El desarrollo de la lectura crítica: una vía hacia la alfabetización mediática en educación superior

this work describes a strategy, still in validation process, that is being implemented in the courses of spanish language at the instituto pedagógico de caracas in order to develop critical comprehension of students in their fi rst term of different majors. nevertheless, as in every learning strategy, activities of oral expression and writing are incorporated. the didactic experience is supported upon the exercise of free and critical thought in view of mediatic messages. its main objective is that university students, and above all the future teachers, develop and exercise their capacity of reasoning reading, their critical, creative and autonomous thought, as well as their competence to understand, analyze and interpret what they read, in such a way that they can express their ideas and opinions clearly, both in oral and in written ways. thus, the journalistic text of opinion has been selected, since it stands as one of the most appropriate sources for the analysis of the author？s perspective, their arguments, the underlying ideology in the text and the contrast with the readers？ opinions. from the pedagogical point of view, the experience is framed within the critical theories of education, since reading is conceived of as an element that can liberate the human being, and its teaching-learning as a permanent search for alternative experiences that encourage a didactics of reading as a social practice. among the refl ections derived from classroom activities it must be stated that the work of helping the student learn the mechanisms for critical reading is not an easy task considering situations related to the student？s previous knowledge: training in press or any other kind of texts, handling of contextual information and, mainly, the scarce development of their critical reading competence.