How To Do Things With Words : Learning Diversity - 4 views
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the RRSG theory of reading comprehension is predominantly cognitive rather than cultural. It depicts the text as an encoded representation of a specific situation.
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Making and having meaning, then, transcend cognition and involve a commitment to values and the pursuit of ideals.
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These moral qualities are essential to human life, yet they seem to be completely redundant in the case of the aforementioned reader of “the cat is on the mat.”
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Could it be that teachers who are allegedly so obstinately unfaithful to the received theory of reading comprehension do in fact apply it in their classrooms, but fail to achieve adequate outcomes because the theory fails to explain reading as a meaningful human activity?
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the most authoritative theory of reading comprehension misleads her into performing a futile cognitive exercise.
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namely, instruct students to read the text creatively by transforming it into a model for exploring ideas such as self-deception, hubris, or the unintended negative consequences of well-intended parenting.
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it doesn’t address texts adequately as media of communication between purposeful, goal-oriented actors.
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The meaning of a message, then, is its use by the interacting parties and is therefore always much more than a mental representation. When we treat words or statements as mere representations, we fail to communicate.
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A theory that fails to enhance communication undermines education, because education is a special form of communication dedicated to the transmission of learning.
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The words remain his rather than theirs, conveying facts about his dream rather than becoming resources useful to them. These readers have missed yet another opportunity to make sense of the history of their nation and of their own lives in relation to it.
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hopeful vision coupled to a darker prophecy and a threatening message.
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This reading, then, intertwines American political history with the history of literature in a way that renders the reader herself an active participant in their making.
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creativity, diversity, and agency
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Readers, we propose, ought to associate the meaning of the text with its use. The texts students typically read in school, more specifically, ought to be used for the purpose of exploring ideas. Reading for this purpose is necessarily a creative endeavor because it entails transforming the text into a model of inquiry into certain aspects of the reader’s life experiences.
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In other words, because they use the text in diverse ways, its meaning varies accordingly.
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What is at stake is nothing less than how students relate themselves to cultural achievements that have shaped the world in which they live and the society in which they gradually mature.
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Conversely, education researchers in universities and other research institutes are often insufficiently familiar with how children learn at school, and therefore simply do not have an adequate understanding of the problems their research should solve
