Many have addressed the issues and debates within reading instruction, but here Green offers a fresh reinterpretation pointing to the bases of various arguments and shows them to be steeped in biblical ideas stemming from the Matthew and Peter effect. The rich-get-richer Matthew effect, and ‘the can’t give what you haven’t got’, Peter effect highlight student background where poor outcomes in early reading become progressively worse, or teacher backgrounds where teachers with low confidence in reading perpetuate poor reading outcomes. Green adds to these a third biblical take, the Martha effect which would highlight that the most important element of reading – reader motivation – has been neglected in favour of mechanistic approaches which attend to detail while forgetting the purpose. Green is mindful of the declines charted through NAPLAN and other measures but wonders how the mechanistic approaches can fully address reading decline which is really about failures in reading comprehension rather than decoding. She argues that these can only be addressed through understanding that reading is about understanding and appreciating the ‘aesthetic purpose’ of texts which has been mysteriously sidelined in recent iterations of the Australian Curriculum. To really lift reading outcomes this aspect should be added to the Big 6. Dare we say, the Big 7?
Reference: Green, M. (2025, Feb,3). Reading: How to prioritise reading for enjoyment in classrooms. Edu Research Matters.