What were Pete/Paul's reactions to this document?
What is Learning Strategies going to do about it?
Paul and I first discussed researching PhotoReading in 2003 when I met him for the first time. He said, Any research you do that involves a human subject you can throw out the window straight away. The problem with researching reading is you cannot remove the human and their bias. If they volunteer for the research it becomes invalidated because of bias. And we cannot subject our students to testing because that's not what they paid us to do and they want to be there so it's biased and you cannot force someone to learn if they don't want to learn so there is always a bias. Anyway we have reams of testing that we've done and we have proof that there is something in the PhotoReading step but it's not research so we can't put it out there. There are also many variables that need to be considered prior education, skill levels etc. If anyone ever comes up with a protocol by which you can research it we'd be willing to help. What's I'd really like to do is get someone into one of those fMRI chambers but we haven't worked out how someone can PhotoRead in one of them. And then we would want a few people to do the test and that's expensive.
After that discussion I realised that the most controlled environment for testing is a classroom. Age group, demographics and that are much more controlled They live in the same area have the same access to the teacher.... but wait... kids are being tested on what they learn all the time. And some pass brilliantly others fail just as gloriously and then there is the masses in the middle. Just passing. Does it prove that the teacher failed to teach? Does it prove the subject cannot be learned well? Does it mean the course material is poorly designed? The answer is maybe to all of them. The main factor outside our control is the student. How they see themselves as a learner, the interest in the subject, their attitude toward the teacher, like dislike. Paul's words echoed in my mind. Any research that involves a human subject you can throw out the window straight away.
The NASA report is not research. It's a case study and you cannot come to a conclusion when there is only one person being tested. It lacks the decent number of test subjects to be research.
Both Pete and Paul made the same observation as I have we've got lots of case studies right here on the forum.
What's Learning Strategies going to do about it?
Keep moving ahead. If PhotoReading didn't work for Paul, Pete and staff of Learning Strategies we wouldn't be here. Learning Strategies has grown since it started in 1985 and in 1986 PhotoReading was developed. It was investigated by Minnesota Department of Education before they would issue Learning Strategies with a license to teach. They had to hire someone with special reading qualifications from another state to check the course is a valid reading system. Learning Strategies has been licensed to teach PhotoReading because it is a valid reading system. The license has been renewed each year since 1986 and it's now 2008.
AlexK
