APPLICATION OF

SCHEMA THEORY IN
TEACHING AND LEARNING
OF READING
1.Before assigning a reading,
teacher should activate
students’ background
knowledge using :

(a) Brainstorming (click here)

(b) Pre-reading questions (click
here)
 Brainstorming is a group creativity
technique designed to generate a large
number of ideas for the solution of a
problem.
 Brainstorming can be an effective way to
generate lots of ideas on a specific issue
and then determine which idea – or ideas –
is the best solution.
 Brainstorming is most effective with groups
of 8-12 people and should be performed in
a relaxed environment. If participants feel
free to relax and joke around, they'll
stretch their minds further and therefore
produce more creative ideas.
Example:
Topic: Smoking
- Who? : teenagers, adults, especially male
- When? : start smoking from teenagers
- Why? : peer influence, feeling of wants to
try something new
- Effects? : money (costly), health problem
(can cause mouth cancer, lung cancer)
- How to overcome? : campaign, self-
awareness,
 Teacher can asks pre-reading questions before
starting the lesson to activate students’ schemata
and develop their interest.

Example:
Topic:Eating disorder
(a) What do you know about eating disorder?
(b) Who normally get involved in this problem?
2. Teacher needs to know that the important
feature of schema theory is the attributes
of a schema as slots. The slots have both
an upward (click here) and downward (click
here) organization.
Example:
Topic:Food schema
Upward organization:
relationship of food to functional aspects such as
hungry, enjoyment, entertainment, socialize
habitual, ceremony.
Example:
Topic:Food schema
Downward organization:
the different types of food such as pizza, fried
noodles, curry puffs, spaghetti.
3. Use a numerous ways that can constructed
related schemata such as

(a) visual aids (click here)

(b) real-life experiences (click here)
(c) role-playing (click here)
(d) contextualization (click here)
a. Visual aids
An instructional aid, such as a poster, scale
model, or videotape, that presents information
visually.

Example:
Topic: Obesity
Visual aids : poster or picture of a fat people.
b. Real-life-experiences
Real-life experiences often called as project-
based learning. This is a task that students do in
experiential education which is authentic. This is
something that’s true to life. Problem solving,
analyzing, and understanding are products of the
experience, not learned through books or lectures.

 
The Experiential
Learning Cycle

1.
Experience

5. Apply
2. Share
Do

Apply Reflect

4. Generalize 3. Process
c. Role-playing
Role-playing is action in which a person
takes on a role (as that of an actor) and
pretends or acts out being that character.
Example:
Topic:Occupation
Teacher can assign students role of any
occupation and let them work on it. For example,
teacher can ask students to role-play an interview
session between a businessman and a reporter.
Student A would become the businessman while
student B would become the reporter.
d. Contextualization
 Contextualization can be defined as to place (a
word or idea, for example) in a particular context.
 It is also a process of assigning meaning, either
linguistic or as a means of interpreting the
environment within which an expression or action
is executed.
Example:
Topic : Obesity
Teacher asks students a few questions before asks
students to read a text about obesity. Teacher can
ask students what is the definition of obesity and
factor that contribute to obesity problem.