ABSTRACT
The conventional wisdom about the relation between application and theory goes something like this: Basic scientists work out a detailed theory of how a process such as reading takes place. The theory specifies the role of different variables governing the process. After basic scientists have developed their theory, practitioners can apply it—preferably with the requirement for a little creativity of their own in adapting it to young minds in large classrooms rather than college students working in individual laboratories. It is that conventional wisdom which Venezky and Massaro 1 seemed to have in mind when they lamented the difficulty of developing a really detailed account of the reading process when we are manipulating only one or two variables at a time in the laboratory. That would indeed be a staggering task when literally dozens of decisions about the contents and order of aspects of lessons need be made, as discussed in the chapter by Beck and Block.
