A critique of pure teaching methods and the case of synthetic phonics

This work examines how research into the effectiveness of teaching methods can and should relate to what takes place in the classroom.

The discussion brings to light some important features of the way we classify teaching activities.

The classifications are unlike those we use in natural science - for instance, how we classify drug dosages.

This point has very important implications for what should be considered the appropriate relationships between educational research and classroom practice. Andrew Davis applies the results of this discussion to the teaching of early reading, focussing in particular on the approach known as synthetic phonics.