There is little or no support for the claim that systematic phonics is effective by itself or within a richer literacy curriculum¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoretical r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The author concludes that meta-analytic evidence provides little or no support for phonics effectiveness alone or combined with other instruction. → Jeffrey S. Bowers 2021

Evidence¶

Jeffrey S. Bowers 2021¶

Jeffrey S. Bowers. (2021). Yes Children Need to Learn Their GPCs but There Really Is Little or No Evidence that Systematic or Explicit Phonics Is Effective: a response to Fletcher, Savage, and Sharon (2020). Educational Psychology Review (2021) 33:1965–1979. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09602-z

q2 · i? · theoretical · r3

The author's summary conclusion in the abstract of this commentary, restating the central claim of his 2020 review against Fletcher et al.'s (2020) challenges: "little or no support for the claim that phonics by itself or in a richer literacy curriculum is effective."

"I detail why their response does not identify any flaws in my critique nor alter my conclusion that there is little or no support for the claim that phonics by itself or in a richer literacy curriculum is effective."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• The Torgerson et al. (2006) meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials found almost no strong evidence for systematic phonics — related
• Instruction that includes systematic phonics leads to better spelling and reading outcomes than instruction that does not — reports the opposite
• Phonics instruction has a small but statistically confirmed effect for children with reading disabilities, while Orton-Gillingham structured-literacy programs show positive but non-significant effects — reports the opposite
• In Morris et al. (2012), the phonological (phonics-including) intervention alone showed no significant reading benefits, while conditions adding orthographic and semantic instruction did — related
• Phonics effects in the Galuschka et al. (2014) meta-analysis were similar in size to several alternative interventions, with no evidence phonics was more effective — related