Research School Network: How can we avoid expert-induced blindness when teaching reading? Steve Trafford explores the complexity of tasks in the classroom and how we can support novice readers.

Expert-induced blindness, sometimes known as the ​‘curse of knowledge’, refers to the way that experts in a field sometimes fail to fully understand the way novices think and experience in that field.

Peps McCrea argues that as teachers, expert-induced blindness makes us ​‘prone to underestimating the complexity of tasks and so overestimating the load our students can comfortable bear’.

If we want to think about a classroom task with high levels of complexity, we need look no further than reading. In The Reading Mind, Daniel Willingham describes how reading involves ​‘a number of different process, including recognising words, understanding the meaning of words, and understanding the overall meaning of the text’. Scratch beneath the surface, and each of these components is in themselves highly complex and multi-faceted.

When most teachers read, these processes happen in an effortless, automatic way, fluently integrated with one another.

However, for many of our students who are less confident readers, these processes will need specific de-construction, modelling and practice so that they can develop an intentional, strategic approach to reading.

So what do more novice readers struggle with, and what can we do about it in the classroom?

The trouble with inference

Inference involves using the given information in the text, along with your own reasoning, to work out something that is not otherwise directly stated.

More specifically, local cohesion inferences are those which directly connect elements within a text, often through the use of pronouns, connectives and missing words.

Consider this Geography text:

Coastal erosion is a complex process that can have a significant impact on coastal communities. It can lead to property damage, beach loss, and even coastal flooding. As a result, many coastal areas have implemented measures to mitigate the effects of this risk.

Expert readers automatically work out that ​‘it’ in the second sentence, and ​‘this risk’ in the third sentence both refer to the process of coastal erosion, but for novice readers, this may act as a barrier to understanding.

The same is true in fiction: as GCSE students read the first chapter of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, they must contend with the fact that the eponymous Mr Hyde is referred to variously as ​‘the little man’, ​‘him’, ​‘the man’, ​‘my gentleman’, and ​‘the gentleman of my adventure’.

So how can we support students to make these kinds of inferences in the classroom?

• We could question them specifically to draw their attention to it – ​‘what does the phrase ​‘this risk’ refer to?’
• We could ask them to highlight the different words and phrases that refer to a specific idea or concept.
• Or we could use a ​‘think aloud’ to demonstrate our thought processes as we read: ​‘hmmm, I notice this phrase is referring back to coastal erosion, which was established as the main idea at the start of the paragraph’.

The role of background knowledge

Skilled readers are also able to seamlessly integrate their existing background knowledge with information in the text to make inferences, predictions, and to build a ​‘situation model’. Knowledge of the words in the text is not enough; pupils also need to use knowledge of the world when they read.

The EEF’s Secondary Literacy Guidance Report states that effective readers ​‘continually draw upon a complex wealth of prior knowledge’ to help construct a ​‘rich mental representation’ and make sense of texts. They recommend activating prior knowledge as one of five impactful reading strategies in the secondary classroom.

For example, in a History lesson, before reading a source on Jack the Ripper, the teacher gives a short quiz to activate pupils’ prior knowledge of Victorian London. Of course, this quiz also allows the teacher to assess this prior knowledge, and re-teach as necessary. Without this, subsequent reading activities are likely building on shaky ground.

Sometimes it’s lack of prior knowledge of text genre that causes pupils to struggle. For example, when reading an informational text in Science, pupils will likely need explicit instruction in how to use features like sub-headings, graphs and charts to help make sense of the text. This needs to be modelled and de-constructed, but ultimately, we want students to do it independently.

Even expert readers sometimes struggle

While we’ve established that experts effortlessly perform the many complex cognitive acts that make up reading, even the most skilled readers sometimes have to go back and re-read a part of the text. This is because they are constantly monitoring their own comprehension and self-questioning as they read.

Again, we need to model this to students and make the strategies explicit and tangible. We want them to understand that reading is an active process that involves a number of deliberate common ​‘moves’.

Strategies for the secondary classroom

Our upcoming webinar series Improving Reading in the Secondary Classroom will break down and exemplify a number of practical, evidence-informed strategies to improve reading across the curriculum.

They will allow teachers to bring the many hidden processes of reading to the surface, so that we can develop students as strategic readers. The series also includes an accompanying resource which explains and exemplifies 27 key strategies for before, during and after reading.

You can check out, and sign up for, the series here.