Schema Theory Model of Reading

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Schema Theory Model of Reading

• EDC 565 Group Presentations
• Nicole Oliveira Lisa-Marie Ricci

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Principles of a Schema Model of Reading

• Schema organized knowledge of the world
  (Anderson 1995).
• Vital for comprehension
• Looks for relationships in stories/text
• Depends on persons age, gender, religion, race,
  culture
• Orderly searches memory, makes inferences,
  summarizes, generates hypotheses of missing info
  when gap in memory
• Reader comprehends a message when his/her schema
  gives a good explanation of things described in
  the message
• Reader builds their own understanding of a text
  using prior knowledge to form a complete
  consistent real world interpretation
• More than one interpretation of a text is
  possible
• Reading iscomprehension using known schema or
  creating a new one to build an understanding of a
  text.

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Aligning Schema Models of Reading With Historical
Eras

• Schema best fits The Era of Information
  Processing (1976-1985)
• Katian philosophy distinction between sensible
  world and intelligible world. The building
  blocks of cognition.
• Research influenced by philosophy of Immanuel
  Kant
• Sensible World world as perceived by senses
• Intelligible World World conceived by intellect
  or reason
• Construct of prior knowledge
• Associations made between readers existing
  knowledge and later reading performance,
  comprehension memory and strategic processing
• Era investigated organization of knowledge in the
  mind

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Conditions that prompted Schema Models of Reading

• An increase in research that focused on the
  structure processes of the human mind
• - Characterized by an emphasis on research on
  knowledge the construct of prior knowledge
• US funding lead to the creation of research
  centers specifically for reading research
• A movement away from the innate nature of reading
  and more of a focus on a basic research approach

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Leading Researchers of Schema Research in Reading

• R. C. Anderson (1977-1984) - Comprehension
• Immanuel Kant philosophy influenced research
• J. D. Bransford (1972) Illustrated schema in
  studies
• R. G. Steffensen, C. Joag-Dev and R. C.
  Anderson(1978) Illustrated schema in
  cross-cultural experiment

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How does a Schema model inform research in
reading?

• Research Questions
• Examine role of a readers schema in
  comprehension, learning and memory
• Methodologies
• Cross-cultural experiment and studies comparing
  how people of varying interoperate text
• Instructional Recommendations
• -Assess build prior knowledge during
• pre-reading activities
• -Help students assimilate new schema into
• existing knowledge base
• -Highlight the structure of the text material

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Visual of Schema Theory
TEXT -Presented to reader
SCHEMA orderly searching memory, making
inferences, summarizing, generating hypotheses of
missing info when gap in memory
COMPREHENSION AH-HA moment