If subject knowledge in itself is not a sufficient criterion for achievement, judgments of correct and incorrect in response to simple tests of skills and knowledge are not enough either. To measure how well a student performs, teachers have to be able to examine the process, not just the final product. Furthermore, people try to make sense of their perceptions and experiences, and the associations that students make are often idiosyncratic and may differ considerably from the ones we intended. These views of student learning demand a more open-ended form of testing, along with a more complex scheme of evaluation. In the last few years, educators and philosophers interested in the reading process have refined and expanded the ideas and concept about reading and thinking.
Readers immerse themselves in the author's vision, trying to understand the author's meaning.
In exposition, readers take each new bit of information, trying to understand it and link it to what they already understand the text to say about the topic. Readers relate the text to their own knowledge and experiences. Readers of fiction use what they read in the text to reflect on their own lives, on the lives of others, or on the human condition in general. In non-fiction, readers use the text information to rethink information they already know. Readers distance themselves from the text and assume a critical stance, judging the text and relating it to other texts or experiences.