English curriculum reform and the three-dimensional curriculum model

The recently released Australian Curriculum V9.0 includes a stronger focus on phonics in the English subject and a stripping back of content so that the curriculum can be taught with further depth and rigour (ACARA, 2022). Similarly, the reformed NSW English K-2 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum reciprocates the increased focus on foundational literacy and learning the alphabetic code. Australian teachers are undertaking Teacher Professional Development [TPD] to support the successful implementation of these curriculum changes.

In NSW government schools thus far, the TPD for the K-2 English Syllabus has required teachers of Foundation Year to adhere strictly to externally produced, decontextualised lesson sequences without deviation. This approach supports research identifying the critical influence of explicit and systematic phonics instruction on students’ reading skills and later reading success (National Reading Panel, Reference Panel2000; Scarborough, Reference Scarborough1998). However, compartmentalising essential early reading skills places associated risks on the three-dimensional curriculum model by excluding opportunities for incorporating connections with nature in early reading. Instead, these connections are predominantly linked with HASS and Science, negating opportunities for approaches that build young learners’ connections with the natural world alongside foundation reading outcomes.

A similar dominance is found in the research literature, where sustainability concepts are predominantly connected through HASS, Science, PDHPE and the Arts, undertaken in later primary schooling (Auld et al., Reference Auld, O’Mara and White2021; Magntorn & Helldén, Reference Magntorn and Helldén2006). Limited research investigating approaches for developing students’ nature connections and dispositions when developing young learners’ phonemic and phonological skills exists. Research into early reading focuses more on nature play and discovery (Constable, Reference Constable2017). Those studies investigating opportunities for nurturing children’s imaginings about sustainability through the English discipline focus on oral and written storytelling and children’s literature. Again, these critical contributions to the scholarship are undertaken in later primary schooling (Hannigan & Ferguson, Reference Hannigan, Ferguson, White, Raphael and van Cuylenburg2021; Riley & White, Reference Riley and White2019). Despite these limitations, research indicates the benefits of nature-based experiences for developing human connections and dispositions to care for the more-than-human world in profound, long-lasting ways that start early in life (Cole & Malone, Reference Cole and Malone2019; Riley & White, Reference Riley and White2019; Von Braun, Reference Von Braun, Battro, Lena, Sanchez Sorndo and von Braun2017).

These views resonate with eco-psychology, which identifies that personal connections between humans and the natural world are nurtured when people are engaged in and by place (Louv, 2008; Orr, Reference Orr2011). For young learners, in particular, the research identifies that developing dispositions for the natural world by experiencing place begin early in life; in the local, and that these early formed dispositions positively affect an individual’s gratitude and capacities to act for all living ecologies in their adult civic life (Greenwood, Reference Greenwood, Cutter-Mackenzie, Malone and Hacking2020; Sobel & Larimore, Reference Sobel, Larimore, Cutter-Mackenzie, Malone and Hacking2020; Von Braun, Reference Von Braun, Battro, Lena, Sanchez Sorndo and von Braun2017). The attainment of these dispositions and environmental consciousness can be termed eco-capacities and can organically complement the explicit teaching of early reading.

In alignment with Place-Based Education [PBE], contemplative engagements in nature offer slow, purposeful, kinesthetic and nonjudgmental awareness building of the ecosystem (Beuhler, Reference Beuhler2021; Richardson et al., Reference Richardson, Passmore, Lumber, Thomas and Hunt2021). Additionally, these all-senses embodiments are known to have positive, long-term effects on people’s emotional and social development, particularly in educational settings (Alme & Reime, Reference Alme and Reime2021; Charles & Senauer Loge, Reference Charles and Senauer Loge2012). However, in educational settings, we also need to consider the role of the teacher.

The teacher’s aesthetic appreciation

A teacher’s knowledge is one of the essential mediators enabling children’s nature connections and eco-capacity cultivation. Yet, teacher knowledge alone is not sufficient for developing students’ eco-capacities. Scholars agree that another influential factor affecting students’ eco-capacities is teacher self-efficacy. The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk-Hoy, & Hoy, Reference Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk-Hoy and Hoy1998), based on Bandura’s model of self-efficacy (Reference Bandura1997), emphasises the association between teachers’ self-efficacy and students’ educational outcomes. Teachers who have a greater belief in their capabilities to bring about intended learning outcomes are more likely to explore various methods of instruction and develop creative instructional materials (George et al., Reference George, Richardson and Watt2018).

In addition, teachers’ dispositions toward sustainable patterns of living influence their effectiveness in sustainability implementations (Andersson et al., Reference Andersson, Jagers, Lindskog and Martinsson2013). These personal views do not seem to change, irrespective of the school they are working in. This further reinforces the imperative to nurture teachers’ eco-capacities (Lijmbach, Van Arcken, Van Koppen, & Wals, Reference Lijmbach, Van Arcken, Van Koppen and Wals2002; Semen, Reference Semen2020). Scaling-up educators’ eco-capacities is not limited to schools. UNESCO’s (2018a) Global Action Program argues that developing preservice competencies is also necessary. Yet, varying degrees of effectiveness for embedding sustainability concepts across Initial Teacher Education [ITE] exists (Brandt et al., Reference Brandt, Barth, Merritt and Hale2021; Malandrakis, Papadopoloulou, Gavrilakis & Mogias Reference Malandrakis, Papadopoloulou, Gavrilakis and Mogias2019).

Phase One: diagnosis and reflection

In 2019, a diagnosis of the content in the English suite of subjects identified the need for revisioning and renewal. Significant course development ensued to include explicit teaching of early reading theories and systematic phonics instruction for all preservice teachers studying ITE (Primary). One core subject for first-year students was targeted, and a second was developed for final-year students undertaking English specialism to ensure all graduates would be prepared to teach this critical aspect of the English curriculum.

The research project was assigned to the final year subject for two reasons. Firstly, preservice teachers would have completed five professional experiences in schools, bringing prior teaching experience to the task. Secondly, they would have acquired pre-requisite research experience from a core subject titled ‘Teacher as Researcher’, which provided them with experience in undertaking an action research project while on professional experience.

At the commencement of this inquiry, participants completed a pre-implementation online survey that utilised a five-point Likert scale containing six multiple-choice questions. The questions focussed on participants’ perceived knowledge about:

1. 1. The terms phonemic awareness and graphological skills.

2. 2. The stage where these early reading skills are taught.

3. 3. PBE for teaching early reading skills.

A question was also included to learn more about their self-efficacy in teaching this aspect of reading. Analysis of the results informed a subject content adjustment for the cohort while aligning with Course Learning Intentions and relevant learning objectives being:

1. 1. Language and meaning in English: word and within word levels.

2. 2. Current approaches to teaching English, literacy and language in the NSW and Australian curricula.

Phase two: action planning and reflection

Participants subsequently engaged with the online learning module and prerequisite academic readings for knowledge-building. A synchronous workshop was then undertaken. As part of the engagement activities, they explored commercial visual resources for teaching phonemic awareness. They specifically evaluated the following:

1. 1. Images representing objects for practising speech sounds in the initial position of a spoken word.

2. 2. Types and prominence of objects represented.

3. 3. Degrees of object familiarity.

4. 4. Compositional effectiveness of the images used.

Facilitator support was provided during the collaborative evaluations, and participants were encouraged to offer beneficial alternatives for creating effective early reading resources. This step was followed by explaining the action-taking phase of the project (Table 1).

Table 1. Sequence of the required task

Phase three: participatory action-taking

The project was implemented. Participants collected visual data and created a set of visual cards utilising their photographs. The cards were then used to create an original game for practising phonemic awareness and graphological skills.

Phase four: evaluation

In a subsequent preservice teacher maker space, participants shared their visual data set and the games produced from their place-based data collection. A shared reflective practice followed, where challenges and opportunities for implementing this activity with young learners were discussed. An evaluative dialogue amongst the group offered solutions to data collection challenges, giving the group ownership over the process and practice they should experience in their future schools. Their created resource was then submitted as a university-approved assessment for the subject.

Phase four: reflection

The assessment also required participants to submit a 350-word individual reflection about utilising young learners’ local landscape to develop early reading skills. They also reflected on the embodied experience regarding their self-efficacy and perceived knowledge about implementing these transdisciplinary approaches.

Phase five: planning for learning and reflection

After the maker space and shared discussion, participants undertook a post-implementation survey. It utilised the same question foci as the preimplementation survey, which applied a five-point Likert scale containing six multiple-choice questions. The intention was to measure changes (if any) in their perceived knowledge about teaching phonemic awareness. As with the preimplementation survey, a question required them to rank their self-efficacy for incorporating PBE when teaching early reading skills.

Teacher as the producer of visual resources

The teaching resources produced by the preservice teachers were purposefully and predominantly visual. As such, the photographs taken by the preservice teachers to create the resources were analysed to learn more about what and how visual meaning was offered to their potential students. The decision to focus on visual meanings is informed by the work of Ronald Hepburn beginning in the twentieth century regarding environmental aesthetics and Arnold Berleant’s subsequent Engagement Model (Reference Berleant, In and Gaskell1995). This body of work brought attention to the neglected aesthetic aspect of nature and identified that the first step in developing stewardship for ‘place’ is to establish connections through pleasurable experiences of the aesthetics in ‘place’. We move forward to the twenty-first century, where arguments about the growing dominance of images are made (Kress & Van Leeuwen, Reference Kress and Van Leeuwen2010), so much so that understanding this modality can be taken as a given, underestimated, or ignored, bringing its own set of complications (Bates, 2018).

Secondly, ‘visual semiotics’ is understood to have a close functional association with oral and written language and is a suitable modality to utilise when learning to read. And thirdly, from a sociocultural viewpoint, personal dispositions influence producers’ choices and prominent attention to matter (Sava et al., Reference Sava, Borca and Clitan2020). Therefore, understanding more about the images selected by the group of preservice teachers was essential for analysis because if images are not neutral players in what and how concepts are taught and learnt, what teachers select can, in turn, influence what and how their students select and interpret images (Berleant, Reference Berleant, In and Gaskell1995; Ryan, Reference Ryan2011).

A visual semiotic approach was taken to analyse the visual resources produced by the preservice teachers using a detailed theory-informed analytic template (Table 2). It was based on the following theoretical assumptions:

1. 1. Images are sites for enacting social relations and transmitting attitudes and values. They can express, validate, challenge or change perspectives about a place.

2. 2. The producer of an image plays a role in what is attended to and selected in place.

3. 3. Images can be produced from different vantage points, possibly resulting in the domination, omission or overlooking of meanings.

Table 2. Category-coded visual analytic template for hierarchy one

Preservice teachers’ products

The data containing 286 photographs were de-identified and analysed after assessment grades were finalised so as not to interfere with the university assessments or bias the grade achieved for those within or outside the research project.

Preservice teachers’ perceived content knowledge

Analysis of the pre-implementation survey indicated limited ‘perceived’ knowledge about phonemic awareness and how to teach this aspect amongst the group. Nine of the eleven participants had not undertaken formal learning about phonics before this subject, with two participants indicating they had some understanding of the skills with an introduction in another elective subject (unnamed). Unanimously, no participant had prior experience or knowledge about strategies for teaching reading utilising place. Despite this limited perceived knowledge or expertise in the proposed approach, half of the group indicated an interest in learning more.

The post-implementation survey indicated a positive change in all members’ perceived content knowledge, with nine participants marking a two-index improvement in curriculum and pedagogical knowledge questions. Two of the eleven participants rated their understanding of phonemic awareness as proficient, with a four-index improvement on the Likert scale. All participants indicated increased knowledge about strategies involving teaching reading utilising PBE and that the approach would support teaching early reading skills to young learners.

Preservice teachers’ demonstrated content knowledge

Submissions were graded according to demonstrated knowledge about the Systemic Functional Model of Language, PBE, transdisciplinary practices, the creation of visual resources, and academically supported justifications for the pedagogical approach. The marking criteria were:

1. 1. Connection to the syllabus and accurate collection of a photographic data set.

2. 2. Application of photographs to produce a multimodal teaching resource.

3. 3. Critical reflection on teaching the Functional Systemic Model of Language using contemporary pedagogies.

4. 4. Academic conventions and writing.

All submissions achieved a credit grade or above, with four high distinction grades. These academic results indicate that the approach offered opportunities for demonstrated knowledge-building across the cohort about teaching early reading skills incorporating PBE.

Preservice teachers’ self-efficacy

Before participating in the project, ten of the eleven participants rated their self-confidence at the lowest scale in the survey question related to their ability to teach the targeted early reading skill. Only one of the eleven participants stated feeling slightly confident in this area. The degree of change in self-efficacy was not as prominent as the preservice teachers’ perceived content knowledge improvement. However, the post-survey data indicated positive growth in their self-efficacy and confidence in teaching early reading skills. The written self-reflections consistently expressed participants’ value for learning to read through a ‘real-world curriculum’.

Curriculum-based outcomes are at the heart of this interactive activity that pushes students to build upon their vocabulary and engage with familiar elements of the environment (Self-reflection #2, 09 October 2020).

While the project cannot report on implementation with young children, the positive growth indicates a strong possibility of operation, with one graduate who accepted a primary school teaching position indicating their intent to implement this pedagogical approach in their classroom (Email correspondence, 25 October 2020).

Content analysis: the products

The content analysis of visual data included categorising places selected by participants, the items within those places and the compositions used to capture visual meaning across data sets to identify patterns in the chosen images and associated vocabulary for young learners to practise their early reading skills.

Compositional interpretation: place

The content analysis began with identifying the sites of production. While the location variance might not be surprising, findings indicate that even with a small number of participants, the activity was operational across metropolitan, coastal, and inner-city areas, warranting its applicability to varied school contexts and places. Fourteen different locations were identified. Metropolitan places dominated, making up over half of the chosen locations across Greater Sydney. These were predominantly urban backyard gardens but also included local parks and streetscapes. More remote coastal, mountain and bush sites were the second common locations, with one of the eleven data sets using Taronga Park Zoo as a coastal city area situated on the shores of Sydney Harbour. However, inner-city locations were least preferred, with only one data set selecting the university grounds and areas within the university walls.

Objects in and across the data sets were also analysed because it is understood that information organised around an overarching theme better links objects, cueing cognitive associations and triggering affective responses (Halliday, Reference Halliday1973). From this notion, the data sets representing objects from one locale could be thought to better assist young children’s affective reactions to object naming predictions. It could also be suggested that the more familiar the place and objects within, the greater the ease of object prediction. By reducing cognitive load this way, young learners can focus on the targeted phonemic, phonological and graphophonic skills where the place becomes naturally intertwined in the learning, not a barrier to it (Figure 1). This finding brings questions about the effectiveness of commercial resources, like those analysed before the data collection, which pictures animals and objects outside of children’s common everyday experiences such as a ‘zebra’ or ‘seahorse’.

Figure 1. Photographed biotic objects in phonics games. Biotic objects used in a garden game for practising initial phonemes and graphemes.

Compositional interpretation: item selection

An analysis of the 286 self-selected objects within locations was then undertaken. While it is logical to expect that item variance differed respectively to the places selected, patterns in the range and frequency of items chosen assisted in understanding more about what participants attended to from each place more generally. As such, a mapping of the items and associated vocabulary was undertaken because the written linguistic system helps identify the effectiveness of items selected for teaching phonology to young learners.

Common nouns were predominantly used across data sets for initial phoneme identification. For example, a ‘flower’ /f/. However, one data set included common and scientific plant classifications which significantly increased the complexity of item identification and subsequent difficulty of phoneme matching. For example, the common noun ‘plant’ could have been used instead of the botanical name, Aloe Barbadensis Miller (proper noun). The participant’s choice to use botanist names was justified as a multidiscipline approach linking vocabulary with a Science Unit of Work using a trial-and-error process in a guessing garden game to ‘promote oral discussion’ (Self-reflection #2, 09 October 2020). However, using botanical names in spoken and written language added another degree of complexity regarding ease of item identification, speed, and fluency, which could detract from the targeted learning intentions for novice learners (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Botanical names increased task complexity. Photographed Aloe Vera in a garden with labelled initial grapheme for the botanical name and a name card for use in a treasure hunt game.

While common nouns were predominantly selected, 15 photos captured action verbs across four data sets. Further problem-solving was required when using still images that presented action verbs. For example, it was unclear if the photo targeted the noun (person) or the action they were carrying out (e.g., trekking or walking). These variances impacted the marker’s ease and speed of initial phoneme identification.

Content interpretation: item preferences

Despite the differences in the language features selected and that which one could expect concerning location variances, commonalities in item preferences were identified. As shown in Table 3, biotic or abiotic items were the most preferred types of images across the visual data sets, being selected twice as often as other types.

Table 3. Biotic and abiotic items for hierarchy two

A closer analysis of biotic items across data sets indicated flora as the dominant choice, with 171 of the 286 objects representing plant varieties. The second most frequently selected items, irrespective of location, were native animals (excluding Homo Sapiens). As a subset of biotic items, photographs of water as a protist category appeared twice as often as other items within this category.

The least photographed objects within locations were celestial images, with the moon targeted in only one photograph. This finding corresponds with the use of moonlight in only two photos and candlelight in one other. Four shots utilised artificial electric light sources to photograph indoor objects (i.e., a lift, door handle and signage). The other 279 pictures were taken during the day utilising natural daylight, indicating a preference in time and location.

Light, as a subset within the classification of colour, is understood to evoke mood and atmosphere (Kress & Van Leeuwen, Reference Kress and Van Leeuwen2010). While recognising the contribution of this element, digital colour effects such as increased contrasts, mock moonlight, filters, and under or over-exposure to heighten or reduce realism were not used in any photographed objects. It could be concluded that conceptual photos used to inform viewers use light to make the targeted object most accessible to viewers and not to evoke interpersonal connections.

Compositional interpretation: spatial organisation

In addition to analysing the content of images, how objects are organised within a picture contributes to meaning. Therefore, this aspect of visuality is part of the data analysis, and spatial arrangements were examined by considering distances, perspectives (viewpoint), hotspots and eye levels.

Distance is often used to evoke degrees of connection with viewers and what is going on in an image. In pictures functioning to entertain or tell a story, the further away, the less social or interpersonal connection; conversely, the closer together, the greater the interpersonal relationship. Of the data sets, 225 of the 286 images used close-up shots. This effect increased the visibility of the targeted object. Using distance this way also increased the salience of the targeted object by directing the viewer’s eye towards the most prominent object (as a hot spot) in the photo. Long shots were used to photograph objects far away from viewers in the real world, such as the moon, rather than to evoke lesser degrees of personal connection. No other in-camera effects were used to create sweet spots, panning or fisheye effects which exaggerate the depth of field, with 264 of 286 images using a single vanishing point.

Another visual element historically associated with evoking cultural and social relations is perspective (Rose, Reference Rose2016). However, for data collection in this study, perspective appeared to function similarly to distance and eye level, which positioned viewers as direct observers of objects undisturbed in their natural habitat rather than their personal connection to it. That is, viewers were set up to look up at the moon from a viewing platform, alongside a coastline at distant waves, or to look down at ground-dwelling fauna or flora. We could assume these results relate to the conceptual function of the objects photographed rather than a narrative function that seeks to entertain, evoke a story or develop social relations between the viewer and the maker.

Degrees of position can also contribute to power and personal connection by implying whose eyes the viewer is looking through to view an image. All 286 images placed viewers as the camera’s eye in frontal or off-centre positions. Positioning viewers this way requires no mediation from other participants in the image (e.g., over the shoulder) or from the producer (e.g., showing the producer’s hands or part thereof). Termed focalisation, unmediated positions allow unobscured contact with targeted objects in their settings, this position was unanimously preferred by all group members.

The use of colour also directed viewers’ attention to targeted items. Two of the eleven data sets utilised photoshop to highlight a targeted item within a setting. Highly saturated yellow lines and red arrows were used to direct viewers to the targeted object. As demonstrated in Figure 3, the circled item marks out a noun (egg), discounting other possible items that appear in the natural setting (e.g., grass, ground, leaves, fence or twigs). As obvious as this strategy might seem, individual teachers’ capacity to utilise technology in this way was not universal and impacted the effectiveness and clarity of item identification. These findings indicate that the function of an image depends on the purpose and that visual literacy capabilities cannot be taken as given in ITE.

Figure 3. Item identification assisted by technology drawing tools. Photographed garbage bin in a garden and two eggs in a nest are outlined using yellow lines to bring attention to the identified objects.

Preservice teachers’ self-efficacy

Before participating in the project, ten of the eleven participants rated their self-confidence at the lowest scale in the survey question related to their ability to teach the targeted early reading skill. Only one of the eleven participants stated feeling slightly confident in this area. The degree of change in self-efficacy was not as prominent as the preservice teachers’ perceived content knowledge improvement. However, the post-survey data indicated positive growth in their self-efficacy and confidence in teaching early reading skills. The written self-reflections consistently expressed participants’ value for learning to read through a ‘real-world curriculum’.