TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE FIELD OF READING*

For too long a pervasive idea in the field of teacher education has been that primary teachers only, and more especiaHy those primary teachers who are concerned with the education of the very young, have the sole responsibility for teaching the students who are moving through our educational institutions how to read. The beginning and the end of the process of learning to read effectively have been left almost entirely in the hands of the primary teacher, who, up until recently, has experienced only minimal courses in the field of reading as part of his pre-service training. One of the main purposes of this paper will be to attempt to dispel this limited and educationally naive idea; more than lip service must be given to the truism that the development of the individual’s ability to read is a continuous process