“Skills based” or “phonics” approach, based on the tenets of behaviorism (Heald-Taylor, 1989). Seen as the more “traditional” approach, this method emphasizes the teaching of language subskills (e.g., letter recognition, sound symbol association) with a gradual movement toward larger language units, and eventually literature.

Macalester College

 The primary aim of the current study was to see if concept maps can be used to demonstrate cognitive differences between teachers whose theoretical orientations toward the teaching of reading are known to differ. Specifically, the authors were interested in testing whether the ordered tree technique could be used to distinguish teachers who advocated “whole-language” (e.g., Goodman, 1986) or “phonics-based” (e.g., Chall, 1967) approaches to reading instruction. 

Aim (Concerning the Relationship between teachers’ theoretical orientations towards reading and their concept maps)

Mergendoller, J., Sacks, C., 1994. Concerning the Relationship between teachers’ theoretical orientations towards reading and their concept maps. Beryl Buck Institute for Education, Novato, CA, U.S.A. Teaching & Teacher Education, Vol IO, No 6, pp. 589-599, 1994. 

Concerning the Relationship between teachers’ theoretical orientations towards reading and their concept maps

The whole-language approach asserts that children learn language most effectively at their own developmental pace through exposure to language- rich environments and quality literature, rather than through formal instruction in the discrete skills identified and defined by behaviorally oriented reading researchers. The instructional implications of this approach are that teachers should teach children at their own developmental pace, maximize their exposure to learning activities emphasizing oral language use and quality literature, and provide ample extracurricular opportunities for literature-related activities.Dewey (1929) Piaget (1952), and Smith (1988) 


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