Friday, September 8, 2017

Speaking out



This post is in response to a post in a blog I read. It is a prelude to what I intend to write this Sunday on some of our so called experts like Andrew Johnson, David Boulton, Reid Lyon, Timothy Shanahan and a few others.

All these guys are just too naïve to connect the dots.OR are they the puppets of some people with a vested interest?

 
 
My only motive for writing on FB, my Blog and LinkedIn is to share what I have learned from my students.

The problem is that what I have learned from teaching, observing and interviewing my students does not appear to qualify as research in the eyes of most of the educators.

When is a researcher ever going to listen to disengaged students reading in Malay and romanised Mandarin and teach these (shut-down) kids on a one on one basis for more than 10 years and learn what I have learned.


Daniel Kahneman says in his book ‘Thinking fast and slow’: ‘We are far too willing to believe research findings based on inadequate evidence and prone to collect too few observations in our own research. The goal of our study was to examine whether other researchers suffered from the same affliction. We found that our expert colleagues, like us, greatly exaggerated the likelihood that the original result of an experiment would be successfully replicated even with a small sample. They also gave very poor advice to a fictitious graduate student about the number of observations she needed to collect. Even statisticians were not good intuitive statisticians.’
‘……..during the years of our collaboration, neither of us (Amos and Kahneman) ever rejected out of hand anything the other said.’



Yes, people are throwing anything and everything they can at ‘Researched’. Anything that has not been ‘Researched’ is unacceptable.

Shutting down fair comments, not responding to fair comments and disconnecting members from one’s connection is not acceptable to me.

I have mentioned time and again that a majority of so called ‘dyslexic’ kids are just kids who have shut-down or disengaged from learning to read and I have indisputable proof of this.

Timothy Shanahan saying that there is no research reports to support what I say is not going to stop me from writing what I have discovered.



11 comments:

Stan said...

I've known that about American educators ever since finding that Piaget's anecdotal child development studies in France were considered skeptically in the U.S. until some research had been completed that, surprisingly, actually confirmed Piaget's observations. As long as it is empirical, Americans are comfortable but if it isn't empirical it is suspicious stuff.

Luqman Michel said...

Thank you Stan. I completely understand your point and I do appreciate it.
All that I have stated in my blog are what I personally experienced from my teaching of more than 70 kids on a one on one basis.
What I have done is difficult to be tested by researchers from countries that speak only one language.
When students come to me I ask them to read in Malay and the Chinese kids are asked to read in Romanised Mandarin.This cannot be replicated by the West where most researchers speak only one language.
I also teach them on a one on one basis. This way the kids open up to me and tell me many things and ask me questions.They will not ask questions when in a class of 30 to 40 students to avoid shame.

Luqman Michel said...

Stan, in 2010 I wrote to more than 30 universities, numerous professors and to many websites disputing the more-than-35-year old theory (at that time) that phonological awareness deficit is the cause of 'dyslexia'.
At that time, I noticed many university students visiting my blog.
In 2015 research reports came out saying what I have said since 2010 and then it was accepted by the world.
Today, there is not much talk on phonological awareness deficit being the cause of 'dyslexia'.
I was the first person to dispute that theory which has now been debunked.
Google 'Phonological awareness Luqman Michel' and see the many articles I wrote in 2010.
Now, I am writing extensively that the main cause of many smart kids being unable to read in English is because of confusion created by teachers who teach the wrong sounds of letters of the alphabet.
This too will be accepted when some students start reading my material on LinkedIn, Twitter and my blog.

Stan said...

Michel, you must know that it has been known, even empirically, that one-on-one instruction is always more powerful than classroom teaching. Congratulations on your technique which must be helping your students more than they can even realize. I am an educator who worked in several positions for 45 years in public schools from the classroom to district administration positions, then in a college setting. I've since retired and at 80 years don't do very much in education any longer. But I'm still curious. Your suggestion to Google your work will be taken up because I do want to know more about what you say concerning accurately sounding letters. Among other things, I'm curious about whether you incorporate dialectical differences in vowel sounds. Thanks again for your responses.

Luqman Michel said...

Thank you very much for responding Stan.
Please don't misunderstand, there are thousands of teachers all over the world who have their own techniques to teach so-called dyslexic kids. As Deng Xiao Peng had said ' It does not matter whether it is a white cat or a black cat as long as it can catch mice'. Even though you are not much involved in education now, your wide experience will be able to have a discourse here which will definitely help some teachers around the world. Please let us continue with this.

My suggestion on Googling 'Phonological awareness luqman michel' is only to say that I wrote to many professors and universities in 2010 saying that I disagree with the old theory that phonological awareness deficit is the cause of dyslexia.We will talk about sounds of letters in my next comment and please share your thoughts.

Stan said...

Thanks for the response. I ordered your book which will arrive in several days. I look forward to what you say about letter sounds.

Luqman Michel said...

Coming to sounds of letters, leaving aside dialectical difference,the main reason why many smart kids disengage from learning to read in English is because they are confused. These kids are wrongly classified as dyslexic when in fact they are instructional casualties. My last few posts in my blog are on corroborative evidences taken from researchers.
They all say that a majority of kids who are unable to read are instructional casualties.They don't say what it is that is being instructed wrongly. I believe I know why these kids disengage from learning to read and that is what I have been saying since 2010.I believe many kids shut down from learning to read because they are confused. I have written a book on this and it is available on Amazon - 'Shut down kids'. You may search on Amazon and read the 2 unsolicited book reviews.

Please read my post at https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2020/01/phonics.html

Then let us continue.

The way sounds of letters are taught all over the world is more or less the same as in the video clip in that post.

There are many other similar video clips, in my blog, where they teach wrong sounds of alphabets.

You should not add extraneous sounds to consonants when you teach sounds of alphabets. This confuses about 20% of the kids who then shut down from learning to read.

I look forward to your response before continuing further.
I wish you good health.

Stan said...

Michel, As I said, I have ordered the book already and intend to read the link you provided as soon as is possible. Thank you, again.

Luqman Michel said...

Excellent. Happy Days.

@readingmumngr via twitter said...

Thank you for sharing your wealth of experience and knowledge. I agree with you that many children are taught the wrong letter sounds and this inhibits their ability to be able to read. I also agree with you that the US focuses on research-based evidence and I think this also extends to other developed countries. It's just a way to give some people the mic. Keep spreading your information and your own audience will listen.

Luqman Michel said...

Thank you for your comment. It makes my day, especially reading it first thing in the morning. We need research-based evidence but let us not swallow hook line and sinker everything researched. We ought to think if something is correct. Why do many educators not agree that sounds represented by letters should be taught without extraneous sounds when I have researched and learnt from my students, the experts why they were unable to read in the first place, that that is why they had disengaged from learning to read? Thank goodness that a majority of kids figure out how to read despite being taught wrongly. Unfortunately, there are many kids who are wired differently and disengage from learning to read when they are confused. These are the kids we should be concerned about.
Thank you for your support and encouragement.