An
Instructional Approach to Reading
Since reading instruction and comprehension are such complex tasks it is essential to examine the components that are involved in influencing cognition and metacognition. Cognition is the ability of people to understand and process what is being learned. Ciardiello (1998) discusses the importance of improving cognition with the use of cognitive strategies. In his article he uses Rosenshine, Meister, & Chapman's (1996) definition that cognitive strategies are “a guided learning procedure for internalizing new information and performing higher level thinking operations.” (Ciardiello, 1998, p. 211).
One
of the most influential theories that support the importance of cognition during
the reading process is the constructivist theory.
Flood and Lapp (1990) explain constructivism as an approach that allows
the students to take ownership of their own learning and the importance of the
teacher as instrumental in providing the appropriate direction and support
needed for the students in becoming more collaborative and aware of the learning
process. Comprehension is
constructive, according to Flood and Lapp (1990) and needs to be a gradual
process where the learners grow in their comprehension with the emergence of the
processing of text taking place.
Through the constructive approach it is important for the learners to become more aware of their own learning for better comprehension. Metacognition is the ability of people to reflect upon and monitor their own learning and to understand how they are going about the learning process. Katims and Harris (1997) explain that in recent years reading researchers, along with the cognitive theorists, have developed an additional theory that reading comprehension must be influenced by how well a learner understands and constructs a representation of incoming information while reading. This is not an automatic process, and needs to be directed and monitored for overall success to occur.
The social constructivist approach is where learners create meaning through transactions with text and with one another (Ruddell & Shearer, 2002). Ruddell and Shearer discuss Vygotsky's (1986) Zone of Proximal Development that involves the teachers working with the learners and showing them how to comprehend information, then moving towards peer involvement and finally independence. Readers learn by ongoing transactions with text, peers and teachers within an authentic learning environment.
Reading
is an interactive process, according to Dewitz, Carr, & Patberg (1987).
The reader is the essential part of the process when he or she constructs
meaning from the text and controls the ownership by generating meaning and
monitoring of his or her own thinking (Dewitz, Carr, & Patberg, 1987).
Simpson and Nist (2000) argue that the processes of cognition and
metacognition have been overlooked in previous years.
The research that Simpson and Nist (2000) evaluated indicated that recent
researchers are focusing their investigations more on the processes that
students enact in as they read and study.