The National Accelerated Literacy Program (NALP) aims to remove the
educational divide faced by students who are struggling in the areas of English
and Literacy. Between the years 1998 and 2003, Dr. Brian Gray and Ms Wendy
Cowey of the University of Canberra, ran a pilot program across 30 schools in
five states and territories to examine the effectiveness of the NALP. The
partners noticed significant improvements in the literacy of Indigenous
students. The NALP was then established in 2004 to take the teaching methods
from the program in attempts to meet the needs of other Indigenous students in
the Northern Territory. The program was originally designed to tackle low
literacy levels in remote communities around Australia, particularly Indigenous
communities in the Northern Territory. However, with the adoption of Vygotsky’s
scaffolding theory of teaching and learning, the NALP has now been delivered in
other parts of Australia with successful results.
The teaching methodology of the NALP requires educators to take on an
alternative way of teaching literacy that may place teachers out of their
comfort zone. However, NALP is believed to create a supportive and structured
learning environment that will help even the students with the most emergent
needs to learn in a positive way.
References:
National Accelerated Literacy Program (NALP). (2010). What is NALP? Last accessed: 18/10/2012,
http://www.nalp.cdu.edu.au/whatisnalp.htm
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