The term flexibility is difficult to define. A person\u27s definition of flexibility, like many other concepts, depends on a particular orientation or perspective of the world. If flexibility means adapting to change, then most people are flexible in some way. Through science we have developed technology, and our technology forces us to be flexible. About 97% of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive now, and they produce many changes (Toynbee, 1971). Our knowledge of the world is expanding at an incredible speed. Fourteen years ago George Arnstein said our scientific knowledge doubles approximately every eight years (Arnstein, 1966). Today knowledge is sought at accelerated rates through structured, complex, interrelated systems

Thompson, Mark E

English

ScholarWorks at WMU

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and 
Language Arts 
Volume 21 
Issue 4 July 1981 Article 5 
7-1-1981 
Flexibility: A Key Element for Reading and Study Skills Specialists 
Mark E. Thompson 
George Washington University 
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons 
 Part of the Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Thompson, M. E. (1981). Flexibility: A Key Element for Reading and Study Skills Specialists. Reading 
Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 21 (4). Retrieved from 
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol21/iss4/5 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by 
the Special Education and Literacy Studies at 
ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion 
in Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language 
Arts by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at WMU. 
For more information, please contact wmu-
scholarworks@wmich.edu. 
FLEXIBILITY: A KEY ELEMENT 
FOR READING AND STUDY 
SKILLS SPECIALISTS 
Mark E. Thompson 
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF HIGHER EDUCA TlON 
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 
The term flexibility is difficult to define. 
A person's definition of flexibility, like many other 
concepts, depends on a particular orientation or per-
spective of the world. If flexibility means adapting 
to change, then most people are flexible in some way. 
Through science we have developed technology, and 
our technology forces us to be flexible. About 97% 
of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive 
now, and they produce many changes (Toynbee, 1971). 
Our knowledge of the world is expanding at an incred-
ible speed. Fourteen years ago George Arnstein said 
our scientific knowledge doubles approximately every 
eight years (Arnstein, 1966). Today knowledge is sought 
at accelerated rates through structured, complex, 
interrelated systems. 
Educators should understand and respect the need 
for a flexible approach in many areas. "Tolstoy's 
observation, in the opening lines of Anna Karenina, 
that all happy families are alike and all unhappy 
families different, seems no less true of species. 
Those which survive share a common trait: they are 
able to adapt to changing circumstances" (Callahan, 
1973, p. 86). 
In the classroom it is important for teachers 
and students to adapt to each other. Teachers need 
to understand that they have the responsibility to 
facilitate this process. Some time ago R. D. Laing 
said, "A child born today in the United Kingdom stands 
a ten times greater chance of being admitted to a 
mental hospital than to a uni versi ty , and about one 
fifth of mental hospital admissions are diagnosed 
schizophrenic. This can be taken as an indication 
that we are driving our children mad more effectively 
than we are genuinely educating them. Perhaps it is 
our way of educating them that is driving them mad" 
(Laing, 1967, p. 104). Laing may have taken liberties 
rh-253 
with formal logic, but his message has implications 
for teachers. We have considerable influence, and 
we need to be able to adapt to student needs. 
It is important to foster traits that promote 
a range of ability. Most teachers have to be quite 
flexible in order to keep their students' interest 
and at the same time transmit knowledge. Within higher 
education, professors must be involved in research, 
informat ion, character building, and numerous admini-
strative chores. A good researcher embraces qualit,ies 
such as boldness, originality, incisiveness, and common 
sense. The ability to transmit knowledge is needed 
to fulfill the informational function. As more pressure 
of an administrative nature arises, the character-
development function may well be neglected. 
In the 
identified 
education: 
early 
certain 
1960s Robert Knapp prophetically 
trends in our system of higher 
1. Character building more passive with emphasis 
now on the good example; 
2. Rise in professional societies and identifica-
tion, producing conflict of loyalty and division 
within disciplines; 
3. Rise in academic freedom, starting in 1915 
with the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure; 
4. Importance of research and publication as 
the marks of professional success and as the 
avenue to promotion and advancement; 
5. Ph.D. as the union card to teach and a growing 
bureaucratization of college teaching; 
6. Decline in the professor' s influence in the 
management of institutional affairs; 
7. Fewer Ph.D. programs developing teacher skills, 
and decline in enthusiasm to teach (Knapp, 1962). 
Reading and study skills teachers must be involved 
to some degree in research and character building 
as well as the mechanics of teachj ng corrective or 
developmental reading. The business of transmitting 
knowledge on the remedial level is a major concern. 
This is a complex and difficult job, because students 
usually do not understand their obligations to the 
educational process. Remedial students need patience 
and considerable help from accepting teachers. 
Every teacher must be 
being knowledgeable in their 
necessary for educators to 
to be flexible. Gibson and 
flexible in addition to 
content area. It is also 
instruct their students 
Levin (1975), in a most 
254- rh 
comprehensive and scholarly work on the psychology 
of reading, argue throughout their volume that flexi-
hili~y nf rp8ding style is of t~e greatest importance. 
'l'hpy r.nnt,pnt, t,h,gt, t,hp rp,gopr IS pllrposp, t.hp ,gllt,hor' s 
intention, and the style ot the text are tactors to 
be adjusted to. Furthermore, they point to the fact 
that many educators have emphasized that variability 
in rate is not the cause of flexibility in reading 
styles, but a result of mature reading skill. The 
mature person is relatively flexible like the mature 
reader or the mature teacher. 
Terry Johnson (1973) explains that the goal in 
reading is not speed but flexibility and selectivity. 
Johnson said: 
In recent years there has been a flurry of interest 
in "speed" or "quick" reading. This interest has been 
primarily at the secondary and adult level, but sugges-
tions for its use have trickled into the junior school. 
A desire for greater speed of reading can lead to a great 
deal of misapplied effort. It is as nonsensical to claim 
a reading speed of 900 words per minute as it is to 
claim a rurming speed of 15 m.p.h. I can run at 6 m.p.h. 
I can also run at 15 m.p.h., but not for very long. The 
speed at which I run depends on what I want to do. If I 
have lost my watch I am going to go very slowly and re-
trace my steps if I feel it is necessary. A similar 
situation applies in reading. If I wish to decide 
whether a textbook on reading instruction is worth 
reading I will skim through it at a rate which is equi-
valent to about 2000 words per minute. If I wish to read 
a legal document concerning the sale of my house I will 
read it at about 50 words per minute and read and re-read 
certain sections silently and aloud until I am certain 
of the intent of the agreement (Johnson, 1973, p. 135). 
Since the 1920s notable progress has been made 
in the identification, diagnosis, treatment, and ap-
praisal of reading disabilities; yet many instructional 
problems remain. In the general area of study skills 
considerable efforts have been made to channel high-
risk students into programs that will enable them 
to succeed in higher education. Many of these programs 
have been developed in two-year colleges within the 
last 15 to 20 years. Although there are numerous pro-
grams in operation, it is often difficult to get a 
consensus regarding the approach that needs to be 
taken. Reading, as an example, is a difficult skill 
to master. There are many theoretical approaches re-
garding the reading process, and these notions are 
not easy to comprehend. 
Our scientific attempts to organize knowledge 
provide us with definitions that may confuse and make 
rh--255 
matters more complicated. Reading has been defined 
as a processing skill of symbolic reasoning sustained 
by the inter-facilitation of an intricate hierarchy 
of substrata factors that have been mobilized as a 
psychological working system and pressed into service 
in accordance with the purpose of the reader (Barzun, 
1964). This definition may be quite difficult to under-
stand and even more difficult to explain. 
Within the study of reading behavior we have 
such terms as comprehension, a complex process that 
is not completely understood, but is generally accepted 
to be the outcome of a number of component skills. 
It is thought that these component skills (such as 
automatic word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, 
prior word knowledge, and organizational skills) should 
be taught to improve comprehension. It has also been 
suggested that these component skills be taught concur-
rently, not sequentially (Jund, 1978). There are varied 
approaches wi thin the deli very area. Methodology may 
be a factor that is related to individual style or 
personality of teacher and student. 
To illustrate a flexible approach to the general 
area of reading and study skills in higher education, 
the research of Martha Maxwell must be explained. 
Early in the 1960s Maxwell accomplished some research 
with a pre-college summer program at the University 
of Maryland. This research gives emphasis to the term 
flexibility when applying remedial strategies. In 
the summer of 1961 a program was designed to enable 
low-achieving applicants to test their ability to 
perform college work. Students whose high school aver-
ages were below C and who scored in the bottom 30% 
of University of Maryland freshman norms (American 
Council of Education Psychological Test, Cooperative 
English or Cooperative Algebra) were required to attend 
a special six-week, pre-college, summer session in 
order to qualify for continued enrollment. This program 
was designed to maximize the student's chances for 
academic success. All students were required to enroll 
in freshman English and to elect either mathematics, 
sociology, or American government. Academic success 
was defined as passing both courses and achieving 
at least a grade of C in one of them. A battery of 
reading and study skills tests were administered at 
the beginning and end of the summer session. An indi-
vidual program was prepared for each student indicating 
a starting level and the sequence of activities to 
follow in order to improve upon their weakest area. 
All students were required to attend the first reading 
and study skills laboratory; however, subsequent attend 
ance was voluntary. If the student chose to attend 
the reading and study skills laboratory, he or she 
256-rh 
was required to work on his or her weakest area for 
one week, after which the person could work with any 
of Lhe ::;klll::; UI" IfldLerldl::;. Three humlreu f lfLy-::;lx 
students registered for the program and 176 attained 
grades enabling them to continue. 
Maxwell (1963) found the academically successful 
students made significantly higher initial scores 
than the failing students on reading rate, vocabulary, 
and comprehension tests. Both groups (failing and 
passing) showed significant improvement in vocabulary 
and study skills habits and attitudes. Student reaction 
to the program was highly favorable as revealed by 
a questionnaire administered with the post-tests. 
The successful students were found to be more flexible 
in their use of the laboratory materials and worked 
on more varied skills than did the failing students. 
Some professionals might criticize this approach 
by Maxwell as being too flexible--implying that all 
under-prepared students should be forced to participate 
in all aspects of the program. This is a major problem. 
If students accept the fact that they need help and 
are willing to attend remedial classes and work, the 
instructor's job may be somewhat mechanical. This 
does not usually happen. 
Dealing with students who do not understand their 
problem( s) requires patience and flexibility when 
at tempting to use acquired knowledge. Imposing struc-
ture is challenging for all concerned. "Every animal 
species inhabits a homemade universe, hollowed out 
of the real world by means of its organs of perception 
and its intellectual faculties" (Huxley, 1937, p. 
295). Reading and study skills teachers are attempting 
to re-structure the "real world" for their students. 
This is a difficult task. 
rh-257 
REFERENCES 
Arnstein, George E. "The Mixed Blessings of Automation" 
in Automation, Education, and Human Values edited 
by William W. Brickman and Stanley Lehrer. New 
York: School and Society Books, 1966. 
Barzun, Jacques. Science: The Glorious Entertainment. 
New York: Harper and Row, 1964. 
Callahan, Daniel J. The Tyranny of Survival. New York: 
Macmillan, 1973. 
Gibson, Eleanor J. and Levin, Harry. The Psychology 
of Reading. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1975. 
Huxley, Aldous L. Ends and Means. New York: Harper 
and Brothers, 1937. 
Johnson, Terry D. Reading: Teaching and Learning. 
London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1973. 
Jund, Suzanne (ed). "Theme: Basic/Survival Reading 
Skills." Wisconsin State Reading Association, 
West Allis. October, 1978. ERIC ED 161 013. 
Knapp, Robert H. "Changing Functions of the College 
Professor" in The American College ed. by Nevitt 
Sanford. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1962. 
Laing, R. D. The Politics of Experience. New York: 
Ballantine Books, 1967. 
Maxwell, Martha. "Evaluation of a Self-Help Reading 
and Study Skills Program for Low-Achieving College 
Applicants" in New Developments in Programs and 
Procedures for College-Adult Reading, ed. by 
R. Staiger and C. Melton. Milwaukee: Twelfth 
Yearbook of the National Reading Conference, 
1963. 
Toynbee, Arnold. Surviving the Future. London: Oxford 
University Press, 1971. 


Flexibility: A Key Element for Reading and Study Skills Specialists

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage ArtsVolume 21Issue 4 July 1981 Article 57-1-1981Flexibility: A Key Element for Reading and StudySkills SpecialistsMark E. ThompsonGeorge Washington UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizonsPart of the Education CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the SpecialEducation and Literacy Studies at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage Arts by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at WMU. For moreinformation, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu.Recommended CitationThompson, M. E. (1981). Flexibility: A Key Element for Reading and Study Skills Specialists. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacyand Language Arts, 21 (4). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol21/iss4/5FLEXIBILITY: A KEY ELEMENT FOR READING AND STUDY SKILLS SPECIALISTS Mark E. Thompson ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF HIGHER EDUCA TlON GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY The term flexibility is difficult to define. A person's definition of flexibility, like many other concepts, depends on a particular orientation or per-spective of the world. If flexibility means adapting to change, then most people are flexible in some way. Through science we have developed technology, and our technology forces us to be flexible. About 97% of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive now, and they produce many changes (Toynbee, 1971). Our knowledge of the world is expanding at an incred-ible speed. Fourteen years ago George Arnstein said our scientific knowledge doubles approximately every eight years (Arnstein, 1966). Today knowledge is sought at accelerated rates through structured, complex, interrelated systems. Educators should understand and respect the need for a flexible approach in many areas. "Tolstoy's observation, in the opening lines of Anna Karenina, that all happy families are alike and all unhappy families different, seems no less true of species. Those which survive share a common trait: they are able to adapt to changing circumstances" (Callahan, 1973, p. 86). In the classroom it is important for teachers and students to adapt to each other. Teachers need to understand that they have the responsibility to facilitate this process. Some time ago R. D. Laing said, "A child born today in the United Kingdom stands a ten times greater chance of being admitted to a mental hospital than to a uni versi ty , and about one fifth of mental hospital admissions are diagnosed schizophrenic. This can be taken as an indication that we are driving our children mad more effectively than we are genuinely educating them. Perhaps it is our way of educating them that is driving them mad" (Laing, 1967, p. 104). Laing may have taken liberties rh-253 with formal logic, but his message has implications for teachers. We have considerable influence, and we need to be able to adapt to student needs. It is important to foster traits that promote a range of ability. Most teachers have to be quite flexible in order to keep their students' interest and at the same time transmit knowledge. Within higher education, professors must be involved in research, informat ion, character building, and numerous admini-strative chores. A good researcher embraces qualit,ies such as boldness, originality, incisiveness, and common sense. The ability to transmit knowledge is needed to fulfill the informational function. As more pressure of an administrative nature arises, the character-development function may well be neglected. In the identified education: early certain 1960s Robert Knapp prophetically trends in our system of higher 1. Character building more passive with emphasis now on the good example; 2. Rise in professional societies and identifica-tion, producing conflict of loyalty and division within disciplines; 3. Rise in academic freedom, starting in 1915 with the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure; 4. Importance of research and publication as the marks of professional success and as the avenue to promotion and advancement; 5. Ph.D. as the union card to teach and a growing bureaucratization of college teaching; 6. Decline in the professor' s influence in the management of institutional affairs; 7. Fewer Ph.D. programs developing teacher skills, and decline in enthusiasm to teach (Knapp, 1962). Reading and study skills teachers must be involved to some degree in research and character building as well as the mechanics of teachj ng corrective or developmental reading. The business of transmitting knowledge on the remedial level is a major concern. This is a complex and difficult job, because students usually do not understand their obligations to the educational process. Remedial students need patience and considerable help from accepting teachers. Every teacher must be being knowledgeable in their necessary for educators to to be flexible. Gibson and flexible in addition to content area. It is also instruct their students Levin (1975), in a most 254- rh comprehensive and scholarly work on the psychology of reading, argue throughout their volume that flexi-hili~y nf rp8ding style is of t~e greatest importance. 'l'hpy r.nnt,pnt, t,h,gt, t,hp rp,gopr IS pllrposp, t.hp ,gllt,hor' s intention, and the style ot the text are tactors to be adjusted to. Furthermore, they point to the fact that many educators have emphasized that variability in rate is not the cause of flexibility in reading styles, but a result of mature reading skill. The mature person is relatively flexible like the mature reader or the mature teacher. Terry Johnson (1973) explains that the goal in reading is not speed but flexibility and selectivity. Johnson said: In recent years there has been a flurry of interest in "speed" or "quick" reading. This interest has been primarily at the secondary and adult level, but sugges-tions for its use have trickled into the junior school. A desire for greater speed of reading can lead to a great deal of misapplied effort. It is as nonsensical to claim a reading speed of 900 words per minute as it is to claim a rurming speed of 15 m.p.h. I can run at 6 m.p.h. I can also run at 15 m.p.h., but not for very long. The speed at which I run depends on what I want to do. If I have lost my watch I am going to go very slowly and re-trace my steps if I feel it is necessary. A similar situation applies in reading. If I wish to decide whether a textbook on reading instruction is worth reading I will skim through it at a rate which is equi-valent to about 2000 words per minute. If I wish to read a legal document concerning the sale of my house I will read it at about 50 words per minute and read and re-read certain sections silently and aloud until I am certain of the intent of the agreement (Johnson, 1973, p. 135). Since the 1920s notable progress has been made in the identification, diagnosis, treatment, and ap-praisal of reading disabilities; yet many instructional problems remain. In the general area of study skills considerable efforts have been made to channel high-risk students into programs that will enable them to succeed in higher education. Many of these programs have been developed in two-year colleges within the last 15 to 20 years. Although there are numerous pro-grams in operation, it is often difficult to get a consensus regarding the approach that needs to be taken. Reading, as an example, is a difficult skill to master. There are many theoretical approaches re-garding the reading process, and these notions are not easy to comprehend. Our scientific attempts to organize knowledge provide us with definitions that may confuse and make rh--255 matters more complicated. Reading has been defined as a processing skill of symbolic reasoning sustained by the inter-facilitation of an intricate hierarchy of substrata factors that have been mobilized as a psychological working system and pressed into service in accordance with the purpose of the reader (Barzun, 1964). This definition may be quite difficult to under-stand and even more difficult to explain. Within the study of reading behavior we have such terms as comprehension, a complex process that is not completely understood, but is generally accepted to be the outcome of a number of component skills. It is thought that these component skills (such as automatic word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, prior word knowledge, and organizational skills) should be taught to improve comprehension. It has also been suggested that these component skills be taught concur-rently, not sequentially (Jund, 1978). There are varied approaches wi thin the deli very area. Methodology may be a factor that is related to individual style or personality of teacher and student. To illustrate a flexible approach to the general area of reading and study skills in higher education, the research of Martha Maxwell must be explained. Early in the 1960s Maxwell accomplished some research with a pre-college summer program at the University of Maryland. This research gives emphasis to the term flexibility when applying remedial strategies. In the summer of 1961 a program was designed to enable low-achieving applicants to test their ability to perform college work. Students whose high school aver-ages were below C and who scored in the bottom 30% of University of Maryland freshman norms (American Council of Education Psychological Test, Cooperative English or Cooperative Algebra) were required to attend a special six-week, pre-college, summer session in order to qualify for continued enrollment. This program was designed to maximize the student's chances for academic success. All students were required to enroll in freshman English and to elect either mathematics, sociology, or American government. Academic success was defined as passing both courses and achieving at least a grade of C in one of them. A battery of reading and study skills tests were administered at the beginning and end of the summer session. An indi-vidual program was prepared for each student indicating a starting level and the sequence of activities to follow in order to improve upon their weakest area. All students were required to attend the first reading and study skills laboratory; however, subsequent attend ance was voluntary. If the student chose to attend the reading and study skills laboratory, he or she 256-rh was required to work on his or her weakest area for one week, after which the person could work with any of Lhe ::;klll::; UI" IfldLerldl::;. Three humlreu f lfLy-::;lx students registered for the program and 176 attained grades enabling them to continue. Maxwell (1963) found the academically successful students made significantly higher initial scores than the failing students on reading rate, vocabulary, and comprehension tests. Both groups (failing and passing) showed significant improvement in vocabulary and study skills habits and attitudes. Student reaction to the program was highly favorable as revealed by a questionnaire administered with the post-tests. The successful students were found to be more flexible in their use of the laboratory materials and worked on more varied skills than did the failing students. Some professionals might criticize this approach by Maxwell as being too flexible--implying that all under-prepared students should be forced to participate in all aspects of the program. This is a major problem. If students accept the fact that they need help and are willing to attend remedial classes and work, the instructor's job may be somewhat mechanical. This does not usually happen. Dealing with students who do not understand their problem( s) requires patience and flexibility when at tempting to use acquired knowledge. Imposing struc-ture is challenging for all concerned. "Every animal species inhabits a homemade universe, hollowed out of the real world by means of its organs of perception and its intellectual faculties" (Huxley, 1937, p. 295). Reading and study skills teachers are attempting to re-structure the "real world" for their students. This is a difficult task. rh-257 REFERENCES Arnstein, George E. "The Mixed Blessings of Automation" in Automation, Education, and Human Values edited by William W. Brickman and Stanley Lehrer. New York: School and Society Books, 1966. Barzun, Jacques. Science: The Glorious Entertainment. New York: Harper and Row, 1964. Callahan, Daniel J. The Tyranny of Survival. New York: Macmillan, 1973. Gibson, Eleanor J. and Levin, Harry. The Psychology of Reading. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1975. Huxley, Aldous L. Ends and Means. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1937. Johnson, Terry D. Reading: Teaching and Learning. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1973. Jund, Suzanne (ed). "Theme: Basic/Survival Reading Skills." Wisconsin State Reading Association, West Allis. October, 1978. ERIC ED 161 013. Knapp, Robert H. "Changing Functions of the College Professor" in The American College ed. by Nevitt Sanford. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1962. Laing, R. D. The Politics of Experience. New York: Ballantine Books, 1967. Maxwell, Martha. "Evaluation of a Self-Help Reading and Study Skills Program for Low-Achieving College Applicants" in New Developments in Programs and Procedures for College-Adult Reading, ed. by R. Staiger and C. Melton. Milwaukee: Twelfth Yearbook of the National Reading Conference, 1963. Toynbee, Arnold. Surviving the Future. London: Oxford University Press, 1971. 

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