Did you ever notice that sometimes the things that you don’t know, don’t think are important turn out to be the missing critical piece to your success? A strange word called schema is precisely like this. It is the missing piece to being able to read faster while improving comprehension that most people are looking to find. This article will explain the importance of schema in speed reading.
I learned about schema while studying how to teach reading in graduate school. It sounds like a very technical word, because they like to use big words in college. Fortunately, it has a very simple meaning. Schema is your data base. It is what you already know before you even begin to read. For example, if read this sentence: “the man wore a blue hat.” Were you puzzled by its meaning? No. Why not? Because you know the meaning of the words, man, wore, blue, and hat. What if you didn’t know the meanings? Now how difficult would it be to read the sentence? Very difficult. You are continually using your existing data base to decode text.
Schema is your map. It is how you view and represent the world in your mind. For example, an astronomer would view the sunrise astronomically. They would perceive the Earth’s rotation causing the illusion of the Sun rising over the horizon. Actually, it is the movement of the Earth that makes the Sun appear to move. An artist would view the sunrise, and see the beautiful array of colors in the sky. A physicist would understand that the colors perceived by the eye are caused by the scattering of the light because at the horizon light has to travel through more air which causes it to bend and refract into a display of colors. Notice how each of this individuals perceived the exact same event differently? It was their map or way of viewing the world that effected how they perceived the event.
Schema is your experience. For example, my first marriage was a story book marriage. Unfortunately, Stephen King wrote the book. I thought that happily married was an oxymoron. You know, like military intelligence, honest politician, and job security. Some words just don’t seem to go together well. At that time in my life I couldn’t conceive or being happy and married at the same time. Now I am married to my perfect mate, and I am totally happy. But my experiences colored my understanding of the word marriage.
When you read words in a book, you data base, your map, and your experiences all effect how you understand and perceive the information. Schema is a very important part of comprehending text while speed reading, and even while reading slowly.