What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction - International ...

should examine these conditions in all their instructional endeavors,
with the ultimate goal of ensuring effective, quality instruction
for optimal learning. In this session, the group will look at the
constructivist approach within these conditions of learning.
Framing the Session
Desired outcomes
• To examine the constructivist framework
• To explore instructional principles within the constructivist
framework, with reference to conditions of learning
• To identify research that supports and refutes the constructivist
framework
Guiding questions
• How do the ends relate to the means in the constructivist
theory?
• How do you create conditions in your classroom that encourage
all learners to engage in demonstrations of literacy?
Key vocabulary
• Constructivism: A set of assumptions that Cambourne holds to
include three primary components: (1) What is learned cannot
be separated from the context in which it is learned, (2) the
purposes the learner brings to learning are central to what is
learned, and (3) knowledge is socially constructed
• Intellectual unrest: “Puzzlement” that a learner experiences and
engages with as a stimulus and organizer for learning
• Epistemology: Theory of knowledge; philosophy concerned with
the nature and scope of knowledge
Materials
For each participant:
✓ Chapter 2 of What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction
✓ A copy of Cambourne’s 1995 article “Toward an Educationally
Relevant Theory of Literacy Learning: Twenty Years of Inquiry”
(available at www.reading.org)
✓ Conditions of Learning chart (see Appendix)
From the Professional Development Edition of What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction
(3rd ed.), © 2009 International Reading Association.
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