Tom Nicholson
Personal – Married, live in Auckland, New Zealand – hobbies are writing, walking, cafes, sketching.
Short academic bio – Hello, here is a little bit about me -My career began with five fun years as a high school teacher in Sydney. I spent three years as an educational research officer with a charismatic team of positive people in the Research and Planning Branch of the Education Department of South Australia. After that, three years as a doctoral student and teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota, famous for freezing cold weather, 10,000 lakes, and beautiful people. After graduating from Minnesota with a PhD, I was an academic in three New Zealand universities: University of Waikato, The University of Auckland, and Massey University. At U. Waikato, I had huge support from my managers, and freedom to teach. At U. Auckland, I had a personal chair – the academic environment was incredibly competitive . The final stage of my academic career was at Massey University.
Research – Probably my most important study questioned the role of context clues in word reading. At the time, a popular belief was that proficient readers used context clues to read words. The study I did showed that this was not true (Nicholson, Journal of Educational Psychology, 1991). That study was reported in Education Week and Science News.
Community work
I have recently done some private tutoring of children needed literary coaching. In the past, I co-directed an after school reading program, run at a local school, with financial support from local sponsors.
Recent publications
Online course – Phonics in Action – published by Get Into Neurodiversity
Book
Nicholson, T., & Dymock, S. (2023). New Zealand dyslexia handbook (2nd edition). NZCER Press.
Journal articles
Nicholson, T., & Dymock, S. J. (2023, July-September). Teachers are our best resource to help students with dyslexia. Literacy Today, pp. 15-16.
Dymock S., & Nicholson T. (2022). Dyslexia seen through the eyes of teachers: An exploratory survey. Reading Research Quarterly, 58(2), 333-344. doi:10.1002/rrq.490
Total Publications – over the whole career span, about 200 altogether – including 25 co-authored or single-author books on different topics – mainly reading.
University Teaching – BEd and BA students, graduate students – courses on teaching reading, teaching writing, language and cognition, literacy difficulties, research methods, behavioral analysis in the classroom, human development, developmental psychology.
Some University student feedback – course evaluations
“Interesting, valuable, onto it. Involved the students. Really helpful.” “Funny and nice” “Funny, easy to understand, helpful answers, knows what he is talking about.” “It was cool, enjoyable. Lots of participation, guidance, patience. Always there to help.” “He was not dull, always in a good mood to teach. He was humorous at times which I felt facilitated my learning.” “He was open. Could ask questions. Gave good content. ”He always explained everything so clearly.” “Encouragement, non-threatening approach made learning easy, low-key, and achievable.” “Down to earth teaching, as well as humour. “Very clear, very approachable, and extremely helpful.”