1. AIM - The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between metacognition and reading comprehension and also the relationship between metacognition, age and reading comprehension. 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE STUDY - In chapter 2 the cognitive approach to learning and reading, according to which the learner/reader plays an active role in the processing of information, is discussed. The human information processing system is discussed and the chapter is concluded with a discussion of how reading comprehension failures occur due to problems associated with the information processing system. In chapter 3 metacognition is defined and discussed based on the views of John Flavell, Ann Brown and Scott Paris and his co-workers. Certain factors affecting metacognition are also discussed. In chapter 4 the teaching of metacognition and reading strategies are discussed. Text processing strategies and text reorganising strategies are discussed which enable readers to regulate the level of their reading comprehension when comprehension failures occur. 3. EXPERIMENTAL REVIEW - An ex post facto research was undertaken involving all the standard 1 and standard 3 pupils of the largest of three primary schools in a specific town in the PI/IN region. Two questionnaires were used. One questionnaire, which was completed by both groups, tested metacognitive knowledge and skills such as evaluation, planning, regulation and conditional knowledge. Another questionnaire tested reading comprehension by means of a cloze test, an error detection test and a conventional comprehension test. Two different questionnaires were used for the two groups. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed on the data to determine the contribution of each independent variable (planning, evaluation, regulation and conditional knowledge) on the dependent variables (cloze test, error detection test and comprehension test). 3.1 Results - The following metacognitive variables influenced performance in the reading comprehension tests: * Error detection test : planning and conditional knowledge at std. 1 level and evaluation and regulation at std. 3-level. * Cloze test : only planning at std. 1 level and planning, regulation and conditional knowledge at std. 3 level. * Comprehension test : only conditional knowledge at std. 3 level. The results seem to indicate that metacognitive variables do affect performance in reading comprehension tests and that metacognition is related to age, considering the fact that the more "advanced" components of metacognition namely conditional knowledge and regulation affect performance mainly at std. 3 level. The number of metacognitive variables affecting performance in the three comprehension tests, three at std. 1 level and six at standerd three level, also indicates that metacognition develops with age. Due to the small population sample used in the study, however, no general conclusion can be drawn from these results. / Skripsie (MEd (Psigo-opvoedkunde)--PU vir CHO, 1995

1. AIM - The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between metacognition and reading comprehension and also the relationship between metacognition, age and reading comprehension. 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE STUDY - In chapter 2 the cognitive approach to learning and reading, according to which the learner/reader plays an active role in the processing of information, is discussed. The human information processing system is discussed and the chapter is concluded with a discussion of how reading comprehension failures occur due to problems associated with the information processing system. In chapter 3 metacognition is defined and discussed based on the views of John Flavell, Ann Brown and Scott Paris and his co-workers. Certain factors affecting metacognition are also discussed. In chapter 4 the teaching of metacognition and reading strategies are discussed. Text processing strategies and text reorganising strategies are discussed which enable readers to regulate the level of their reading comprehension when comprehension failures occur. 3. EXPERIMENTAL REVIEW - An ex post facto research was undertaken involving all the standard 1 and standard 3 pupils of the largest of three primary schools in a specific town in the PI/IN region. Two questionnaires were used. One questionnaire, which was completed by both groups, tested metacognitive knowledge and skills such as evaluation, planning, regulation and conditional knowledge. Another questionnaire tested reading comprehension by means of a cloze test, an error detection test and a conventional comprehension test. Two different questionnaires were used for the two groups. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed on the data to determine the contribution of each independent variable (planning, evaluation, regulation and conditional knowledge) on the dependent variables (cloze test, error detection test and comprehension test). 3.1 Results - The following metacognitive variables influenced performance in the reading comprehension tests: * Error detection test : planning and conditional knowledge at std. 1 level and evaluation and regulation at std. 3-level. * Cloze test : only planning at std. 1 level and planning, regulation and conditional knowledge at std. 3 level. * Comprehension test : only conditional knowledge at std. 3 level. The results seem to indicate that metacognitive variables do affect performance in reading comprehension tests and that metacognition is related to age, considering the fact that the more "advanced" components of metacognition namely conditional knowledge and regulation affect performance mainly at std. 3 level. The number of metacognitive variables affecting performance in the three comprehension tests, three at std. 1 level and six at standerd three level, also indicates that metacognition develops with age. Due to the small population sample used in the study, however, no general conclusion can be drawn from these results. / Skripsie (MEd (Psigo-opvoedkunde)--PU vir CHO, 1995

Fluency instruction has had limited effects on reading comprehension relative to reading rate and prosodic reading (Dowhower, 1987; Herman, 1985; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000a). More specific components (i.e., error detection) of comprehension may yield larger effects through exposure to a wider range of materials than repeated readings (Kuhn, 2005b). Thirty-three students reading below college level were randomly assigned to a Repeated Readings (RR), a Wide Reading (WR), or a Vocabulary Study (VS) condition and received training in 9 sessions of 30 minutes in a Southeast community college. RR students read an instructional-level text consecutively four times before answering comprehension questions about it; WR students read four instructional-level texts each once and answered questions while the VS group studied and took a quiz on academic vocabulary. An additional 13 students reading at college level provided comparison data. At pretest, all participants completed the Nelson Denny Reading Test, Test of Word Reading Efficiency, Error Detection task (Albrecht & O'Brien, 1993), working memory test, Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI; Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002), a maze test, Author Recognition Test (ART), and reading survey. All pretest measures except for the ART and reading surveys were re-administered at posttest to training groups. Paired-samples t-test analyses revealed (a) significant gains for the WR condition in vocabulary (p = .043), silent reading rate (p < .05), maze (p < .05) and working memory (p < .05) (b) significant gains for the RR students in silent reading rate (p = .05) and maze (p = .006) and (c) significant increases on vocabulary (p < .05), maze (p = .005), and MARSI (p < .005) for the VS group at posttest. Unreliable patterns of error detection were observed for all groups at pretest and post-test. Results suggest that effects of fluency instruction be sought at the local level processes of reading using the maze test, which reliably detected reading improvements from fluency instruction (RR, WR) and vocabulary study (VS) in only 9 sessions. With significant gains on more reading measures, the WR condition appears superior to the RR condition as a fluency program for struggling college readers. Combining the WR condition with vocabulary study may augment students’ gains.

A majority of Latino adolescents are reading below a proficient level, according to federal data, and there is a significant gap between overall reading proficiency of Latino and non-Latino, Caucasian adolescents. The purpose of this study was to investigate the linguistic underpinnings of Latino students' text comprehension. A positive relationship appears to exist between idiom comprehension and academic achievement, as well as idiom comprehension and reading comprehension, in typically developing, monolingual adolescents. Since reading comprehension and idiom comprehension share many of the same linguistic processes, idiom comprehension may provide a unique perspective for investigating Latino adolescents' reading comprehension. Using the Global Elaboration Model (GEM, Levorato, Nesi, & Cacciari, 2004) as the conceptual framework, the present study examined the relationship between idiom comprehension and reading comprehension with a population that had not been studied in this manner: bilingual (Spanish-English) adolescents in West Central Florida and their monolingual (English-only) peers. The GEM posits that idiom comprehension develops in tandem with other linguistic development requiring inferencing ability; and that idiom x comprehension ability can be predicted by reading comprehension ability. The present research design included the evaluation of idiomatic familiarity, semantic transparency, and contextual support, as well as three other linguistic measures: a) a reading comprehension task, b) an error detection task, and c) a synonym task. Results indicated that the three linguistic measures predicted 33% of the variance in idiom comprehension accuracy; and error detection was the strongest predictor of idiom comprehension accuracy. Furthermore, monolinguals outperformed bilinguals on all measures. The synonym task, a measure of lexical depth, best predicted language group membership. There was a three-way interaction among idiomatic familiarity, semantic transparency, and contextual support; and a three-way interaction among familiarity, transparency, and language group. Lastly, the three linguistic measures significantly predicted the bilinguals' amount of English experience, with qualitative differences emerging between sequential and simultaneous language learners. Findings lend support to the psychological reality of the GEM and provide insight into the linguistic foundations of reading comprehension in Spanish-English bilinguals.

International studies have shown the reading competence of Indonesian students to be relatively low compared to other countries. Considering the importance of reading comprehension, the current research has two aims. The first is to provide some insight into the identification of students’ difficulty with reading. The second is to investigate the implementation of innovative methods for teaching reading comprehension in the Indonesian educational context. Both studies were conducted in state upper grade primary schools in Urban Sub District BCL in Bandung, Indonesia. Study One profiled students’ reading performance. Five measurement instruments were developed, written in Indonesian language. The construction of mental models was also introduced. Two hundred and sixty five Grade Five students from eight schools were measured for their competence in decoding, prior knowledge, comprehension monitoring, construction of mental models, reading comprehension specifically related to a particular topic, and their general reading comprehension. The students’ reading performance profiles were very varied. They showed the importance of each component for the achievement of reading comprehension. The profiles also showed the ability for each component of reading comprehension to compensate each other’s function to enable the students to perform well in reading comprehension. The best-fit model for the data accounted for 47% of students’ performance in reading comprehension. Study Two compared instructional interventions, and examined the way each method worked in the Indonesian educational context. The three instructional intervention methods were Reciprocal Teaching (RT), Instruction prompting students to develop Mental Models (IMM), and Instruction in Question Answering (IQA). Participants were one hundred and twelve students in the Sixth Grade from three primary schools. There were three groups in each school. Group 1 received RT followed by IMM (RT-IMM), Group 2 received IMM followed by RT (IMM-RT), and Group 3 received IQA. Group 3 was considered as the control group, since IQA is the traditional method widely adopted in Indonesia. Instruction was separated into 2 phases. Each phase consisted of four sessions of 30 minutes each over a two-week period. The implementation of IMM-RT tended to improve general reading comprehension more than other methods (RT-IMM and IQA). Interestingly, individuals who had a low performance in the pre-test for construction of mental models, improved their performance in the construction of mental models following implementation of RT at the first phase. The results support a conclusion that the IMM-RT combination is potentially effective for the enhancement of students’ reading comprehension. However, further results showed that, in order to implement RT and IMM in a common state school classroom in Indonesia, the teacher’s ability to manage and organise the group becomes crucial. Study Three was designed to validate the IMM-RT instructional intervention for improving performances of students with reading comprehension inadequacies, by addressing the limitations found in Study Two. Result showed that IMM-RT had potential for improving students’ performance in reading comprehension. The findings of the current study provide some understanding of reading comprehension in an Indonesian educational context. Moreover, the findings will add to the repertoire of educators about issues that need to be considered in implementing innovative methods for enhancing Indonesian students’ reading comprehension.

International studies have shown the reading competence of Indonesian students to be relatively low compared to other countries. Considering the importance of reading comprehension, the current research has two aims. The first is to provide some insight into the identification of students’ difficulty with reading. The second is to investigate the implementation of innovative methods for teaching reading comprehension in the Indonesian educational context. Both studies were conducted in state upper grade primary schools in Urban Sub District BCL in Bandung, Indonesia. Study One profiled students’ reading performance. Five measurement instruments were developed, written in Indonesian language. The construction of mental models was also introduced. Two hundred and sixty five Grade Five students from eight schools were measured for their competence in decoding, prior knowledge, comprehension monitoring, construction of mental models, reading comprehension specifically related to a particular topic, and their general reading comprehension. The students’ reading performance profiles were very varied. They showed the importance of each component for the achievement of reading comprehension. The profiles also showed the ability for each component of reading comprehension to compensate each other’s function to enable the students to perform well in reading comprehension. The best-fit model for the data accounted for 47% of students’ performance in reading comprehension. Study Two compared instructional interventions, and examined the way each method worked in the Indonesian educational context. The three instructional intervention methods were Reciprocal Teaching (RT), Instruction prompting students to develop Mental Models (IMM), and Instruction in Question Answering (IQA). Participants were one hundred and twelve students in the Sixth Grade from three primary schools. There were three groups in each school. Group 1 received RT followed by IMM (RT-IMM), Group 2 received IMM followed by RT (IMM-RT), and Group 3 received IQA. Group 3 was considered as the control group, since IQA is the traditional method widely adopted in Indonesia. Instruction was separated into 2 phases. Each phase consisted of four sessions of 30 minutes each over a two-week period. The implementation of IMM-RT tended to improve general reading comprehension more than other methods (RT-IMM and IQA). Interestingly, individuals who had a low performance in the pre-test for construction of mental models, improved their performance in the construction of mental models following implementation of RT at the first phase. The results support a conclusion that the IMM-RT combination is potentially effective for the enhancement of students’ reading comprehension. However, further results showed that, in order to implement RT and IMM in a common state school classroom in Indonesia, the teacher’s ability to manage and organise the group becomes crucial. Study Three was designed to validate the IMM-RT instructional intervention for improving performances of students with reading comprehension inadequacies, by addressing the limitations found in Study Two. Result showed that IMM-RT had potential for improving students’ performance in reading comprehension. The findings of the current study provide some understanding of reading comprehension in an Indonesian educational context. Moreover, the findings will add to the repertoire of educators about issues that need to be considered in implementing innovative methods for enhancing Indonesian students’ reading comprehension.

International studies have shown the reading competence of Indonesian students to be relatively low compared to other countries. Considering the importance of reading comprehension, the current research has two aims. The first is to provide some insight into the identification of students’ difficulty with reading. The second is to investigate the implementation of innovative methods for teaching reading comprehension in the Indonesian educational context. Both studies were conducted in state upper grade primary schools in Urban Sub District BCL in Bandung, Indonesia. Study One profiled students’ reading performance. Five measurement instruments were developed, written in Indonesian language. The construction of mental models was also introduced. Two hundred and sixty five Grade Five students from eight schools were measured for their competence in decoding, prior knowledge, comprehension monitoring, construction of mental models, reading comprehension specifically related to a particular topic, and their general reading comprehension. The students’ reading performance profiles were very varied. They showed the importance of each component for the achievement of reading comprehension. The profiles also showed the ability for each component of reading comprehension to compensate each other’s function to enable the students to perform well in reading comprehension. The best-fit model for the data accounted for 47% of students’ performance in reading comprehension. Study Two compared instructional interventions, and examined the way each method worked in the Indonesian educational context. The three instructional intervention methods were Reciprocal Teaching (RT), Instruction prompting students to develop Mental Models (IMM), and Instruction in Question Answering (IQA). Participants were one hundred and twelve students in the Sixth Grade from three primary schools. There were three groups in each school. Group 1 received RT followed by IMM (RT-IMM), Group 2 received IMM followed by RT (IMM-RT), and Group 3 received IQA. Group 3 was considered as the control group, since IQA is the traditional method widely adopted in Indonesia. Instruction was separated into 2 phases. Each phase consisted of four sessions of 30 minutes each over a two-week period. The implementation of IMM-RT tended to improve general reading comprehension more than other methods (RT-IMM and IQA). Interestingly, individuals who had a low performance in the pre-test for construction of mental models, improved their performance in the construction of mental models following implementation of RT at the first phase. The results support a conclusion that the IMM-RT combination is potentially effective for the enhancement of students’ reading comprehension. However, further results showed that, in order to implement RT and IMM in a common state school classroom in Indonesia, the teacher’s ability to manage and organise the group becomes crucial. Study Three was designed to validate the IMM-RT instructional intervention for improving performances of students with reading comprehension inadequacies, by addressing the limitations found in Study Two. Result showed that IMM-RT had potential for improving students’ performance in reading comprehension. The findings of the current study provide some understanding of reading comprehension in an Indonesian educational context. Moreover, the findings will add to the repertoire of educators about issues that need to be considered in implementing innovative methods for enhancing Indonesian students’ reading comprehension.

There are mounting concerns to ensure that children are prepared for the literacy demands of the 21st century. Reading inability at 9 years of age portends a lifetime of illiteracy for the majority of struggling readers. Given the greater weight placed on expository text from the junior grades onwards, children with reading disabilities become increasingly constrained by their reading deficits, putting them at risk of falling ever further behind their normally achieving peers. This ethnographic study, extending over an 8 month period and finishing on the last day of the school year, targeted older poor readers at the junior level. Less is known about their reading deficits, relative to younger struggling readers. Therefore, the first of three principal objectives aimed to extend understanding of the processes whereby older poor readers interact with expository text by providing a qualitative finer-grained assessment of their particular difficulties than presently exists. The second objective was focused on developing and implementing a cohesive program of research-based interventions that targeted critical requirements of successful interactions with expository text, including the ability to summarize, locate information, and attend to text structure. The third objective involved establishing and describing a collaborative, intensive research partnership with two classroom teachers at the junior level to implement and evaluate research-grounded interventions for their students with reading difficulties, working within the context of the regular classroom. The dual researcher role, as collaborator with the teachers and instigator of the intervention program, shaped a reconfigured model of special education, responsive to a diverse range of student needs and abilities, and situated within a content-rich, challenging curriculum. Parallel lessons afforded the opportunity to tier instruction with increasing intensity for the children with the highest needs. Results showed the critical importance of aggressively promoting self-efficacy, self-regulation, and metacognitve awareness for older struggling readers. As these children’s strategic repertoire increased, so, too, did their comprehension and comprehension-monitoring. Differentiated instruction that was tiered, flexible, and responsive supported social inclusion and social collaboration. Social context and authentic content became interwoven and instrumental in engaging the children, maintaining their motivation and sustaining their commitment to read to learn. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-01-27 15:10:03.202