Maximizing Meaning: Reading Informative Texts in Developmental Education.
Y. van Rijk
Samenvatting proefschrift Yvonne van Rijk voor Persvoorlichting UvA EN
Developmental Education (DE) is an innovative educational approach in the Netherlands,
based on Vygotskian learning theory. Meaningful learning is the keyword, and with respect to
reading it is the teachers’ aim that students learn to read and understand texts in a way that is
meaningful to them. This dissertation provided insight through a multiple case study in how
DE teachers create a learning environment in which they maximize the meaning of reading
informative texts by choosing texts that are related to sociocultural practices and that address
students’ motives and emotions. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the innovative DE approach
in the upper grades of primary education was evaluated through a pretest-posttest natural two
group design study, including 570 students. The results showed that students learn to read and
understand informative texts just as well in the DE approach, as in a more traditional
programmatic, textbook-based approach (PI). This conclusion may remove doubts in the
educational field about the appropriateness of innovative educational concepts that do not
program the learning process in a detailed manner with strict adherence to textbooks,
especially where students from ethnic minorities and from low SES families are concerned.
Interviews with 32 students showed, however, that the experience of meaningful reading
instruction in DE did not clearly yield a specific type of readers compared to a programmatic
reading instruction approach (PI).