Still learning 1 "the Schema Theory"

What I like about my job is that I am learning everyday something new. As the  head of the English department responsible for teaching English throughout the university campus I found myself forced to learn a lot from my colleagues about ESP as they had years of experience that qualifies them to become the experts. I always go and ask them of issues in ESP teaching and I am grateful to them for learning so much. One of the main mistakes in our cultures that we never work as a team and this what I tried to avoid as I started to be responsible for the department. I am amazed of how much I learned in the two years of being the head of the department from working with my colleagues as a team.

Recently some members of the staff department presented their proposals for PhD degrees. They asked me to proof  read the proposals before submitting for  registration. One proposal was about the development of schemata in helping ESP learner's comprehension abilities. I felt very ignorant for not understanding what was the proposal about .This made me sit at my laptop trying to figure what was the proposal about. I am quoting some of the things I learned about the schema theory;

"Schema theory was developed by R. C. Anderson, a respected educational psychologist . This learning theory views organized knowledge as an elaborate network of abstract mental structures which represent one's understanding of the world."

Taken from < http://www.sil.org/>

"Simply put, schema theory states that all knowledge is organized

into units. Within these units of knowledge, or schemata, is

stored information.

A schema, then, is a generalized description or a conceptual

system for understanding knowledge-how knowledge is represented and how it is used.

The importance of schema theory to reading comprehension also

lies in how the reader uses schemata. This issue has not yet

been resolved by research, although investigators agree that

some mechanism activates just those schemata most relevant to

the reader's task."

Taken from < http://www.csus.edu/>.

Some principles of Schema theory are:

• It is important to teach general knowledge and generic concepts. A large proportion of learner difficulties can be traced to insufficient general knowledge, especially in cross-cultural situations.
• Teachers must help learners build schemata and make connections between ideas. Discussion, songs, role play, illustrations, visual aids, and explanations of how a piece of knowledge applies are some of the techniques used to strengthen connections.
• Since prior knowledge is essential for the comprehension of new information, teachers either need to
  • help students build the prerequisite knowledge, or
  • remind them of what they already know before introducing new material.
• Schemata grow and change as new information is acquired.
• Learners feel internal conflict if they are trying to assimilate schemata which contradict their previous suppositions. Teachers need to understand and be sympathetic to this tension.
• Deep-seated schemata are hard to change. An individual will often prefer to live with inconsistencies rather than to change a deeply-held value or belief.

Taken from < http://www.sil.org/>

So I am still reading and learning.