TCL Assignment Directions
Answer the following questions regarding things you found interesting/informative from the readings, and connections you were able to make to the theories we read about and discussed in the Tracey and Morrow mini-lecture 2 from module 2 (Will be provided below)
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- How does Critical Literacy fit into Socio-Cultural Theory?
- What resonated for you in the readings and videos? (Will be provided in the files)
- Where do you see Critical Literacy fitting into the classroom?
- How do we bring this kind of teaching to our students?
- How does Adichi’s Single Story take on new meaning with the Socio-Cultural Theory? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg&ab_channel=TED)
Mini-Lecture #2: A Historical Framework of Learning and Reading Theory
Tracey and Morrow (2017) stress that “knowledge of theories and models provides a necessary foundation for coordinated and cohesive instructional activities” (2017, p. 15). Theory gives teachers a base from which to teach and create with an understanding of why we choose the activities and methods we choose. “The better that educators understand the variety of theories and models that can be applied to literacy learning situations, the more effectively they can design and implement high-quality literacy instruction” (2017, p. 15).
Tracey and Morrow begin with the Mental Discipline Theory (Plato, Aristotle) which “presents the brain as a muscle that needs to be strengthened – mental discipline theorists would look at amount of time of reading practice first to determine why a child struggled” (2017, p. 233). This is where “time on task” comes from. Associationists would focus on “strengthening a readers’ mental connections before, during, and after reading“ (2017, p. 234). This is where we get brainstorming and Behaviorism from.
Behaviorism is broken into three subtypes: Classical Conditioning Theory (Pavlov and Watson), Connectionism (Thorndike), and Operant Conditioning Theory (B.F. Skinner).
Classical Conditioning Theory “suggests that learning occurs through a transfer of association” (2017, p. 235)– think of Pavlov’s experiment with dogs: He paired an unconditioned response – salivation, with meat and a bell often enough so that meat and the bell conditions the response of salivation (CR – conditioned response). Eventually, the stimulus (meat) can be removed and the bell alone becomes the stimulus for the salivation. The dogs “associate” the bell with the arrival of meat. With regard to how this influences reading, we hope to build positive experiences for children around books so that when they get a book, the conditioned response is one of happiness and success. Hence, “reading and positive experiences” become an association. Pavlov and Watson were “interested in events that preceded actions” (2012, p. 194).
Connectionism (Edward Thorndike) – “Thorndike extended the study of Behaviorism by showing that” even if a stimulus is presented after a behavior, this can also influence behavior – hence the word “connection” in “connectionism”(2017, p. 235).
Operant Conditioning Theory (B.F. Skinner) relies on the notion that if a reward that is desired, is presented with a behavior, the behavior will be repeated even when the reward doesn’t happen immediately. Skinner demonstrated this with his rat experiment. Rats were placed in what is now called a “Skinner box” and rewarded with a pellet of food each time they pressed a lever. After the initial notion of a reward for pressing the lever was established, Skinner made the reward happen more randomly. The end result was that the rats would press the lever almost constantly to get the reward even when the reward happened very infrequently.
So you can see how these three “behaviorist” theories are connected: a desired behavior is connected to, or associated with, a desired reward. Even when the reward is not immediately given, the behavior will still exist. How do we use this in teaching? We have to find out what motivates our students and what things are valuable to them. For many students, having a choice in what they read and learn is very motivating and grades, praise, and recognition are the rewards they seek – more so than tangible rewards like a prize.
John Dewey is considered the first Constructivist and he based his work on the Unfoldment Theory which was developed by Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel (2017, p. 237). “Dewey’s philosophy of education became known as Inquiry Learning” (2017, p. 237) and is important to us as Dewey “argued that to optimize learning, students needed to work together” (2017, p. 237). This supports the Socio-Constructivist stance this course is based upon. Students work together, in a social setting, to construct (build) their knowledge together. This type of learning solidifies concepts much more than when students are engaged in teacher-directed activities. When students ‘discover’ and ‘discuss’, the concepts are more easily integrated into their existing schema and much more valuable to them. (see pp. 237-238 in the 2017 text for definition and discussion of schema and Schema Theory)
Louise Rosenblatt is a name you should all become familiar with and remember. Her work is widely cited and used throughout education. “Rosenblatt (1994) further extended the application of Schema Theory in the field of reading. She argued that every reading experience is therefore unique to each individual as well” (2017, p. 238). Rosenblatt coined several ideas that you should know:
- “Transactional/Reader Response Theory – the notion that all readers have reading experiences that vary from one another forms the cornerstone of this theory.
- Efferent Responses– those that are factual and objective in nature
- Aesthetic Responses – those that are feeling-based, personal, and subjective” (2017, p. 237)
From the next section of the outline, Piaget (1969), Frith (1985), Chall (1986), Ehri (1991) and Clay (1985) are common names you will come across time and again in the field of Literacy. Clay’s theory of Emergent Literacy believes “that children’s development in the areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all interrelated. They also believe that literacy development starts at birth and is continuous and ongoing. It also emphasizes the critical role that children’s home environments have on the development of these abilities” (2017, p. 243). Ehri’s (1991) Stage Model of Reading Development is also widely used and valued – more so than Chall (but you will come across this work as well).
Social Learning Perspectives encompass the work most notably of Bakhtin (1981), Vygotsky (1978), Bandura (1969) and Freire (1970). Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD is one of the most widely cited theories in education. The ZPD is where a teacher wants to teach: that point where the student can complete a task with assistance. As the student becomes more capable, the ZPD shifts and instruction must adjust. Think of it like this, a student learning to read begins with the letters and sounds and needs help and this is the ZPD. Once this gets mastered, it is a task the student can do independently and is no longer in the ZPD. The ZPD is now the task of reading.
Socio-Cultural Theory and Critical Literacy Theory take into account the ‘human’ factor – the culture, the history, the social aspect – and how these things interact in people and need to be considered when teaching. It’s not enough to just “love children” and “love teaching” – teachers need to understand where their children come from: their cultures, their communities, their history. Teachers need to recognize the value in social interaction and the value in the knowledge that students bring to school. This should be utilized to educate as should teaching children to view learning from multiple perspectives. As Freire (1970) notes, children are not banks into which we make deposits. We should value where they come from and allow them to interact with each other in the learning process.
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