5.1 Acclimated Learners

When and Where Did I Find It:   This is a term I introduced to my LTED 625 students on the first night of class through the Content Interest Inventory.   The term is found in their Handbook of Reading Research (vol. 3.) in Chapter 19, which I asked them to survey, scan and note this week as part of their reading.  (I include the actual sentence where I found the word in the next section of this post.)  
Full citation Alexander, P.A. & Jetton, T.L. (2000).  Learning from text:  A multidimensional and developmental perspective.  In M.L.Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R.Barr, (Eds.) Handbook of Reading Research (vol.3, pp. 285-310).  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

What it means: The term was defined by "Alexander (1997b) [who] chose the label acclimated for the first stage in students' academic development to emphasize the orientation and adaptation characteristic of this period....Because background knowledge is an essential variable in what and how readers learn, acclimated learners are disadvantaged in their initial attempts to make sense of domain-related texts.  ...Further because acclimated students have little principled knowledge, they are unlikely to have any deep-seated interest in the content of the text (Garner et al, 1991).  (as cited in Alexander & Jetton, 2000, p. 299).  


Level of Familiarity: I am very familiar with this "Developmental View" of learners (specifically how to describer those who are learning from texts) and with the terms, acclimated, competent and proficient/expertise.

Do I Want to Know This Word Well and Why?   Yes, I do think this descriptor (along with the other two developmental levels) are helpful to know because it allows me to plan instruction in more appropriate ways.  For example, the types of instructional activities I plan for 625 class are designed for COMPETENT LEARNERS at times -- when exploring literacy concepts in general and at other times for ACCLIMATED LEARNERS -- when introducing more content area literacy specific concepts.  

Do I Think Others Should Know This Word Well...if so WHO and WHY?:   I think these terms are useful for my students to know -- both as learners and as teachers.  Knowing these different levels gives them more careful and critical descriptions to self-analyze their own background knowledge and level of preparedness.  At the same time, they can better describe their own students' progress.