Reading

For most students, the process of learning is strongly dependent on their ability to make sense of linguistic information presented in either written or oral form. That is, for most students the process of learning is fundamentally the process of learning from text. The importance of text-based learning is as old as formal education. Yet, during the last three decades of the twentieth century, the concepts of text and learning underwent transformations that significantly influenced the nature of student academic development.

Traditionally, text has been viewed as the linear connected discourse typified by textbooks, magazines, or newspapers. This textual form remains a centerpiece of human learning and the source of most of the research in text-based learning. In the 1980s and 1990s other forms of text became increasingly important components in school learning. Specifically, students were also required to learn from the less linear, more dynamic, and more transient messages encountered daily in discussions and online. Thus, students must become conversant with all modalities of text if they are to learn effectively in the decades to come.

Moreover, when considering student learning, one must think beyond simple notions about the acquisition of declarative (i.e., factual) knowledge and procedural knowledge (i.e., knowing how to do something). Instead, learning is essentially the process of instigating deep and enduring changes in students' knowledge, beliefs, motivations, and problem-solving abilities. The focus in this entry is on the dimensions of knowledge and belief and their relationship to learning from text. As will become evident, learning from any text is a process inevitably intertwined with one's knowledge and beliefs, both in terms of the knowledge and beliefs one brings to the text, as well as the knowledge and beliefs one derives from it.

The Text

Not surprisingly, the process of learning from text depends significantly on the genre, structure, and quality of the messages students encounter in books, in discussions, and online. For example, students must deal with texts written to tell a story (i.e., narrative), those that convey information (i.e., exposition), and those that are some combination of both (i.e., mixed text). Each of these genres affects student learning in different ways. Further, some texts offer only one perspective on a topic or issue, whereas others present multiple, competing views. These varied structures have been shown to influence students' knowledge and beliefs differently. Finally, whether narrative or expository and whether onesided or multisided in perspective, texts can be comprehensible and coherent or difficult and inconsiderate of their audiences. Such qualities can facilitate or frustrate student learning.

Text genres. Research has shown that text genre influences student learning. Narratives, such as myths and novels, are expressions of actual or fictitious experiences. Because of their common story structure and overall appeal, narratives are often easier forms of text to process. Also in narration, interesting segments are often important ideas to be learned. This perhaps explains why most students learn to read using narrative texts.

In contrast, expository texts (e.g., newspapers, encyclopedias) present information that explains principles and general behavioral patterns. Many subject-matter textbooks employ exposition. They are characteristically dense with facts and concepts and are often considered to be rather dry in style. Also, interesting and important content are likely to diverge in exposition. While exposition becomes increasingly prevalent as students move out of the early elementary grades, students are given little explicit instruction in how to learn from such texts, which might help explain students' difficulties in learning from their course textbooks.

A mixed text, by comparison, possesses properties of both narration and exposition, as when textbooks incorporate personally involving information about central figures. Biography is one of the most common examples of mixed text. One problem with mixed texts is that students are often uncertain about what is factual versus what is fiction. Interesting and important content might also diverge in mixed texts as it does in exposition.

Argument structure. Within each genre, texts can be written to conform to particular text structures (e.g., essay or argument). Texts characterized by an argument structure, for example, often open with a claim about a topic and then follow with supporting evidence. This format closes with a warrant, restatement, or summary of the claim and supporting evidence. Texts with an argument structure are often employed to alter students' knowledge and beliefs, so studies employing various forms of argument structure appear in the literature on changing knowledge and beliefs.

In addition, a given text can have multiple arguments embedded in it. For instance, a substantive finding in the change literature is that texts presenting both sides of an argument and then refuting one side of the argument (i.e., two-sided refutational texts) are more likely to influence students' knowledge and beliefs than other argument structures. By comparison, texts that present only one side of the argument or present both sides in a more neutral fashion may be less likely to alter students' conceptions. Finally, the content or supporting evidence within a given argument also plays a significant role in learning. Students are more likely to believe and comprehend the argument if the supporting evidence comes in multiple forms (e.g., graphs, stories, and examples) or if the evidence includes personally relevant scenarios rather than consisting only of graphs and statistical data.

Textual quality. Among the multiple factors that contribute to text quality and subsequent learning are comprehensibility and text credibility. Simply put, when students understand the intended message in the text, text-based learning is more likely to take place. In a 1996 article Patricia A. Alexander and Tamara L. Jetton suggested that problems in text comprehension limit the acquisition of knowledge. Also, students must be able to judge the communication as coming from a reliable source. While students will likely judge textbooks as credible, this may not be the case for online materials, magazines, or newspapers. Text credibility is enhanced, however, when the message is judged as unbiased and if the author or communicator is perceived as an expert.

The Learner

In addition to the genre, structure, content, and quality of the text, characteristics of the learner also play an influential role in text-based learning. Specifically, learning from text is mediated by a number of variables including one's prior knowledge and preexisting beliefs.

Knowledge. Of all the factors relevant to text-based learning, none exerts more influence on what students understand and remember than the knowledge they already possess. This background or prior knowledge serves as a scaffold for obtaining new knowledge. The term prior knowledge, in effect, represents individuals' mental histories or their "personal stock of information, skills, experiences, beliefs, and memories" (Alexander, Schallert, and Hare, p. 317).

Moreover, both the accuracy and extent or depth of one's knowledge seem to be critical factors in learning from text. For instance, changing students' understanding about a rather well-defined concept (e.g., the speed of falling objects) is more difficult when an individual's prior knowledge is less sophisticated or runs counter to the scientific knowledge presented in the text. The use of a two-sided refutational text that specifically counters students' naive or ill-formed concepts has proven effective under such circumstances.

The amount or level of an individual's knowledge also plays an influential role in the learning. It is relatively easier to change individuals' ideas about a particular topic if they possess some, but not too much, relevant knowledge. Individuals who are or who believe they are quite knowledgeable about a topic may feel that they have less to gain from engaging with a text message on that topic. Indeed, several studies have found that readers' perceptions of what they know (i.e., perceived knowledge) is critical and possibly even more predictive of learning than the amount of relevant knowledge they actually display (i.e., demonstrated knowledge).

Beliefs. Like knowledge, beliefs play a fundamental role in what students learn from text. One's beliefs are idiosyncratic, the result of the accumulation of experiences over the course of one's life. Unlike knowledge, however, definitions of beliefs vary widely from philosophy to psychology to education. Most agree that beliefs generally pertain to psychologically held understandings, premises, or propositions about the world that are felt to be true. As such, beliefs have much in common with concepts such as attitudes, values, judgments, opinions, dispositions, implicit theories, preconceptions, personal theories, and perspectives. In fact, the word belief is often used interchangeably with these terms. Also, the valence of truthfulness often associated with beliefs seems to give them even greater importance within text.

Perhaps one of the most important aspects about beliefs and text is the degree to which one is aware of them. While students have many beliefs that guide their actions, these beliefs may reside at the tacit level, and students may be unaware of their existence. Indeed, researchers contend that beliefs are organized in such a way that certain beliefs–the more central ones–become connected to other beliefs and are more resistant to change. Further, beliefs may be organized in clusters, allowing incompatible beliefs to be held apart in separate clusters and thus protected from each other.

The more embedded individual beliefs or clusters of beliefs become in one's belief system, the more difficult it is to change them. Nevertheless, when individuals are presented with causal explanations concerning people, objects, or events, they are likely to change or alter their beliefs, even if they are deeply embedded. It would seem that the reading and discussing of argument texts helps to bring embedded beliefs to an explicit level where they are more open to alteration. Finally, as is the case for changing or altering one's knowledge, belief change is more likely to occur when individuals read well-written, comprehensible texts. Certainly, the learning and processing of written or oral text is an intricate endeavor involving the interaction of the learner with the text.