Text Relevance and Learning from Text

Why do people from similar backgrounds who read the same text construct different meanings? Is there aquestion behind every reading goal, such that reading is an interactive process of asking and answering ofquestions? Do people who believe that knowledge is dynamic construct meaning differently than those whobelieve that knowledge is certain? This volume addresses questions such as these and presents cutting edgeresearch and theory that explores how readers determine text relevance (i.e., the different values they assignto information as they read), how relevance affects understanding, and the implications of these studies fortheories of text comprehension.This volume documents in a compelling manner the ongoing international effort to understand how textrelevance affects reading and comprehension. Contributing authors represent major academic institutionson three continents and nine countries, demonstrating the multinational interest in text relevance. Why isthere so much interest in text relevance? Learners are inundated with unprecedented amounts of information, and increased research regarding howreaders process non-traditional texts (e.g., documents on the web) and multiple documents, for example, underscores the importance of understandinghow readers determine the relevance of text information for personal, academic, or professional goals, which can enable educators to design learningsituations that help learners get the most out of reading.