Mind, Brain, & Education by David A. Sousa

Author:David A. Sousa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Solution Tree Press
Published: 2010-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

A New Science of Reading

Particularly if you are a parent or teacher, I hope that this chapter has given you a new—or renewed—appreciation for the remarkable plasticity and complexity of the brain that can read. A number of systems need to be developed and connected. Practice and experience—that is, education—must focus on all of these systems in order to create a brain that can read (see also Berninger & Richards, 2002; Schlaggar & McCandliss, 2007). From this dynamic complexity, it follows that there are a number of ways that a child might have difficulty with reading (Spear-Swerling, 2004). Understanding how the system is put together should help us to understand the ways in which the system might break down. Although these breakdowns have not been the focus of this chapter, they are a pressing educational concern, as national statistics indicate that slightly fewer than one-third of both fourth graders and eighth graders are reading proficiently (Lee, Grigg, & Donahue, 2007).

I have focused on some of the key components of the brain that can read but have neglected others (for example, morphology, syntax, and fluency) because of space limitations. Even so, it is clear that to really understand the brain that can read and to use that understanding in developing brains that can read requires expert knowledge from multiple perspectives and fields. Evidence-based practice demands both understanding of and critical thinking about the evidence. Particularly in terms of assessment and intervention, educators must understand and consider strengths and weaknesses across a number of reading subskills and systems, in addition to educational opportunity (Vellutino et al., 2004). In this sense, teaching reading really is rocket science (Moats, 1999). Indeed, we are in a new era for the science of reading, a science that draws from multiple disciplines in order to understand the complexity of reading and put that understanding to good use in our classrooms—a science that is not often taught in schools of education (Ansari & Coch, 2006; Lyon & Chhabra, 2004; McCandliss, Kalchman, & Bryant, 2003; McCardle & Chhabra, 2004; Snowling & Hulme, 2005; Walsh, Glaser, & Wilcox, 2006).

We are in a new era for the science of reading—a science that is not often taught in schools of education.

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