Focusing on the learner's story : four adolescents' experiences with institutionalized reading "we're not being treated fairly as human beings should"
Date
1990
Authors
Gowing, Adrian Kenneth
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Abstract
This is a phenomenological investigation of adolescents' attitudes and feelings toward reading experienced in school and personally selected literature. It involved six group meetings with the four students, three grade 7's and one grade 6. With the researcher acting as leader/facilitator the open, peer based talk surrounding the meetings centered on affective issues about school and reading. Also, during the six week research period, classroom observations were conducted, teacher interviews took place, and a parent questionnaire (subjects' parents) administered.
The study sought a greater understanding of the experience of institutionalized learning than provided by previous research into reading development and the acquisition of literacy skills. A text was created from the conversations which was subsequently transcribed and interpreted. The narrative style of this thesis was selected so as to afford a personal description of the learner's experience with schooled literacy.
One purpose of the study was to compare the students' experiences with reading in an institutionalized context with their preferred world of reading. It was hypothesized that learners participating in a more personalized, realistic setting, than provided by the school, would become more involved in the reading process. During some of this study's group meetings, an experiential approach to reading was implemented in order to focus on the uniqueness of the learner and to de-emphasize the institutionalized nature of literacy development (ie. externally generated reading assignments).
The experiences of the four adolescents in this study may help to illustrate the complexities of institutionalized learning. The research points to a need for educators to reexamine the environment they create for learners. The peer talk generated in this study offers some direction in that regard as it formed the basis of much of the meaningful, relevant activities surrounding the meetings.
This research contends that a more humanistic, studentĀ-centered form of education is needed if today's educators hope to liberate some of the present instructional practices. That there is a need for change is captured by the comment of one adolescent in this study: "We're not being treated fairly as human beings should."
Each learner is unique, bringing to the learning situation a myriad of experiences and beliefs. Accepting and nurturing that uniqueness is the role of every educator.
The stories presented here may cause some reflective thinking and help restore the relevancy and personal nature of reading development.