Week 2: Summary of "A Historical Perspective"

Patricia A. Alexander and Emily Fox provide a comprehensive overview of fundamental changes in reading research and practice from 1950 to the present in “A Historical Perspective on Reading Research and Practice.” The authors point to important historical conditions that have shaped the ways in which reading is studied and taught. Beginning with the era of Conditioned Learning from 1950-1965, Alexander and Fox note that in this mid-century period, reading acquisition was often seen as a problem to be fixed, and an empirical scientific method was employed in order to “correct” reading problems; the act of reading was viewed in terms of a medical metaphor, in which the researcher “diagnosed” the problems and attempted to “correct” or eradicate them. The authors note a growing concern in this period with the United States’ ability to compete with other nations on a global scale, connecting this concern with a growing pressure in the reading community to solve the “problems” of developmental readers (34). In psychological research Skinnerian behaviorism became highly influential. Skinnerians aimed to bring an empirical scientific approach to reading problems, examining the ways in which certain behaviors resulted from particular environmental factors. For Skinnerians, there was no concept of growth or progress in a reader, but only certain results that were produced by certain environments; in practice, this meant an approach that focused on “stimulus and response,” similar to the ways in which clinical experiments were conducted on laboratory animals. For reading researchers, subjects were viewed in terms of their ability to perform a “chain of discrete skills,” skills which derived from particular behaviors and which could be broken down and treated separately from one another. Because of behaviorism’s emphasis on studying observable behavior, reading was seen as a perceptual activity, which laid the foundation for phonics to become the dominant method of instruction.

In The Era of Natural Learning from 1966-1975, there was a turn away from Skinnerian behaviorism as attention was focused instead on the workings of the human mind and on the preexisting structures that determined language use; unlike the behaviorists, researchers in this era downplayed the role of environment. Also during this time, an interdisciplinary perspective on reading took hold, as researchers from multiple disciplines applied their knowledge to the nature and teaching of reading. There was widespread agreement that learning was a natural process and that it could be meaningfully developed. The community of linguists, led by Noam Chomsky, sharply rejected behaviorist approaches to focus instead on how innate mental capacities shaped language use; these linguists believed that one’s mental competency was separate from one’s reading performance, and that focus should be placed on the natural unfolding and development of language skills. These ideas were formative for the field of psycholinguistics. In terms of views of reading, language acquisition was now seen in a more unified way, so that the study of speaking and listening was combined with the study of the acquisition of written language, creating a more unified perspective. In contrast to behaviorist attempts to “correct” reading problems, researchers in the Era of Natural Learning examined how readers reached divergent interpretations and how this reflected their particular attempts to construct meaning.

In the Era of Information Processing from 1976-1985, changes in the field of cognitive psychology greatly influenced approaches to reading. There was a turning away from Chomsky’s view of innate and natural abilities, as “information processing theory” gained dominance. Influenced by the thinking of philosopher Immanuel Kant, this approach utilized a metaphor centered on mechanistic information-processing. With this understanding, knowledge was seen as “powerful, pervasive, individualistic, and modifiable” (42), and there was an emphasis on the ways in which prior knowledge shaped the processing of information and the acquisition of new knowledge, along with reading performance. Among the cognition-related theories that emerged in this period, schema theory has proven to be one of the most influential, which included a focus on the individual mind and the value of individualistic and various interpretations. This individualistic focus tended to exclude considerations of the learner’s cultural conditions and indeed, of the environment in general. A belief in the modifiability of knowledge led to approaches to reading instruction that centered on direct intervention and explicit training during the reading process.

In the Era of Sociocultural Learning from 1986-1995, there was a shift away from the information-processing model, in part because of the failure of this model to work as well as expected when practically applied in the classroom. In addition, there was an expansion in reading research beyond the field of cognitive psychology, as researchers in the fields of social and cultural anthropology entered the conversation and provided new perspectives. These researchers promoted ethnographic approaches that rejected the previous era’s individualistic focus, so that learning was now viewed as the product of social interactions within a particular place and time. Learning was seen as being shaped by sociocultural conditions that were primarily collaborative and mutual, rather than individual and isolated. Additionally, the earlier, more formal approach which favored using the scientific method and formal knowledge to teach reading was discounted. Skepticism grew toward “schooled” knowledge, and toward prior knowledge in general, while there was instead an emphasis placed upon “the conditionality of knowledge,” how knowledge is shaped within certain communities. This transformation in views of traditional knowledge and education promoted a new conception of the teacher as more of a facilitator, rather than an all-knowing authority, a conception which laid the foundation for student-centered approaches to learning.

Finally, the era of Engaged Learning from 1996 to the present is defined by a radical change in traditional notions of the text. As opposed to earlier conceptions of texts as printed materials read only in a linear way, texts now are often nonlinear and come in online and audiovisual forms, what the authors call “hypertext” and “hypermedia” (50). For teachers of reading, attention must now be paid to how students process both traditional and alternative texts, and the specific problems that accompany encounters with diverse materials. More attention is paid also to the role of classroom discourse on students’ development and reading performance. Concurrently, motivation theory has led to a new interest in a learner’s interests, goals, and beliefs, and a new view of the student as a motivated learner and reader. Cognitive factors are now linked with motivational factors as researchers attempt to understand the learning process. Perhaps most fundamentally, there has been a transformation in how the reading process is viewed, to focus on the changing and lifelong nature of reading and learning as students develop over the years of their lives, what the authors call a “developmental perspective on reading” (53). Moreover, students are seen as “active learners,” both members of a sociocultural community that shapes their perspective, as well as unique individuals who must discover their own meaning of a text. This approach reconciles the individualistic and collective approaches that characterized the previous eras.