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What is adaptive learning?

Adaptive learning is a digital learning concept that is gaining momentum in academic discussions about didactics. Simply put, it is a learning system that adapts tasks, difficulty levels and amounts of information to the individual student’s capabilities. With adaptive learning, the students improve by challenging themselves and focusing on the areas that need the most attention.

Adaptive learning is a multifaceted concept, and as a result, there can be uncertainty and confusion about its practical use in the classroom [1]. With new technological possibilities come new ways of thinking, and adaptive learning is no exception. In this article, we will take a look at adaptive learning as a concept. We will explore its practical application in education and finally, we will look at the relationship between students, teachers and software.

Happy reading!

The concept behind adaptive learning

Patsy Moskal (Associate Director, University of Central Florida), Donald Carter (Director, Northern Arizona University) and Dale Johnson (Adaptive Programme Manager, Arizona State University) have written an article that addresses seven elements worth knowing about adaptive learning. They define the term as follows:

“Adaptive learning is one technique for providing personalised learning, which aims to provide efficient, effective, and customized learning paths to engage each student. Adaptive learning systems use a data-driven-and, in some cases, nonlinear-approach to instruction and remediation. They dynamically adjust to student interactions and performance levels, delivering the types of content in an appropriate sequence that individual learners need at specific points in time to make progress.[1]”

In essence, adaptive learning is a method of personalising and customising the learning process for the individual learner. In this case, it’s a digital system that uses algorithms and non-linear, data-driven approaches to create a learning environment based on the individual learner’s abilities. This person-centred approach ensures an optimal environment where each student learns at an appropriate pace and level of difficulty. Adaptive learning is an alternative, IT-based learning method with a greater focus on the individual compared to traditional classroom teaching and lectures, which are based on shared learning for the collective.

Adaptive learning in education

Adaptive learning is a tool to complement both instruction and differentiation of instruction by creating learning environments that accounts for the individual student’s academic abilities. For example, in a maths classroom, an adaptive learning system will present the learner with a set of mathematical calculations to work out. Through the learner’s interaction with the software, the programme can adjust the difficulty level to provide an appropriate challenge. The same goes for reading training software that measure the learner’s reading skills and understanding of the text content. The program follows the individual student’s academic development and works to ensure that the reading material corresponds to the student’s level.

In the 1920s and 30s, Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky formulated the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development in his influential work Thinking and Language. The term defines a mental space where children, in co-operation with an adult, can learn to handle tasks that they are not yet able to do independently. Vygotsky listed three areas, each of which indicates a child’s developmental potential. If the child can already perform the action, there will not be a challenge and therefore the child will not develop further. Conversely, if the challenge is too great for them to handle, a child will not experience development. This will only create frustration and insecurity in the child. In between these areas is the zone of proximal development, where the child is encouraged out of their comfort zone with an adapted challenge and help from an adult. With adaptive learning, the learner is encouraged to step out of their comfort zone, which can be challenging, but with feedback and support from the teacher, the challenge is not overwhelming.

In this way, learning can be customised to each individual learner, with the best-performing learners continually challenging themselves with increasingly difficult tasks. Students who struggle with the tasks will be able to get the feedback and help they need from the teacher. This makes the learning experience beneficial for both students and teachers, as each student can get the right support and the teacher can ensure that all students are developing optimally.

A favourable relationship

There are a number of debates online about the relationship between teacher, student and software [3], [4]. Some fear that the teacher will become redundant. That the teacher’s role will be replaced by an inhuman phenomenon: The machine. There is also a debate about whether software can teach students skills such as creativity and problem solving, as well as other human qualities that they develop further in primary school.

There are legitimate reasons behind these concerns as we are currently seeing how artificial intelligence and increasing automation are “disrupting” the job market. A report from Danish think tanks Kraka and Cevea estimates – debatably – that approximately 800,000 jobs will disappear over the next 10-20 years. The same report also states though that new job opportunities will arise in the wake of this [5] in the same way that many have moved from the industrial to the service sector. The point is that just as machine needs service, and computer programs needs updates, so adaptive learning needs teachers.

Adaptive learning is a practical tool with clear benefits, but it can’t work without the teacher, whose role is pivotal in providing feedback, support and guidance to learners. With adaptive learning, teachers don’t have to spend resources on marking papers, checking answer sheets and calculations, because the software takes care of that. Instead, teachers are free to focus on forming, educating and supporting individual students.

Sources:

[1] http://evidencenterinfo.dk/laeringsteknologi-og-viden-faerdigheder-og-kompetencer/

[2] https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2017/1/eli7140.pdf

[3] https://www.mm.dk/artikel/e-laeringsekspert-skolelaerere-bliver-aldrig-overfloedige

[4] https://www.altinget.dk/uddannelse/artikel/centerchef-derfor-er-vi-skeptiske-over-for-area9

[5] https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/faktatjek-skubber-robotterne-800000-job-ud-af-arbejdsmarkedet

Do you know the two type of readers? Active and passive

Reading researcher Merete Brudholm operates with two types of readers, which she calls active and passive readers. The passive reader reads with the intention of getting it over with, and typically the reader thinks about many other things while reading the text. During passive reading, the reader doesn’t consider why they are reading the text or what is expected of them. There is a lack of investment in the reading process.  When reading passively, it becomes difficult to remember what you have read. This can lead to academic challenges, as the student lacks information – even though the required texts have been read.

In contrast to the passive reader is the active reader. This type of reader asks their own questions about the text before, during and after reading. Merete Brudholm explains: “The active reader is awake and attentive, and their goal is to understand the text and learn more. It’s about having a good experience and being able to remember and reproduce the text afterwards”.  With this type of reader, there is a high level of engagement and therefore much better conditions for a good outcome of the reading process.

The Fab Four

To train passive readers to become more active and invested in reading, Brudholm borrows the tools introduced by Lori D. Oczkus called ‘the Fab Four’: Predicting, Questioning, Clarifying and Summarising.

Predict involves students talking to their teacher about what they imagine the given text might be about before they actually read it. Brudholm encourages students to look at the images and headline, and on that basis, let themselves be guided in the direction of the text’s content. It is also a good idea to look at the table of contents, back cover text, and illustrations. Brudholm recommends that students use the phrase, ‘I think so-and-so will happen because…’, to summarise their ideas about the text.

Question involves students asking themselves questions about the text as they read: ‘I wonder… who, what, when and why?’ Some of the answers to the questions will be found directly in the text and others they will have to figure out by reading between the lines.

Clarify involves students having a dialogue with the teacher while reading about what the difficult words in the text mean. Sometimes a careful and slow reading of the word in question, will be enough to understand it, while at other times additional help is needed from the teacher.

Summarising involves students explaining what they have read by verbalising the content of the text.

Passive vs. active readers

Brudholm’s argument for why the four strategies above should be integrated into teaching, is based on international research on  reciprocal teaching which shows that children and young adults become better at understanding if the Fab Four are part of the teaching. Brudholm recommends that the strategy is incorporated into everything students read.

We have looked at a distinction between the passive/unconscious reader and the active/conscious reader. There is no doubt about the direction we at FrontRead want to lead students in – towards becoming active/conscious readers who can critically analyse the texts they read and understand and relate to them. This requires a great amount of energy, and it also requires, among other things, being able to orientate yourself in a large amount of texts in order to know where to place your mental resources.

Sources:

https://www.akademisk.dk/artikler/skole-og-laering/det-skal-jo-ikke-kun-handle-om-hvor-meget-en-kronhjort-vejer

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200772570_Reciprocal_teaching_of_comprehension-fostering_and_monitoring_activities

https://books.google.dk/books?id=C_1lDwAAQBAJ

Activate your preunderstanding – and get more out of your text

There are numerous components, methods and strategies that we either consciously or unconsciously utilise when reading everything from social media posts and news articles to non-fiction and fiction. These elements are inherent parts of reading comprehension that we are taught from an early age to help us better memorise and understand what we read.

Our reading comprehension is also influenced by other factors such as word decoding, vocabulary, and linguistic and cognitive awareness. Similarly, it is also characterised by motivation, attention and, not least, preunderstanding. Preunderstanding is an important prerequisite for both our reading comprehension and reading technique.

Comprehension strategies and reading techniques

Reading techniques, also known as comprehension strategies, are the mental activities we use while reading. We use them to better process information and acquire the desired knowledge. In many ways, it’s a mental balancing act, where the goal is to utilise our resources in the best possible way so that we don’t burn out before the text is finished.

In schools and universities, you will often be introduced to strategies such as Overview reading, Skimming, Speed reading, Study reading and SQ4R (“Survey, Qustion, Read, Respond, Record and Review”). These strategies are not exclusive to academia, as many of the same mechanisms can be transferred to other disciplines and everyday experiences.

For example, during overview reading, we typically read the preface, introduction, headings and conclusions and then skim selected parts of the text. What’s special about these reading techniques is that we get a sufficient picture of the content without going in-depth. The purpose is to better select relevant parts of the text. It is also to ensure that we use our resources appropriately. If all texts are given equal amounts of attention, we risk becoming tired quickly/ One of the causes of this fatigue is in our brain, and in this context, we can talk about two systems:

• System 1 – Autopilot (unconscious tasks)
• System 2 – Manual (conscious tasks)

We use System 2 for complex and novel tasks that require active awareness, where System 1 handles the unconscious and intuitive tasks. In this way, System 1 is our autopilot and System 2 is our manual control.

When we skim texts and simply read headlines, conclusions and prefaces, we are on autopilot, using our resources to get an overview rather than understanding the text as a whole. Once we’ve found the relevant parts of the text to focus on, we switch to System 2 to get a deeper understanding of the content. From here, we start using other strategies that focus more on close reading.

Fluency as a reading strategy

When we close read a text, we consciously use an increased amount of mental energy to make sense of the content. Similarly, when reading about a completely new and unfamiliar topic, we spend more resources on understanding everything from technical terms to new concepts as well as themes and main ideas. While reading, we also spend mental energy on word decoding and text comprehension, among other things, though this – depending on vocabulary and reading speed – might not require much.

Study reading is a close reading technique where we read each word carefully and often repeat entire paragraphs, as well as investigate difficult and new words/terms. It’s a thorough technique, but is not the most appropriate when the task is to get an overall view of the text.

Close reading requires a high level of awareness while reading. As we’ve seen above, increased concentration and awareness can quicky drain our mental energy. It’s therefore important to find and use a reading technique that makes the reading itself effortless, so we can use our energy on what’s important: Reading comprehension.

Fluent reading, also known as fluency, is a technique that provides a framework for reading with a surplus of reading comprehension based on three dimensions:

• Word decoding
• Automation
• Prosody

The goal of fluency is that we learn to read texts faster and more fluently, so as to easier understand what we read. With fluency, it’s especially important to mention that it’s not about reading fast for the sake of speed itself. We don’t create value by reading fast if we don’t make sense of the text at the same time. For this reason, all of the three dimensions are relevant to look at.

When we learn to decode words correctly, we can better read texts automatically without the need to stop along the way. We read the words with our automatic pilot (System 1), as we know the meaning and pronunciation of the words. Therefore, we don’t need to activate System 2 as much as we would if we had to be aware of each individual word. With prosody, we learn to read texts expressively, but prosody is mostly relevant when reading aloud. In relation to silent reading, it is not as relevant.

When we learn and eventually master fluent reading, we can read texts faster with increased comprehension, but it takes practice. A beneficial exercise can be repeated readings of the same text, where we get better at decoding and automatization is put in place. Studies have shown that the learning and experience gained from this exercise transfers to other and new texts.

However, as we read new texts and relate to new areas, there is one area of reading comprehension that becomes particularly important: preunderstanding.

Introduction to preunderstanding

With preunderstanding, also known as prior knowledge, we add a fourth dimension of fluency, as our existing knowledge of the topic, content and genre, among other things, can determine what we get out of the text. To begin with, preunderstanding can be categorised into two aspects: having a broad or deep knowledge of a topic or subject area. In relation to history, for example, a broad knowledge can mean that you have a general knowledge of most historical trends and periods, whereas a deep knowledge means that you have a thorough knowledge of, for example, the Middle Ages or the Han Dynasty. It is relevant to mention that one does not exclude the other.

Preunderstanding is not without its challenges, such as distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant prior knowledge. Another pitfall could be if we fail to activate our preunderstanding or create relevant associations with the content of the text. Relevant here is the cognitive schema theory. A cognitive schema is a memory structure and mental frame of reference located in our long-term memory, which we, for example, activate when we read about a topic we already know about. These schemas are based on past experiences from similar experiences and situations, which we use to better understand our current situation and adjust our expectation. For example, the name “Churchill” will likely trigger our knowledge of World War II, as we know that Winston Churchill was a central figure during the war. In terms of reading, the schemas help us create an overview of the text and to recognise, understand and have appropriate expectations of the content and the text’s the key features.

As mentioned, cognitive schemas are built on our past experience, and one of the key elements of preunderstanding is our own and the authors’ socio-cultural backgrounds. As readers, we are strongly influenced by our social environments and cultures, and as such, we encounter texts with our prior experiences, knowledge and needs in the back of our minds. This pre-understanding is considered by German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer as our horizon of expectations. Similarly, literary works are also influenced by the social environments, cultures and times of the authors, which Gadamer refers to as the horizon of understanding. During reading, an exchange between the horizon of the text and the horizon of the reader takes place in a hermeneutic circle, where the understanding of the text rests in the fusion of the two horizons.

There are ways to improve and increase our preunderstanding of the topic. This could be trough engaging with the topic outside of the text through documentaries or discussions with others. Repeated readings are also an option. As mentioned earlier, this is an inherent part of fluent reading, where you can gradually increase your awareness of the topic by re-reading selected paragraphs and texts. Finally, preunderstanding can be activated and enhanced by asking probing questions while reading, which can increase our attention and help us make the relevant associations.

Preunderstanding is an important part of reading comprehension as it allows us to better understand the themes, elements and main ideas of a text. Armed with this understanding, we can better process the new knowledge, draw conclusions and inferences about the content while reading, and possibly patch up gaps where the specific text would otherwise appear deficient. In conclusion, the more we already know about the topic, the better we can potentially read new texts and the more we can gain from them.

Preunderstanding in relation to fluent reading

When we activate and utilise the relevant preunderstanding, we can potentially gain even more from the text when using fluency as a reading strategy. With our preunderstanding, we can read texts more fluently, as we can better systematise our new knowledge, fill in any gaps in the current text and, not least, draw conclusions about the content. At the same time, we will have a greater knowledge of technical terms, main ideas and themes that will help us better understand what we are reading. Finally, it can help us make deeper meaning of the text’s content, so we can potentially get more out of the reading material.

Read more about preunderstanding here.

Sources:

Bråten, Ivar m.fl., Læseforståelse, 2008

Münster, Morten, Jytte fra marketing er desværre gået for i dag: Sådan bruger du adfærdsdesign til at skabe forandringer i den virkelige verden, 2017

Rasinski, Timothy, Educational Leadership (Creating Fluent Readers), 2004

Rasinski, Timothy, Why Reading Fluency Should Be Hot!, 2012

Roe, Astrid, Læsedidaktik – efter den første læseundervisning, 2010

What is reading comprehension? And why is it important?

Here we take an introductory look at reading comprehension, as well as some of the popular reading techniques. In its simplest form, reading comprehension is about understanding what you read. Our definition of reading comprehension is based on an article by Lene Storgaard Brok and Søren Eefsen, in which they state the following:

“The goal of reading is to be able to understand what you read. Understanding what you read is a complex cognitive and linguistic process that involves the reader actively interpreting the written message based on the knowledge with which the reader encounters the text.”

It seems simple and straightforward. But is it really?

Reading comprehension is a matter of preunderstanding

Reading comprehension is an interesting area to study as it involves several layers, all of which are worth taking a closer look at. For example, the quote above states that comprehension of a given text is a complex cognitive and linguistic process that involves active interpretation by the reader based on their existing knowledge. This can sound complicated, because what does it mean that comprehension is a cognitive and linguistic process? And how do you interpret a message based on your preunderstanding.

It is in answering these and potentially more questions that makes reading comprehension interesting to work with. To begin with, we will therefore look at two main elements that constitute reading, as well as the idea of encountering the text with the knowledge you already possess, which you then use to interpret the text.

Reading can be seen as a combination of two elements: decoding and comprehension. While reading the text, the individual words and sentences are decoded, and the reader then attempts to understand their collective meaning by contextualising them. Roughly put. The actual decoding of words and sentences is not relevant to us at this point, but we’ll come back to that. Right now, however, we need to look at a preliminary element of the comprehension aspect itself. If we look at the above definition by Brok and Eefsen, it may seem that we are simply inferring a meaning, already predestined by the author, as if we were simple unwrapping a gift. This is not entirely accurate. In an article from 2010, Jonna Astrup emphasises that reading itself also creates meaning.

“‘Reading comprehension is about extracting and creating meaning by examining and interacting with a written text’ (Bråten, 2008). This definition clearly has two aspects: inferring meaning and creating meaning. The latter part of the definition requires the reader to actively interact with the text – not just retrieving information from the text, but adding meaning to it as well. Comprehension is therefore not just about blindly adopting the author’s and text’s meaning, but about the reader creating their own meaning by connecting the text’s content with their own pre-existing knowledge of the text’s subject matter.”

Reading comprehension is about actively interacting with the text, both retrieving and adding meaning by interweaving the content with your preunderstanding. As Astrup points out, you don’t just blindly adopt the author’s viewpoint; you actively engage with the text. In this way, you utilise your prior knowledge to understand the content of the text while at the same time linking the content of the text to your existing knowledge.

Preunderstanding is therefore an essential part of reading comprehension, but how do you acquire it to begin with? To find the answer, we need to look at reading techniques. In the last article, we briefly reviewed a number of techniques used by the learning portal EMU and Aalborg University, among others. Essential to many reading techniques is that you should first think carefully about the content of the text before reading from chapter 1 onwards. In practical terms, this preparatory reading phase can be done by reading the conclusion first, skimming through parts of the text and/or reading the table of contents and preface. This phase is about building expectations and knowledge of the text so that you can better orientate yourself and select the key parts of the content. In this way, you can acquire a preunderstanding of the content that helps you to better understand the content of the text, while at the same time using the content to expand your understanding. In other words: With the right reading technique and preparation, you can gain appropriate preunderstanding that you can use to infer and add meaning to the material you read.

The cognitive and linguistic process

As promised earlier, we return to decoding, where we will deal with the cognitive and linguistic processes. Reading comprehension consists of a number of components, with preparation and preunderstanding certainly being among them. A number of the points below will therefore be characterised as being primarily about preunderstanding, but there are, however, a number of differences worth highlighting.

Merete Brudholm, co-author of the book The Fantastic Four of Reading Comprehension, highlights 6 reading components, all of which influence our reading comprehension:

Knowledge of language: Knowledge of language structures, sentences and words. The reader’s vocabulary and understanding of sentences, as well as grammatical rules and structures, is a crucial factor in whether a text is understood.

Knowledge of the world: Having background knowledge or acquiring preunderstanding of the text’s content.

Knowledge about texts: Knowledge of text structures and genres that help to set expectations about the content and structure of texts.

Knowledge of own comprehension (metacognitive): Being aware of one’s own comprehension skills and strategies that can be used to increase comprehension.

Knowledge of reading comprehension strategies: Knowledge of, for example, memory strategies and organisational strategies to achieve optimal reading comprehension.

Cognitive skills: Being able to form inferences, where you can think in terms of causality in the text, and visualise the read content.

While the categories can be debated, it is safe to conclude that reading comprehension is a combination of mental and physical resources that are utilised both consciously and unconsciously while reading. Reading comprehension is the reader’s ability to infer and add meaning to the read text based on vocabulary, linguistic and personal comprehension skills, and background knowledge of the given topic.

Read more about reading comprehension here.

Sources:

https://bibliotek.dk/da/work/870970-basis%3A27370195

https://bibliotek.dk/da/work/870970-basis%3A28490178

The art of reading: An introduction to reading and reading comprehension

Reading is a natural part of everyday life for many, and although we are not born as readers, we rarely give this ability a second thought. Whether we read news and articles or film reviews and social media posts, reading has become an integral part of our lives. It’s also one of the acquired skills in our educational toolbox that we learnt in the early days of primary school.

For some, reading is a game where you visualise the words and immerse yourself in magical worlds, and for others it’s a simple necessity for everyday life. For a third group, sometimes poses a challenge. Reading is therefore an interesting field to work with, because how do we deal with a phenomenon that many consider a natural part of everyday life? To analyse it many researches separate reading (as decoding) and comprehension.

In this article, we take an introductory look at the two phenomena and how they work separately and as a whole.

The art of reading and reading techniques

Reading, and the ability to read, is individual, but what many of us have in common is that we don’t think about how we read. But what if it could be done differently? Maybe even better? Over the years, a host of researchers, counsellors, teachers and educators have worked hard to develop reading techniques that aim to improve reading and reading comprehension. But aren’t the two the same thing? Surely reading is also understanding what you read? Well, not quite. While reading, a number of reactions occur in the brain, and you may find yourself suddenly thinking about that exciting party on Saturday where you were talking to that cute girl/boy. But what was their name, and did you ever get their number? Or you might start thinking about the exciting video game that you were playing on your Xbox the other day. You were in the middle of an intense quest to uncover a monstrous plot against the emperor, but who could be behind such an atrocity?

Why do our thoughts so often get derailed when reading? One of the most common reasons is boredom, but are you really bored when you read? Not necessarily. For some, racing thoughts occur when, for example, the subject matter is too complex to comprehend. In these situations, you simply decode the words, but the context and meaning remain a mystery. In essence, while reading, a situation can arise where our brains are not stimulated and suddenly we find ourselves thinking about completely different things while we inattentively read on without really understanding or relating to what we are reading. If and when this happens, many of us will jump back to the point in the text where we feel the chain broke, and start reading slower and more thoroughly.

Since childhood, we have learnt that slow reading is the same as thorough reading. Over time, we have also acquired an inner voice that reads along, so to speak. But is slow reading necessarily thorough reading, and is the inner voice a help or a hindrance? Today, there is a plethora of reading techniques, methods and advice in every conceivable form that you can use to improve your reading. On the education platform EMU, for example, you can find four techniques suitable for high school and college students.

The four techniques are Overview reading, Skimming, Speed reading and Study reading. Each focus on different elements, with skimming emphasising reading only headlines and conclusions, and speed reading teaching you to scan words and sentences without use of the inner voice. Aalborg University shares three pieces of advice suitable for academics in particular, emphasising the importance of reading space, prioritising and selecting reading material, and reading with curiosity and motivation.

Reading comprehension and reading comprehension strategies

There are a number of techniques and methods that aim to help us read more efficiently and potentially faster, but what about reading comprehension and what is it? In an article written by Lene Storgaard Brok and Søren Eefsen, it is described as follows:

“The goal of reading is to be able to understand what you read. Understanding what you read is a complex cognitive and linguistic process that involves the reader actively interpreting the written message based on the knowledge with which the reader encounters the text.”

In essence, reading comprehension is about understanding what you read. However, this is a simplified version, as the reality is more complex and multi-faceted. Reading comprehension depends on both the sender and the receiver. In this context, we’re mainly looking at the receiver, but it’s worth briefly mentioning the role of the sender. A rule of thumb in communication is that if the receiver does not understand the message sent, the sender has not communicated it in a proper way. This is a simplistic statement and reality is not so black and white, but the message remains quite clear: It’s always a good idea to keep the receiver in mind when a sender wants to convey a message. A practical example is that you shouldn’t write in an academic language with heavy use of technical jargon if your audience isn’t familiar with the subject matter.

With that in mind, we can take a look at the role of the recipient or reader. Despite the aforementioned, reading comprehension is very much about the reader’s activity while reading and, not least, preunderstanding. An optimal case is where the reader actively seeks meaning from the text: For example, they ask questions about the text and are curious about its meanings and messages. Being passive, on the other hand, increases the risk of the brain’s escapist train of thought. Another level of reading comprehension depends on preunderstanding, as the reader always meets the text  armed with their own knowledge and understanding of the world.

To help readers with reading comprehension, a number of reading comprehension strategies have been developed that can be implemented into reading habits on their own and/or through teaching. Merete Brudhold and Pernille Sørensen wrote the book, The Fantastic Four of Reading Comprehension (2016), which is based on Lori Oczkus’ four key elements of reading comprehension: Predicting, Questioning, Clarifying and Summarising. The tools can be seen as a kind of reading journey, where you begin by predicting the content of the text. This involves thinking about the elements you expect to get out of the text. As you read, you curiously ask questions and create mysteries that you then endeavour to solve. When you’ve finished reading a chapter, it can help to summarise the text in your own words at the end. In this way, you encourage yourself to actively engage with the text, which in the long run can contribute to increased reading comprehension.

A few final words

The above is just a brief overview of the vast world of reading, and when we dive beneath the surface, we suddenly see a colourful world of possibilities. In the next article, we will look at reading and especially reading comprehension as concepts, phenomena and research fields. Our primary focus is on the role of the reader, but it is important not to underestimate the importance of the sender. It is certainly a balancing act, but in conclusion, it can be argued that reading comprehension is a symbiotic relationship between text and reader.

Read more about reading comprehension here.

Sources:

https://www.videnomlaesning.dk/viden-om/laeseforstaaelse/

https://www.akademisk.dk/laeseforstaaelsens-fantastiske-fire

https://www.emu.dk/modul/f%C3%A5-styr-p%C3%A5-l%C3%A6seforst%C3%A5elsen

https://ucc.dk/videreuddannelse/laeseforstaelsens-fantastiske-fire-pa-mellemtrinnet

https://www.emu.dk/modul/l%C3%A6seteknikker-gymnasieelever-og-kursister

https://www.studieportalen.dk/studiebladet/studieteknik/laeseteknikker-4-du-skal-kende

https://books.google.dk/books?id=C_1lDwAAQBAJ

What expectations do we have as a reader when approaching an unknown text?

Every time we sit ourselves down with an unknown text we automatically have some expectations concerning what we’re about to read. We always look at texts through glasses coloured by our experiences and our education. Those “glasses” make it possible for us to find meaning in what we are reading. But sometimes our expectations can be a hindrance too, and if this is the case, we end up with a sense of frustration or find ourselves feeling that we didn’t catch the essence of the text – despite having read it thoroughly from end to end.

Read more… What expectations do we have as a reader when approaching an unknown text?