Accessing the potential of the learner: Towards an understanding of the complexities of context (original) (raw)

Peabody Journal of Education, 1985

Abstract

Not all that long ago, context was what surrounded the word on the page. Research was conducted about words "in context" versus words "in isolation." Even when context lost that narrow definition, it was still considered a variable. Researchers manipulated the context by altering teacher attitude, instructional method, physical setting, or amount of background knowledge held by the student. Recently, however, context has come to be viewed not as a variable but as a complex web of events in which what has been, what is, and what is expected to be, transact to bound the learning experience. While context in reading includes such things as the words on the page (linguistic context), the physical and instructional setting in which the reading is taking place (situational context), and the larger social context of the interpretive community (cultural context), it also includes the history of literacy experiences that the learner brings to the literacy event. We expect there are other contexts as well. We believe that rather than being static, all the aspects of context are dynamic and transactive, that is, the elements of context combine in such a way that rather than form a compound in which the original elements can still be identified, a new entity is created that has unique properties and is greater than the sum of its parts. These new insights into context provide new insights into instruction. For example, we now understand that instructional activities are not

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