Beyond Knowledge

Our nation is experiencing a “student achievement crisis” in literacy. Some of the blame for the current crisis in literacy education has been laid at the feet of teacher education programs and their professors. Many pundits of teacher education and literacy education suggest that the solution to increasing reading achievement is simple: Emphasize and teach science of reading (SOR) principles in teacher education programs. In theory, this approach is reasonable; however, the purpose of this chapter is to examine some of the challenges in making the complex content of the SOR accessible to preservice teachers. The authors will also offer possible solutions to help make the SOR more comprehensible so that preservice teachers can increase their transfer of technical and pedagogical knowledge to authentic classroom contexts.