Introduction
In the past, literacy has included reading, writing, speaking, and information skills. In the near future, there will be increasingly complex literacy demands.
As has technology, literacy has increased to a greater extent in the 20th century than in all previous history.
Employees, in addition to contending with a global economy, must now know how to perform multiple literacy tasks which include accessing information (identifying and locating printed, oral, or graphic information), gaining information (requires comprehension, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, transforming information (requires writing, speaking, and representing; and transmitting information (publishing or disseminating transformed knowledge). "These literacies are tied together by the core construct of thinking.' Reading Research Quarterly, J. Dole, p. 383, Vol. 35, Number 3, July, August, September, 2000).
Textbook reading involves encountering
new knowledge and ideas.
