The Maloney Method

The Maloney Method is a simple and effective teaching strategy grounded in the evidence-based methods of the top education researchers. Over the last 45 years, these curriculum design technologies has proven to be the most effective education model available, teaching over children and adults with 2-2.5 years of gains per year in basic subjects such as reading, spelling and math. The Maloney Method was derived from the combination of three behavior analysis; B.F.Skinner (Harvard), his first PhD graduate, Ogden R. Lindsley (Kansas U) and Sigfried Engelmann (University of Oregon), the creator of Direct Instruction. The amalgamation started when Eric Haughton (Ogden's first doctoral graduate) and I began working in Hastings County Public Schools in Belleville, Ontario. I was just trained by Zig Engelmann as a Direct Instruction trainer. Eric had the Precision Teaching system and we were both behaviorists. We took the 3 combined methods into special education classrooms and consistent success teaching literacy skills. The effect got in the way of the status quo, so the board threw us under the bus. I responded by starting my own private learning centre in the city's core. Eric and his wife Elizabeth were my pro bono consultants. The learning centre morphed into a full-time day school. When computers were introduced we started creating software so our students would not be left behind technologically. We marketed our Mighty Math software until Scholastic of New York offered us the chance to create 8 math programs. Unable to do both projects, I closed the school for 5 years then reopened the learning centre component again when the Scholastic project ended. Since then, I have helped a large number of people to start schools and learning centers, written 30 books that contain the method, worked with the homeschooling and autism communities, and recently created a digital reading program that runs in of Dhaka, Bangladesh to teach slum kids.