Or not quite good enough…
I’m a decent reader, but I find recipes hard to follow. The trouble is that you have to get recipes right – or anyway, right enough. Even short recipes require getting both the details right, but also the big picture. I need a coherent mental model. These are hard work.
Usually when I read, the standard of coherence I aim for is lower. If I’m reading a novel, it doesn’t usually matter if I’ve forgotten who a character is, or where the action is happening right now – the story sweeps me along. If I’m reading something academic, then my standard of coherence is higher – I’ll reread if something doesn’t add up. To get my standard really high, I’ll try to write about it (like now).
The chapter I’m reading is Standards of Coherence in Reading (Oudega and van den Broek 2018). I’ve been worried for a while about why my students, who are competent readers, are not able to learn from texts. This chapter has helped me understand. Building deep comprehension takes hard work. Unless we are well motivated to understand a text (e.g. a recipe, or an exam we really want to pass), we put less effort into comprehension. In class, when students don’t know what they are going to do with the text; when they know the teacher is going to explain it anyway or when they just don’t care that much, many students don’t have the motivation to comprehend deeply. They will read the words and be satisfied.
To increase your students’ Standard of Coherence (SoC) you can:
- tell them what they are going to do with the text – e.g. write a summary;
- make sure they’ve got enough prior knowledge to make deep comprehension easier and
- monitor their comprehension using questioning (make their level of comprehension visible to them and you).
Interesting Side Note
The Standard of Coherence applies to other forms of communication. A clear teacher explanation makes it easier to comprehend, but every student is going to have a different standard of cohesion – some will hear the words, but not do the thinking to comprehend what you are saying. Teachers have long known that asking questions helps. Also consider telling your students what they will need to do with the new knowledge before you explain it.
Ben
Reading for Learning 