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Apprentice Literacy ‘Reading’: The Role of the Trade Teacher
Author(s) -
Mealyea Robert
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
asia pacific journal of human resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.825
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1744-7941
pISSN - 1038-4111
DOI - 10.1177/103841118201900309
Subject(s) - apprenticeship , meaning (existential) , reading (process) , literacy , pedagogy , sociology , psychology , linguistics , philosophy , psychotherapist
Throughout the literature on reading theory, the concept of prior knowledge, i.e. what one brings in the way of background about the topic to the printed page, occupies an important, central place. The more prior experience the reader possesses, the easier it is to reconstruct the author's meaning, thus implying that meaning does not reside solely in the print. This investigation explores the significance of prior experience by measuring two groups of plumbing apprentices' understanding of a topic in their trade training. This investigation also challenges currently popular rhetoric that claims apprentices with reading problems need ‘back‐to‐basics’ pedagogy, by posing the question: Apprentice literacy ‐whose responsibility?