (2024) Large scale implementation of early literacy instruction. Frontiers in Education.

New releases

2024

Gillon, G., Everatt, J., McNeill, B., Clendon, S., LaVenia, M., Evans, T., Smith, J., Gath, M., & Taleni, T. (2024). Accelerating learning in oral language, reading, writing, and mathematics. Child Well-being Research Institute, University of Canterbury. Prepared for the Ministry of Education, New Zealand.

This report, commissioned by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, provides an evidence-based synthesis of teaching practices and interventions aimed at accelerating learning in oral language, reading, writing, and mathematics. Using a rapid review methodology, it draws on robust research, including meta-analyses and systematic reviews, to highlight effective strategies for educators. The findings emphasize the importance of explicit and systematic instruction, intensive and targeted interventions, and culturally responsive teaching practices to support diverse learners, including Māori and Pacific students. The report also underscores the role of professional development and structured teaching approaches in enhancing student outcomes.

Gillon, G., Smith, J. P., Maitland, R., Macfarlane, S., & Macfarlane, A. (2024). The Better Start Literacy Approach: Using He Ara Whiria to inform design. In A. Macfarlane, M. Derby, & S. Macfarlane (Eds.), He Awa Whiria: Braiding the knowledge streams in research, policy and practice. Canterbury University Press.
 

This chapter discusses the development of the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA), an early literacy initiative designed for Aotearoa New Zealand's English-medium education context. The authors explain how the He Awa Whiria framework informed the design of BSLA, braiding together robust research evidence with knowledge that facilitates success for Māori learners. The BSLA is a strengths-based and culturally responsive approach, currently implemented in junior-school classrooms across New Zealand, aiming to ensure early literacy success for all learners.

Gillon, G., McNeill, B., Scott, A., Gath, M., Macfarlane, A., & Taleni, T. (2024) Large scale implementation of early literacy instruction. Frontiers in Education

Introduction

Large-scale implementation of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to enhance children's early literacy success is critically important to address global literacy challenges. This paper describes one such initiative, the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA), which was specifically designed for large-scale implementation in New Zealand.

Methods

Between February 2020 and May 2023 over 3,000 teachers in 819 schools across New Zealand implemented BSLA, with baseline data available for 29,795 5-year-old children. Teachers implemented novel online assessments to monitor children's early literacy growth.

Results

In comparison to an internal control group, accelerated progress in children's phonic, and phoneme awareness skills was evident after 10 weeks of BSLA Tier 1 (universal) teaching. After 30 weeks, there were significant gains in word reading, spelling, listening comprehension and oral narrative abilities; growth did not differ based on gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Children with greater learning needs who received BSLA Tier 2 (small group targeted teaching) caught up to their peers in word reading and spelling skills.

Conclusions

With appropriate resourcing, planning and engagement with communities, successful large-scale implementation of evidenced-based early literacy approaches is possible within a relatively short time. Culturally responsive implementation within MTSS frameworks holds much promise for raising literacy achievement for all children.

Scott, A., Gath, M., Gillon, G., McNeill, B. & Ghosh, D. (2024). Facilitators of Success for Teacher Professional Development in Literacy Teaching Using a Micro-Credential Model of Delivery. Education Sciences

Teachers play a critical role in supporting the early literacy development of students; however, keeping up with evidence-based practice while performing a busy teaching role can be challenging.

Micro-credentials are one potential route for keeping teachers up to date with the best practices for literacy teaching due to their ability to provide targeted and flexible professional development opportunities. The current study used a mixed-methods design to evaluate two micro-credential courses being offered through the Better Start Literacy Approach.

The Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) is an evidence-based, structured literacy approach, targeted at 5–7-year-old children in New Zealand. An online survey was used to collect qualitative and quantitative data from 263 teachers and literacy specialists regarding their experience of completing the BSLA micro-credential training.

Overall, respondents reported positive experiences, describing how the micro-credential changed their teaching practice, built their knowledge of effective literacy instruction and led to measurable progress in students’ literacy skills. Several design features were highlighted as useful, including the ability to revisit videos and resources multiple times, the organization into modules and the ‘24/7’ nature of access.

Findings from the current research demonstrate the importance of utilizing key course design decisions to ensure accessibility and the potential for the positive impact of micro-credentials in the education sector.

2023

Gillon, G. (2023) Main Report IALP World Congress 2023: Supporting children who are English Language Learners succeed in their early literacy development. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica

The Better Start Literacy Approach is an example of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) to facilitate children’s early literacy success. It is set within a strengths-based and culturally responsive framework for literacy teaching and is being implemented in over 800 English medium schools across New Zealand.

This report focuses on how children identified at school entry as English Language Learners (ELL) responded to the Better Start Literacy Approach during their first year at school. Using a matched control design, the growth in phoneme awareness, phoneme-grapheme knowledge, and oral narrative skills for 1,853 ELL was compared to a cohort of 1,853 non-ELL.

The cohorts were matched for ethnicity (mostly Asian, 46% and Pacific, 26%), age (M = 65 months), gender (53% male), and socioeconomic deprivation index (82% in areas of mid to high deprivation). Data analyses indicated similar positive growth rates for ELL and non-ELL from baseline to the first monitoring assessment following 10 weeks of Tier 1 (universal/class level) teaching. Despite demonstrating lower phoneme awareness skills at baseline, following 10 weeks of teaching, the ELL cohort performed similarly to non-ELL in non-word reading and spelling tasks.

Predictors of growth analyses indicated that ELL from areas of low socioeconomic deprivation, who used a greater number of different words in their English story retells at the baseline assessment, and females made the most growth in their phonic and phoneme awareness development. Following the 10-week monitoring assessment, 11% of the ELL and 13% of the non-ELL cohorts received supplementary Tier 2 (targeted small group) teaching. At the next monitoring assessment (20 weeks post baseline assessment) the ELL cohort showed accelerated growth in listening comprehension, phoneme-grapheme matching and phoneme blending skills, catching up to their non-ELL peers.

Despite limitations of the dataset available, it provides one of the few insights into the response of ELL to Tier 1 and Tier 2 teaching in their first year at school. The data suggest that the Better Start Literacy Approach, which includes high-quality professional learning and development for teachers, literacy specialists, and speech-language therapists, is an effective approach toward developing foundational literacy skills for ELL.

The important role speech-language therapists have in collaborating with class teachers to support children’s early literacy success within a MTSS framework is discussed.

McNeill, B., Gillon, G., & Gath, M. (2023) The relationship between early spelling and decoding. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools

This study aimed to elucidate the nature of the relationship between the development of decoding and encoding skills in the first year at school.

The foundational literacy skills of one hundred eighty 5-year-old children were examined on three occasions over their first year of literacy instruction. Participants received the same literacy curriculum.

The predictive utility of early spelling on later reading accuracy, reading comprehension, and spelling outcomes was explored. Performance on matched nonword spelling and nonword reading tasks was also used to compare the use of particular graphemes across these contexts.

Regression and path analyses showed that nonword spelling was a unique predictor of later (end of year) reading and played a facilitative role in the emergence of decoding. Children were generally more accurate on spelling than decoding for the majority of graphemes evaluated in the matched tasks.

Factors such as position of the grapheme in the word, complexity of the grapheme (e.g., digraph vs. graph), and the scope and sequence of the literacy curriculum influenced children's accuracy for specific graphemes.

The development of phonological spelling plays appears to play a facilitatory role in early literacy acquisition. Implications for the assessment and teaching of spelling in the first year of schooling are explored.

Gillon, G., McNeill, B., Scott, A., Gath, M. & Westerveld, M. (2023). Retelling stories: The validity of an online oral narrative task. Child Language and Teaching.

This study examined the validity of data collected from a novel online story retell task.

The task was specifically designed for use by junior school teachers with the support of speech–language therapists or literacy specialists. The assessment task was developed to monitor children's oral language progress in their first year at school as part of the Better Start Literacy Approach for early literacy teaching.

Teachers administered the task to 303 5-year-olds in New Zealand at school entry and after 20 weeks and 12 months of schooling. The children listened to a story with pictures via iPad presentation and were then prompted to retell the story. The children's spontaneous language used in their story retell was captured and uploaded digitally via iPad audio recording and analyzed using semi-automated speech recognition and computer software. Their responses to factual and inferential story comprehension questions were also analyzed. The data suggested that the task has good criterion validity.

Significant correlations between story retell measures and a standardized measure of children's oral language were found. The Better Start Literacy Approach story retell task, which took approximately 6 min for teachers to administer, accurately identified children with low oral language ability 81% of the time.

Growth curve analysis revealed that the task was useful for monitoring oral language development, including for English as second language learners. Boys showed a slower story comprehension growth trajectory than girls.

The Better Start Literacy Approach story retell task shows promise in providing valid data to support teacher judgement of children's oral language development.

Gillon, G., McNeill, B., Scott, A., Arrow, A., Gath, M., & Macfarlane, A. (2023). A Better Start Literacy Approach: effectiveness of Tier 1 and Tier 2 support within a response to teaching framework. Reading and Writing.

The Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) is a strengths-based approach to supporting children’s literacy learning in their first year of school.

Previous research has shown the approach is effective at accelerating foundational literacy knowledge in children with lower levels of oral language. This study examined the impact of the BSLA for children with varied language profiles and across schools from diverse socioeconomic communities.

Additionally, a controlled analysis of the impact of Tier 2 teaching within a response to teaching framework was undertaken. Participants included 402 five-year-old children from 14 schools in New Zealand. A randomised delayed treatment design was utilised to establish the effect of Tier 1 teaching. Analyses showed a significant Tier 1 intervention effect for phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, non-word reading and non-word spelling.

There was no difference in intervention effects across socioeconomic groupings. Children were identified for Tier 2 teaching after 10 weeks of Tier 1 implementation. The progress of 98 children in response to Tier 2 teaching was compared to 26 children who met Tier 2 criteria but received only Tier 1 teaching within this study.

Children in the Tier 2 group scored significantly higher on phonological awareness, non-word reading, and spelling than the control group at the post-Tier 2 assessment point, after controlling for pre-Tier 2 scores.

The results suggest that a proactive strengths-based approach to supporting foundational literacy learning in children’s first year of school benefits all learners.

The findings have important implications for early provision of literacy learning support in order to reduce current inequities in literacy outcomes.

2022

Gillon, G. (2023) Keynote Address SPA Conference 2022: Moving beyond borders to inspire education change. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

This paper contextualises a keynote address delivered at the 2022 Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

The paper aligns with the conference theme of Beyond Borders from the perspective of moving beyond borders of regular practice to develop strong partnerships and networks within our communities to advocate and support necessary change.

Change or enhancement to current practice is necessary if we are to reduce current inequities in education experienced by many children in our communities, including those with communication challenges. Strengths-based and culturally responsive literacy approaches to supporting children within the context of their family and community are increasingly gaining support as we address this challenge.

The Better Start Literacy Approach (Te Ara Reo Matatini), currently being implemented in junior school classrooms across New Zealand is described. It is one example of large-scale implementation of a strengths-based and culturally responsive early literacy approach, based on the science of reading. Data support the effectiveness of the Better Start Literacy Approach in significantly enhancing the foundational literacy skills of 5- and 6-year-old children, including those who commence school with lower levels of oral language ability.

Through establishing strong partnerships within communities, speech pathologists have much to offer in motivating systems level change to enhance early literacy success for all learners.

2021

Early Literacy Initiative: Ready to Read Phonics Plus Project
arrow, gillon, mcneill & scott (2021)

In 2020 and 2021, the BSLA team developed a series of early readers for the Ministry of Education. This report describes the development of a reading series that is based on contemporary research on how children learn to read.

The reading series referred to as Ready to Read Phonics Plus provides 64 texts designed to support the implementation of a phonic scope and sequence as the basis for teaching children to learn to read. However, the texts aim to do more than develop children’s ability to use phonic knowledge to decode words.

As the name Phonics Plus suggests, the series enables children to also build the vocabulary and oral language skills necessary for ongoing success in oral language and reading comprehension.

Better Start Literacy Approach: National Implementation ImpactLab Good Measure Report

This report presents an independent evaluation of the measurable good of the Better Start Literacy Approach to New Zealand society. Its analysis found that every year, Better Start Literacy Approach delivers $31,986,869 of measurable good to society in New Zealand.

Journal of the royal society of New Zealand - A better start national science challenge: supporting the future wellbeing of our tamariki

The majority of children and young people in Aotearoa NewZealand (NZ) experience good health and wellbeing, but there are key areas where they compare unfavourably to those in other rich countries.\However, current measures of wellbeing are critically limited in their suitability to reflect the dynamic, culture-bound, and subjective nature of the concept of ‘wellbeing’.

In particular, there is a lack of measurement in primary school-aged children and in ways that incorporate Māori perspectives on wellbeing. A Better Start National Science Challenge work in the areas of Big Data, Healthy Weight, Resilient Teens, and Successful learning demonstrates how research is increasing our understanding of, and our ability to enhance, wellbeing for NZ children.

As we look ahead to the future, opportunities to support the wellbeing of NZ young people will be shaped by how we embrace and mitigate against potential harms of new technologies, and our ability to respond to new challenges that arise due to climate change.

In order to avoid increasing inequity in who experiences wellbeing in NZ, wellbeing must be monitored in ways that are culturally acceptable, universal, and recognise what makes children flourish.

2010-2020

Taumutu Pūrākau (Gillon, Brown & Scott, 2018)

The books are the result of a collaboration between the University of Canterbury Child Well-being Research Institute and Te Taumutu Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu.

The books depict three different pūrākau (myths) that are significant to Taumutu, including; ‘Ruru and the Giant Pouākai’, ‘The Creation of Tuna’, and ‘Taniwha and the Rakaia Gorge’.

Input that has guided the Better Start Literacy Approach

Research evidence:

In addition to the extensive body of relevant international research, evidence from six significant programmes of research undertaken in New Zealand has informed the basis for the Better Start Literacy Approach. These research programmes include:

1. The Better Start National Science Challenge, E Tipu E Rea 10 year programme of research (2015-2024 funded through Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment). Findings emerging from the Successful Early Learning Theme within this challenge include those related to a pilot study for the Better Start Literacy Approach. This pilot involved 22 New Entrant and Year 1 classes in schools in low socio-economic areas in Christchurch. This controlled study involved 243 children aged 5 years who were born in the post 2011 Christchurch earthquake period. The published work (Gillon et al., 2019) focusing on 141 children from the pilot cohort who entered school with low oral language) highlights the benefits of the approach in accelerating literacy learning over and above current classroom practice. Importantly, the research showed the approach was equally effective for boys and girls and equally effective for Māori and Pasifika tamariki, who made up 45.5% of the cohort followed. This work is being extended through the current Ministry of Education Foundational Learning Contract and research in the second phase of the Better Start National Science Challenge.

2. The Early Literacy Research Project led by Associate Professor Alison Arrow, and Professor James Chapman, with colleagues. The research specifically examined how teachers could best integrate phonics instruction into small group reading instruction. This project highlighted the importance of quality and evidence based professional learning and development (that included coaching and mentoring) for Year 1 class teachers and the importance of explicit instructional pedagogies in advancing children’s early literacy skills. Importantly, findings highlighted that students from low-decile schools where teachers had participated in the research had significantly better reading and spelling outcomes than those in the comparison low-decile schools. Most importantly, the low-decile intervention group had the same reading and spelling outcomes that the middle and high-decile school participants achieved. Prof Arrow’s work included the development of a systematic scope and sequence to guide phonics teaching within group reading.

3. Professors Angus and Sonja Macfarlane and their colleagues’ important body of research highlighting the value of culturally responsive, inclusive and strengths based models of practice to raising achievement for Māori tamariki and their whānau.  Their explorations serve to offer an alternative to the deficit discourse often associated with Māori learning and education, and instead, highlight narratives of success. Many of their findings show that literacy success for tamariki, which is fostered by whānau, is to be expected, and needs to be supported by culturally-responsive class literacy interventions.

4. Better Start National Science Challenge data analyses relating to successful outcomes for Pasifika children’s learning through the Pacific Islands Families Study. For example, Kim et al. (2019) demonstrated the importance of connecting home and school culture for Pasifika learners which has informed the development of our whānau workshops within the Better Start Literacy Approach.

5. A series of phonological awareness intervention trials conducted in New Zealand preschools and junior school classrooms over the last 20 years (see Gillon, 2017). This work, led by Professor Gail Gillon, Associate Professor Brigid McNeill, their colleagues and doctoral students has highlighted the critical importance of enhancing phonological awareness in children with speech and language difficulties, children with childhood apraxia of speech, children with dyslexia, children who use alternative communication systems and children with cognitive impairments such as children with Down syndrome.

6. Investigations to determine effective methods for assessing and enhancing children’s vocabulary learning  and oral narrative ability as well as research investigating phonological processing skill development in children with dyslexia. Influenced by work of international advisors to the UC Research Team, Professor Laura Justice, Professor Ilsa Schwarz as well as work from Associate Professor Marleen Westerveld, Professor John Everatt, Professor Gail Gillon and Dr Karyn Carson, pilot work has investigated novel online assessment measures to reliably monitor children’s vocabulary, oral narrative, word reading and phonological awareness ability and to help identify children at higher risk for persistent reading problems such as dyslexia.