Theoretical foundations of an experimental developmental holistic program for reading instruction and comprehension of primary school students

Abstract

In the past five decades, the aspects of examining cognitive and affective development of reading have never been far distant from current questions of educational sciences, nor has the research on the role of reading in social and personal life. These frequently examined topics of reading research mostly discuss the issues involved in reading from different aspects. We can distinguish between content of reading research within a certain age groups and content that places certain cognitive and affective factors of reading in the focus of the research within a certain age group. This research addresses two major groups of problems: a) decreased or completely missing motivation to read and b) the problem of cognitive abilities related to comprehension and text interpretation. This study also focuses on these issues. Its aim is to provide a reading program to solve these problems. The present research has a three-dimensional goal: (1) to map including but not limited to the equivalent factors of these studies by content analysis, (2) to examine the equivalent factors from the aspect of some motives of reading motivation, also based on content analysis method, and (3) present a holistic program element that incorporates the strategic elements of a method designed to improve reading motivation for any age group, which addresses complex, already known effective reading and learning strategies. The three-dimensional test approaches are taking advantage of such reading methods, which are essential elements in the development of learning and reading motivation in line with the pedagogical paradigms of the 21th century.