Reading in particular

Many who are 40 and above, basically those teaching new teachers in colleges of education, still think that reading is important and that the method used to teach reading is important.  The method should not be a hodge-podge of methods.

Newsflash...

A study by Mathematica, a research company for all kinds of educational research, from just 4 years ago, shows that reading methods don't matter at all.  The national study of 100 schools scattered across the country, pitted 4 different kinds of methods against each other and a control group using no particular method.  The method that used group techniques for reading had a slight advantage over the others and the control group at the end of one year.  The method that used software to enhance reading skills had a slight advantage over two other methods and the control group after one year.  But, no method had statistical significance over any other method or no method at all.  At the end of two years, even the slight advantage had disappeared.  Thus, any method works and every method works as statistically equally well as the next.

And, it's interesting that the group method came out slightly on top since reading is such a personally developed skill, linked to background readiness, interest, and rapport to the teacher.  That alone should suggest that reading has diminished.  If it takes a group to instill competition, to substitute for personal background, or to provide a small bit of incentive, then the group method will reach its limitations within a short time and tail off completely over the long term.  Thus, 10-year-olds are left with 7-year-old skills, 12-year-olds might reach an  8-year-old's skill level.  There is really not a substitute for personal background and personal incentive.

Besides the need for reading vanishing over the next decade, the currently developed methods used don't increase the level of reading beyond what is presently in place.  The smart phones, smart TVs, and smart houses of the next decade use icons, symbols, or voice command to control them or communicate with them.

As Bill Engvall, the comedian, would say, "Here's your sign...!"