In Popperian terms, advocates of balanced theory argue that its mediating approach represents a better approximation "toward the truth." In short, from this vantage-point "learners need to focus on meaning with real, authentic text and to work on skills" (p. 7). More fundamentally, learning to read is based on "the reciprocal influence of different levels of knowledge held by a reader-from letter featural knowledge of the features of the letters to semantic knowledge." Even more to the point is the "interaction with each other" (p. 8) of these dimensions of the reading process in their varied influence with specific students or sets of students. Moreover, and this is a key assumption with Purcell-Gates, balanced theory flows along the continuum from a skills orientation to various holistic approaches. What places the continuum in the balanced framework is the rejection of foundational claims that one approach or the other is at the base. The balanced argument is that students learn to read in different ways, and that the primary dynamic is the interactive (or better yet, the transactional) one in the utilization of whatever methodologies, approaches, and sources of materials that best tap into the student`s capacity to learn to read. While certain methods and approaches will have more effect with certain students, in the broad scheme of things, learning to read requires interactive, "whole-part-whole instruction" (p. 8). These are the core concepts of the integrated approach.

The operative assumptions of balanced reading theory are particularly important in the coming to terms with conflicting definitions of adult literacy in that the whole language approach reinforces the metaphorical one of "multiliteracies," while the phonemic approach emphasizes the foundational premise of reading instruction as the central purpose of what any literacy program should focus on. With the phonemic approach, balanced theory does emphasize reading, along with that of the utilization of "meaningful" text, the exploration of ideas, and the attainment of significant knowledge that can be grasped by students, even if reading ability remains quite limited. Thus programs can, and as argued later, should, focus on both reading development and the progressive mastery of knowledge and insight, even as the ways in which these two aspects of learning are played out with different students are varied in which effectiveness and growth may require more attention to one of these areas than the other, in any given situation. Such may sometimes be the case even with the same student. The underlying argument of balanced theory is that its core concepts and methodologies provide the best accommodation available for this variability of student background and need.

Versimilitude

Thus, even more fundamental than the concept of truth is that of the explanatory richness of a theory, or its versimilitude as opposed merely to its literal truth content. While a simple arithmetic calculation, for example, is accepted as truth, its theoretical value in opening up new knowledge may be inconsequential. By contrast, a rich provocative theory like balanced reading theory opens up a much broader exploratory realm even as the more the theory seeks to explain, the less likely that it will prevail as truth and ultimately fail the litmus test of severe testing. Notwithstanding the likelihood of its ultimate falsification, in providing new world knowledge, the theory serves a significant heuristic function in expanding human knowledge about some defined area of scientific importance. This may be in nothing other than in the demonstration of the conditions under which the theory fails, which then has the potential of raising new questions, provoking the search for knowledge in new directions, resulting in new theories and new sets of tests. That alone is the grounding point of scientific investigation and sufficient unto itself for the kind of critical work Popper views as essential in progressively moving human knowledge about the universe forward.