Theoretical Transformations in Comprehension

This chapter examines various theoretical models of comprehension developed in different social and scholarly contexts that have informed comprehension research and instruction in the past. The comprehension models we review include the Simple View of Reading, Scarborough’s Reading Rope, the Active View of Reading, the Deploying Reading in Varied Environments (DRIVE) model, and reading models focusing on sociocultural elements and new literacies. Whereas these theoretical models do not represent an exhaustive list of theoretical models of comprehension, they represent some major transformative models that have informed instruction and learning related to comprehension. With the development of these key theoretical models as a backdrop, the latter part of this chapter offers a reflection on possible future theoretical transformations in comprehension based on current social movements and scholarly work pertaining to artificial intelligence technologies, gamified and VR-assisted reading, changes in reading habits and formats, immigrant reading comprehension, and the intersection of immigrant/multilingual and multimodal literacies.