Reading: A Historical Perspective

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Reading A Historical Perspective

• EDR501 Introduction to the Teaching of Reading

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Why a Historical Perspective?

• Broadens the lens on reading research and
  practice
• Allows for reasoned reflection
• Adds a critical dimension to the analysis of
  present-day events and issues
• Identifies internal and external forces that
  have led to transformations in reading
  instruction

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Early Interest in the Processes of Reading

• 1879 paper published on eye movements
• A passing interest in the processes of reading
  show up in the first decades of the 20th century
• Influence of psychology
• Much later in this century reading becomes a
  recognized field of study
• Fundamental nature of readingand the processes
  of acquisition

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Two Basic Views From Historical Reading Research

• Skills-based Approach Isolated Phonics
  Instruction Controlled Vocabulary Mastery of
  isolated skills
• Meaning-based Approach Readers rely on
  structure and meaning of language Literacy
  development parallels language
  development Emphasizes comprehension and
  meaning in texts

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The Era of Conditioned Learning (1950-1965)

• Post-War United States -- fertile ground for
  reading research and practice
• Baby boom
• Rise in the number of children experiencing
  reading difficulties
• Sputnik
• Rudolph Fleschs controversial publication Why
  Johnny Cant Read And What you Can Do About
  It

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• Look-say method vs. phonics-based techniques
• The New Fun With Dick and Jane vs. Lippincott
  Basic Reading Program, Reading With Phonics, and
  Phonetic Keys to Reading
• Skinnerian behaviorism brings a scientific
  perspective
• Reading broken down into constituent parts
• Practiced and reinforced in a systematic and
  orderly fashion
• Analytic approach leads to and a medical model
  for reading difficulties
• Structure and control stimulus-response teaching

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Resulting Principles

• Body of literature on subskills required for
  reading
• Studies of components of reading processes
• Focus on reading as a perceptual activity
• identification of visual signals
• translation of signals into sounds
• assembly of sounds into words, phrases, and
  sentences
• Children were trainable
• Reductionist aspect of behaviorism
• Bottom-up perspective
• Jeanne Chall, phonics instruction

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Rival Views

• Legacy of William James (1890) endured during
  this time
• Human thought mattered in human action
• Introspection and self-questioning were effective
  tools for uncovering human thoughts
• Reading is a mindful habit requiring
  introspection and reasoning
• Gestalt Theory and understanding phenomena as
  wholes
• Top-down perspective linguistics
• Emphasis of whole word recognition, the
  importance of context in comprehension and word
  identification, and the consideration of reading
  as a unique human activity
• Direct conflict with behaviorism

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The Era of Natural Learning (1966-1975)

• Unrest in the reading community with the precepts
  of Skinnerian behaviorism
• Unrest with discrete skills passively drilled and
  practiced until reflexively demonstrated
• Transition in research
• Interest in mental structures and processes
• Advances in neurology and intelligence
• Attention back inside the human mind
• Educational research community frequently at odds

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• Mid 1960s nationwide research venture, federally
  funded, First Grade Studies
• Two communities of theorists and researchers
  especially influential linguists (less
  environmentally driven, Chomsky) and
  psycholinguists (natural communicative process
  and inherent aesthetics of reading,Goodman,
  Goodman, and Smith)
• New era of reading research

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• Learning as a natural process
• Language developed through meaningful use
• Human beings biologically programmed to acquire
  language under favorable conditions
• Existence of mental structures designed to
  assimilate and integrate particular linguistic
  cues provided by a given language community
• Dramatic paradigm shift
• Neuroscience and cognitive science
• Relationship between neurological structures and
  grammatical structures
• Language unfolds naturally, developmental not
  just environmental

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• Psycholinguists carried this assumption beyond
  oral language into print or reading
• Focus on semantics and how meaning is acquired,
  represented, and used during the reading process
• Reading as an inherent ability
• Meaningful experiences
• Interaction of language as a
• system for social use
• Sociolinguistic investigations

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Resulting Principles

• Unite all manner of language acquisition and use
• Aggregation of the language arts into a unified
  field of literacy (listening, speaking, reading,
  writing)
• Learner as an active participant and a
  constructor of meaning
• Reading as a natural process
• Use of various forms of information to arrive at
  comprehension
• Predisposition to seek understandingwithin a
  language-rich environment
• How readers arrive at alternative
  interpretations of text (Clay)
• Miscue analysis (Goodman)

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Rival Views

• Cognitive scientists interested in artificial
  intelligence
• Focus on internal structures and processes of the
  human mind could be transferred into computer
  programs toapproximate human performance
• Similarity in human language processes were the
  result of acquired or learned knowledge and
  processes combined with innate mental
  capabilities
• Text-based performance differences between
  experts and novices in terms of their memory,
  recall, and problem-solving approaches
• The power of individual differences
• Reading as the processing of written text

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The Era of Information Processing (1976-1985)

• Theoretical transformation and a growing
  attention to the structure and processes of the
  human mind
• Research centers dedicated to reading research
• Theorists and researchers rooted in psychology
  and reading related fields
• Reading educators felt squeezed out

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• Searched for general processes or laws that
  explained human language as an interaction
  between symbol system and mind
• Searched for how information was organized and
  stored within the individual mind as a result of
  the input, interpretation, organization,
  retention, and output of information from the
  individuals environment

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Resulting Principles

• Construction of prior knowledge and its potent
  influence on students text-based learning
• Readers knowledge base was shown to be powerful,
  pervasive, individualistic, and modifiable
• Prior knowledge linked to
• individuals perspectives on what they read or
  heard
• allocation of attention
• interpretations and recall of written text
• Associations established between readers
  existing knowledge and reading performance,
  comprehension, memory and strategic processing

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• Studies concentrated on text-based factors in
  relation to story grammar, text cohesion, text
  structure, and text genres
• Organization of knowledge in the mind and how
  that organization distinguished novice readers
  from more expert readers
• Schema theory (Anderson, Piaget)
• Focus on the individual mind
• Students knowledge could be modified through
  direct intervention, training, and explicit
  instruction
• Strategy instruction (mapping, self-questioning,
  predicting, summarizing)
• Instructional environments and pedagogical
  techniques to improve comprehension

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Rival Views

• Those who held a more naturalistic and holistic
  view of reading
• Transactional theory
• Reader stances and responses to text efferent
  and aesthetic stances (Rosenblatt)

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The Era of Sociocultural Change (1986-1995)

• Constructivist theory
• Learning as individualistic
• Increased influence of alternative perspectives
  of social and cultural anthropology
• Vygotsky provided a new viewpoint for literacy
  researchers
• Ethnographic and qualitative modes of inquiry
• Studying literacy within naturally occurring
  texts in natural settings
• Outcome of learning was less important than the
  learning process

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• Social interaction of particular individuals in a
  particular context at a particular time fueled
  understanding and the creation of knowledge
• Divergent voices critical theory,
  postmodernism, radical constructivism
• Social and cultural perspectives on literacy
  learning
• Learning as a sociocultural, collaborative
  experience learners as members of a learning
  community
• Cognitive apprenticeship, shared cognition, and
  social constructivism

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Resulting Principles

• Movement toward increased sophistication of the
  conception of knowledge
• Reconciliation of schooled and unschooled
  knowledge (Gardner)
• Knowledge has multiple forms
• Knowledge can arise from social or contextual
  factors
• Domain-specific or task-specific qualification
  of student ability adds to discussion of
  conditionality of learning
• Sociocultural nature of schools
• Learning communities
• Cooperative learning (Johnson Johnson)

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Rival Views

• Rival views came within the agreement of
  considering social and contextual forces in
  literacy
• Situated learning (activity, context, and culture
  of the learning)
• Social nature of knowledge
• Learning in the immediate environment was
  non-transferable between situations or contexts
• Knowledge resides in the context itself rather
  than with the individual learners
• Knowledge is present when students are socially
  engaged in discussion or collaborative-learning
  activities

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The Era of Engaged Learning(1996-Present)

• Technology, research on motivation, and a
  deepening understanding of human development
  forced a change in the way learners and learning
  are perceived and studied
• Growing presence of hypermedia and hypertext
• The impact of nonlinear text on students
  learning
• Motivation impacts factors such as learners
  interest, goals, self-efficacy beliefs,
  self-regulation, and active participation
• Attention is being paid to researching learners
  at all levels

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• Reading is not confined to traditional print and
  includes alternative texts
• We have a great deal to learn about the impact of
  alternative texts on learning and literacy
• Engagement pertains directly to students
  meaningful and goal-directed participation in
  text-based learning
• Deweys notion of experiential learning and
  interest is key in this era
• Recent literacy research conceptualizes the
  learner as a motivated knowledge seeker

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• Reader engagement research establishes that
  learners are active and willful participants in
  the construction of knowledge
• The engaged reader is both individualistic and
  resides and operates within a sociocultural
  context
• Rekindled interest in strategic processing
  requiring reflection, choice, and deliberate
  execution on the part of the learner
• Developmentally, individuals are continually in
  the process of learning to read and have a
  direct role in their literacy (linguistic
  knowledge,subject-matter knowledge, strategic
  capabilities, and motivation continue to emerge)

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Resulting Principles

• Complexity and multidimensional nature of reading
• Reading is cognitive, aesthetic, and
  sociocultural and these forces are actively and
  interactively involved in reading development
• A range of textual materials, both traditional
  and alternative, should be reflected in the
  learning environment
• Todays learners are motivated, engaged
  knowledge-seekers
• The learning process is developmental and
  anchored in a sociocultural context

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Rival Views

• Reconditioning that reading subskills and
  components of reading must be a focus not because
  of reading theory but because of accountability,
  high-stakes testing, and national standards
• Learning as engagement is difficult to measure
• Prevailing trends reflect the influence of
  sociopolitical forces outside the reading
  community

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Todays Buzz

• Balanced literacy
• Integrated programs
• Four blocks approach
• Guided reading approach

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Alexander, P. and Fox, E. (2004). A historical
perspective on reading research and practice.
Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th
ed.). Newark, DE International Reading
Association.