KEY FINDINGS
> > ReLeah Lent (2012) offers a cogent explanation: “A person’s background knowledge, often called prior knowledge, is a collection of ‘abstracted residue’ (Schallert, 2002) that has been formed from all of life’s experiences. We all, whether as a toddler or a centenarian, bring diverse bits of background knowledge—consciously or subconsciously—to every subsequent experience, and we use them to connect or glue new information to old. Background knowledge is an essential component in learning because it helps us make sense of new ideas and experiences.”
More to Know: Background Information— Essential for Comprehension
Many of us—even as adults—have experienced reading something that we had trouble understanding because we lacked the background knowledge to comprehend it—technical programming manuals, tax documents, or medical results all come to mind. If we’re not computer programmers, tax lawyers, or physicians, we may falter in our attempts to fully absorb and understand them. But the failure to comprehend has nothing to do with our intelligence or reading ability—it has everything to do with our lack of background knowledge. The most important factor in determining how much readers will comprehend writing about a given topic is their level of knowledge about the topic (interest in the topic is also important but is often related to prior knowledge). Up to 81 percent of the variance in post-test scores is explained by prior knowledge (Dochy, Segers, and Buehl, 1999). The importance of prior knowledge to comprehension is part of all modern theories of reading (Allington, 2012; Smith, 2012; Duke et al., 2011; Anderson and Pearson, 1984; Spivey, 1996). Prior knowledge about a topic creates a schema—a framework or structure—that supports thinking and helps readers process new information about the topic. However, if we’ve had no experience with or exposure to a particular topic that we encounter in a text, we won’t have the schema to help us process and understand the new topic. Because comprehension is dependent on prior knowledge, children without knowledge of a particular topic may not be able to comprehend much of what they read about that topic. Readers who don’t possess the knowledge that the writer assumes they have may fill in the blanks with knowledge the author had not intended , or not fill in the blanks at all (Fleming, 2016; Santman, 2005).
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CHAPTER 2: READING
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