ABSTRACT
The purpose for advanced reading is to conceptualize the content and significance of what the author has written. Comprehension, an active process, lies not in the material alone but in the interaction of the author's message with the reader's prior background and experience. Conceptual reading is loaded with the individual's own interpretations and extrapolations, often incorporating meanings beyond those conceived by the writer. Many readers who learned the techniques of code breaking still function at simplistic levels of comprehension. Nearly all students need help from the teacher in learning how to construct deeper meanings and to appreciate more fully an author's multiple messages. Jean Piaget emphasized that cognitive development is a process of construction which results from the learner's interactions with the external world. Cognitive psychology examines how the mind works, including processes of perception, memory, thinking, learning, reasoning, language, and comprehension. Constructivism hypothesizes that the reader needs to go beyond explicit information to perceive and comprehend an author's message.
