PhD on Australian Home Education now available in our shop

Posted on March 25th, 2008 in Research

The Why and How of Australian Home Education by Dr John Barratt-Peacock is regarded as the most authoratative work on the subject.

We are pleased to be able to make this available through our shop with Dr Barratt-Peacock’s permission.

The author approached his thesis with twenty-seven years experience in home education. He conducted interviews with 186 families across Australia engaged in both formal and informal home education styles.

You can purchase your own downloadable copy of this important and enlightening work here

Home Education and Special Needs Children - Part 2

Posted on April 29th, 2007 in Otherways Magazine, Research, Special Needs

The Place of Work Place Style Learning

By Rosanne Trevaskis

The last issue of Otherways provided a useful summary of the research on home education and children with special needs. In it, Sue identified the importance of the one-to-one teaching relationship.

“All the research shows that home education offers more individual attention which is believed to be the vital ingredient necessary for academic success in the education of children with LD” (p19).

Home Education and Special Needs Research

Posted on January 13th, 2007 in Otherways Magazine, Research, Special Needs

By Susan Wight

The research on home educating special needs children is very positive, showing advantages both academically and socially. An American study by Stephen Duvall is one of the most thorough to date. It concluded that home education offers more of the kind of education that special needs children need most and that they benefit greatly from the individualised attention that home education allows.

Reasons for home educating

In her Western Australian study, Lucy Reilly found that parents of special needs children typically begin home education for a combination of two of more reasons but that their reasons predominantly involve the negative socialisation encountered in schools. “Such parents feel individual children can easily get lost in a system set up to meet generalised needs.” All six of the families interviewed in this study referred to negative socialisation in one form or another. One mother stated that her daughter was …learning inappropriate behaviours and self-abusive behaviours within the school system. The remaining families all mentioned teasing, rejection or bullying experienced by their children in school and in each case this treatment was associated with the child’s disability. One mother commented, At times they were treated like second class citizens and on many occasions they were quite openly discriminated against. They were made to feel very different and very left out. This created significant stress as well as diverting attention away from learning (Reilly).

Australian Research on Home Education - Literature Review

Posted on October 19th, 2006 in Research

Glenda Jackson B Ed, MEdSt and PhD candidate has written a literature review of Australian Research on Home Education. A PDF version of her report is available here:

Summary of Australian Research on Home Education (pdf)

Research on Home education and special needs children

Posted on May 18th, 2006 in Research, Special Needs

Special Ed Class or Homeschool? Statistics Speak
HSLDA writer - summary of Dr. Steven Duvall’s research

Academic research on home education of special needs children is encouraging. Dr. Steven Duvall is a behavioural psychologist who has objectively measured the amount of time and the kinds of interactions that take place in the classroom and in homeschool settings. He found two of the biggest differences between home and public special education classes to be in the physical arrangement of the room and the amount of academic responses.

A Summary of Australian Research

Posted on April 25th, 2004 in Otherways Magazine, Research

There has always been a percentage of Australian children educated at home. This was quite common in the nineteenth century with one historian stating that 19% of children were being taught at home in 1871. Despite this long history, research into Australian home education has been sparse. Here we take a look at some of the major studies.

Children Learn At Home: The Experience of Home Education (1985), by Ro Krivanek, published by AERG

Ro Krivanek undertook what was probably the first study on home education in Australia when she surveyed 13 members of AERG. The results showed that

Home Schooling Works!

Posted on April 25th, 2004 in Getting Started, Otherways Magazine, Research, Socialisation

The past twenty years has seen a phenomenal rise in home education across the world and the general public’s familiarity with it has moved from almost complete ignorance to one of widespread, if largely uninformed, awareness. This change has been stimulated by, and reflected in, heightened media interest with feature articles on home education appearing in national magazines, newspapers and on television and radio. Cheaper computers, computer programs, easy access to the Internet and the increased amount of educational material available on line are assisting more parents to home educate their children (Wake, 2000).

Academic researchers and policy annalists are exhibiting more than a passing interest in what has been considered up until now, an extreme form of education. As a result many studies have now been conducted into home education overseas. Overall, they show that home education not only equals mainstream schooling, but also surpasses it.

Children educated at home don’t learn like they do in school

Posted on November 24th, 1996 in Otherways Magazine, Research

Ockham’s Razor Transcript, Sunday, 24th November, 1996

Robyn Williams: Bertrand Russell never went to school; it didn’t appear to do him much harm either, as he still got to Trinity College Cambridge, revolutionised 20th century mathematics, won the Nobel Prize for Literature and did quite a bit for philosophy and politics as well.

Avoiding school was commonplace for the British aristocracy. But does it have a place in today’s education? Alan Thomas has done a study on this question. He’s Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Northern Territory in Darwin and his results are quite surprising.

Alan Thomas: Education means schools and classrooms, and always has. Not any more. A growing number of parents now take their children’s education into their own hands and teach them at home. Why do parents turn away from a freely available system of schooling and assume the huge responsibility of doing it themselves, usually without any training? For a variety of reasons: some have different educational philosophies, others because their children experience problems in school. Are they successful? By and large, yes. Sometimes, startlingly so. What about social development? Most parents go to great lengths to ensure their children don’t miss out on having friends.