No description available.

陈启山. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-129). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Chen Qishan.

The purpose of this study was to confirm and extend previous findings on the direct instruction of expository text structure using social studies content for second-grade students. A total of 16 classrooms (N = 258) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Text Structure (TS) Program, Content-Only (CO) Program, or No Treatment (Control) group. The TS Program consisted of five units, with each unit focusing on one text structure (sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, description, and problem-solution) and on one historical community (Native Americans, Colonists, Pioneers, Immigrants, modern urban residents). Students in TS learned strategies for reading and closely analyzing well-structured text: clue words, strategy questions, and graphic organizers. Other activities included trade book reading and summary writing. Students in the CO Program studied the same five historical communities, read the same trade books, closely read the same well-structured texts, and also wrote summaries, but did not explicitly learn about the text structure or its related strategies. Results from two-level hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that students in TS significantly outperformed the other two groups in Comprehension Written Summary measures (main idea, structure statements) in both the end-of-unit tests given immediately after each unit and in the posttest given at the very end of the year-long program. Students in TS also significantly outperformed the other two groups in some Comprehension Transfer measures (sentence completion, main idea questions and paragraph structure identification questions). Students in TS also showed some transfer to comprehending authentic text. TS outperformed the control group in structure-related comprehension questions, but did not outperform the CO group, although the overall pattern of results across the three conditions was the same as that of the other measures. Additional analyses showed some potential benefits of the program for students with initially low reading comprehension skills. Results also suggest that text structure lessons can be simultaneously taught within social studies without reducing acquisition of content knowledge, since there were no significant differences between TS and CO on content outcome measures, and both groups outperformed the control group.

published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Reading comprehension of students with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) typically falls below their decoding skills. The present study explored the effectiveness of visual-cued facilitation, in forms of activation of prior knowledge and inducing comprehension monitoring behaviours, and inference bridging facilitation on reading comprehension. Twenty-eight primary students with HFASD and their typically-developing peers completed four comprehension exercises with a practical-writing text and three narrative passages with conditions: answering pre-reading questions with illustrations, within-text picture selection tasks, and control. Results indicated that challenges of students with HFASD in Chinese reading comprehension were similar to previous findings. Their performances were no longer statistically differentiable from their peers with visual-cued facilitations. Implication for practice and future direction were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Background: Regarding the research on individuals with autism, more focus was on the behavioral and social aspects, whereas relatively limited attention has received in the domain of learning of this population. As the development of assessments in assessing the needs of the population is getting more comprehensive and sophisticated in recent years, there is a trend of increase in the number of children being identified with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and were placed in general educational settings and engaged in mainstream academic curricula. 　　To survive in the mainstream education setting, proficiency in reading is essential. However, there are evidences suggested that people with ASD show difficulties in reading, especially in reading comprehension. Therefore, it would be valuable to investigate the potential factors that might hinder the reading performance of people with ASD and develops corresponding strategies to cater their needs. 　　In this paper, the role of executive functioning and metacognitive awareness towards reading performance of adolescents with ASD was examined and compared with their typically developing peers, so as to explore the potential factors affecting the reading performance of the group. 　　 Methods: Forty high functioning adolescents with ASD (HFA, aged 12 to 15) and forty matched typically developing (TD) counterparts (aged 12 to 15) participated in this research. There were one main study and one follow-up study. For the main study (Study One), there were three study focuses of investigation. Firstly, it was aimed at investigating the reading performance profile of the two groups (HFA vs TD) and to explore the pattern of reading deficits of students with HFA. Secondly, the EF profile of the two groups was compared to see whether distinct features of impairments were noted in the HFA group. Thirdly, from the results revealed in the profiles on reading performance and EF of the two groups, the association between the impairment of reading performance and the profile of executive dysfunctions was examined, so as to attest the proposition that deficits in EF skills played a role in reading difficulties of individuals with ASD. For the follow-up study (26 participants for the HFA group and 27 participants for the TD group), it was interested to explore the reading metacognitive awareness of the HFA and TD groups, to see whether there was a differentiated pattern on the aspect, and how it might explain the difference in reading performance of the two groups. Results: For the reading performance, the performance of the two groups was comparable in word reading, reading fluency, word knowledge as well as general knowledge, whereas participants with HFA performed significantly worse than TD peers in reading comprehension and distinct weakness was noted in the ability of inference making and generating novel ideas in the HFA group. For the ability in EF skills, participants with HFA were found to be performed poorer only in the Higher-order EF domain (i.e. self-monitoring and generativity) as compared to the TD group. In which, associations were found between reading comprehension performance and some of the EF skills, suggesting that reading comprehension performance was affected by the proficiency of specific EF skills. Moreover, the follow-up study also highlighted the difference in preferences on repair strategies and reading strategies adopted as well as perceived reading difficulties of the HFA and TD group, which further support the findings of Study One. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

Reading is an important capability to assist in learning. When students are promoted to higher levels at primary school, they have to read more informative texts instead of narrative texts. A number of studies have indicated that many primary school students have difficulty comprehending informative texts. The ways in which teachers structure lesson content and students experience the lesson are important in helping students understand informative texts in terms of genres and genre features. To help students take on the challenges arising from reading informative texts, teachers play a vital role in bringing students to encounter critical aspects of understanding informative texts and make it more possible for students’ discernment happen. In the light of this, this study aims to investigate how structures of lessons and patterns of variation and invariance affect the learning outcomes of students’ understanding of genres and the genre features of informative texts, and even their future learning. This study features a design-based approach to two rounds of trial lessons. Phenomenography and variation theory are adopted as the theoretical framework. In the first round of trial lessons, there were 38 students from a primary 6 class divided into 2 groups. One group was given a lesson which was structured both sequentially and hierarchically. The lesson for the other group was, however, framed in a hierarchical structure only. The former lesson emphasized the use of similar examples while the latter focused on the use of different examples to teach students the meaning of genre features of informative texts. In the second round, there were 39 students from a primary 5 class also divided into 2 groups. Although the structures of the lessons for the two groups were similar to those in the first round, the object of learning was to enhance students’ understanding of informative texts and the delayed post-test was conducted only in this round. The students in both rounds of trial lessons, who were from the same school, were taught by the same teacher. The data was analysed and triangulated with the post-lesson interview data and verbatim lesson record. The students’ different learning outcomes stemmed from the different structures of the lessons and the adoption of the patterns of variation and invariance. The students who had more opportunities to encounter the patterns of variation and invariance serving as contrasts tended to perform better than those who did not. The appropriate teaching arrangements enhanced students’ understanding of genre awareness and genre features, and contributed to generation of learning. The findings of this study support variation theory as a powerful pedagogical tool for improving students’ understanding of informative texts and enabling students to generate new learning after teacher instruction. One implication of the findings for teachers is that appropriate teaching arrangements, including the structure of a lesson and patterns of variation and invariance, are of paramount importance. As a result of such arrangements, students are more likely to develop a powerful way of reading informative texts. Teachers are instrumental in preparing the necessary conditions of learning. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

I conducted 2 experiments in which I tested the effects of a reader immersion procedure on the technical reading comprehension responses to print stimuli for 4 kindergarten students and 3 first grade students. The participants selected for this study textually responded to words at a rate of 80 words correct per minute with 0 incorrect words per minute. They demonstrated early reader repertoires and speaker-as-own listener verbal capablities including incidental language learning (also referred to as Naming), self-talk, and say-do correspondence, all neccesary prerequisites for a child to acquire reader-as-own listener capabilities. However, they were not yet verbally governed by print to complete simple tasks as demonstrated by their performance on “read and build” and “read and draw” reading comprehension tasks. In the 1st experiment, the dependent variables were technical reading tasks that included 1) a 10-step “read and build” task and 2) a 10-step “read and draw” task. During pre-intervention and post-intervention probe assessments, each participant was given a list of 10 written directions and the corresponding materials required to complete the tasks. The independent variable was a reader immersion procedure in which the “need to read” was established by providing access to a preferred item after the emission of correct reading-governed (i.e., read and do) responses. Following the reader immersion procedure, responses to novel reading comprehension responses increased for the participants. The particpants’ behavior was controlled by print stimuli to complete simple reading tasks in which they had to build a structure or reproduce an image with a writing implement. In the 2nd experiment, 4 participants received the 10-step pre-intevention probe assessments used in Experiment 1 along with 2 additonal pre and post-intervention probes in which they completed a 1) 20-step “read and build” task and 2) a 20-step “read and draw task.” The independent variable was the reader immersion procedure used in Experiment 1. Following the reader immersion procedure, responses to novel reading comprehension tasks increased for all dependent variables. Findings suggest that untaught reading comprehension responses emerged as a function of the reader immersion procedure which included a motivating operation as well as repeated opportunities to mediate behavior in response to print stimuli. I describe technical reading as a verbally governed response to print that is a necessary prerequisite to the advanced reader and writer repertoires that will result in success in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields of study.

本研究旨在探討教授學生說明文結構閱讀策略，能否提升預科學生閱讀理解的能力。參與本研究共26名中六文科女學生。本研究採用前實驗設計的單組前測----後測設計，學生在前測和後測之間接受「說明文結構閱讀策略」教學，教學內容包括認識六種說明文結構模式、各種結構模式的標示語及結構圖。本研究對學生進行兩次訪談，了解學生在進行閱讀評估時所運用的策略及遇到的問題，並了解學生對運用說明文結構閱讀策略的看法。 研究結果顯示：教授學生說明文結構閱讀策略，能提升預科學生閱讀理解的能力。學生學習「說明文結構閱讀策略」，對提升「概括文意」的閱讀理解的能力成效最為顯著，對提升「根據文意理解詞義」的閱讀能力亦有顯著成效，對提升「擷取重要信息」及「綜合資料分析推斷」的閱讀能力的成效則未見顯著。就提升不同閱讀能力程度的學生的閱讀理解能力方面，教授「說明文結構閱讀策略」對中等程度和程度較低的學生的成效顯著。另從訪談得知，學生普遍覺得高考中國語文及文化科閱讀理解試卷十分困難。跨篇章設問的考核形式，亦會增加試題的難度。學生大都認為學習「說明文結構閱讀策略」，對閱讀說明文有很大幫助。 根據本研究的發現，研究者提出一些教學建議：(1)學習材料宜由淺入深，讓學生更容易掌握各種說明文結構模式；(2)每一次只宜教授一種結構模式，以免學生感到混亂；(3)指導學生學習時，可以運用不同的教學策略，如讀寫結合。 This research investigates the effectiveness of teaching expository text structure reading strategy in developing S6 students’ reading ability. The 26 participants in this research are F6 female arts group students. This research adopts the one-group pretest-posttest design of the pre-experimental design. Students received training in expository text structure reading strategy training between two tests. The teaching content includes six expository text structures, signal words and graphic organizers. This research also interviewed the students two times to investigate what strategies they had used and their problems in the reading comprehension tests, and to investigate their opinion of using expository text structure reading strategy. According to the result, teaching expository text structure reading strategyimprovesS6 students’ reading ability. There is significant difference in the comprehension ability of summary, there is significant difference in the comprehension ability of decoding meaning of words according to the text content, too. But there are no significant difference in the comprehension ability of retrieving information and synthesis of information, analyse and infer. In the developing the reading ability of students of different level of reading ability, teaching expository text structure reading strategy has significant effects to the students of mid-level and low level reading ability. According to the interviews, students complain that the CLC reading comprehension question paper is very difficult, especially the cross text questions. Students agreed that learning expository text structure reading strategy is helpful in reading expository text. Form the findings in this research, researcher suggests: 1. learning material should be arrange from easy to difficult, so the students will learn the expository text structure easily. 2. Teach expository text structures one by one, to avoid the students from misunderstanding. 3. Using different teaching strategies, for example, read and write. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

隨着閱讀研究的蓬勃興盛，許多學者從認知層面探討人類閱讀的歷程，本研究主要目的欲運用認知負荷的設計原則(分心效應與冗餘效應)，編排說明文體，探討學生閱讀後的篇章理解表現與編排後的說明文體是否能降低學生的認知負荷。 本研究主要採用實驗研究，進行三次實驗。受試者為香港某私立小學四年級學童，受試者依據其語文理解測驗(前測)分數，隨機分派到實驗組與控制組。研究工具主要以閱讀理解表現測驗和認知負荷量表為主，訪談為輔。每次實驗大約35 分鐘，之後，研究者隨機抽取3-5 位受試者進行訪談。本研究主要以組別為自變項，閱讀理解表現和認知負荷量表的得分為依變項，前測分數為共變項，對收集到的資料進行單因子共變數分析。 資料分析顯示：實驗一(字、字義整合)與實驗三(文字、圖片整合)兩項實驗結果呈現，兩個組別並沒有因為不同編排而在閱讀理解與減輕認知負荷上有所差異；而在實驗二(段、段意整合)，兩個組別因不同編排的文本而在閱讀理解表現與認知負荷量表上呈現差異。最後，研究者亦提供教學與研究上的建議給教育學者和未來研究者。 With the prevailing research on reading around the world, many scholars have being explored the process of human’s reading in aspect of cognition. The main goal of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of primary school students’ reading comprehension on diverse expository prose formations which was designed based on the principles of cognitive load theory (the split-attention effect and the redundancy effect). This study had three experiments and the fourth grade students were selected as subjects who randomly assigned to experimental group and control group based on their pre-test scores. The research tools included reading comprehension test, cognitive load scale (a 7-point Likert scale), and interview. Each test lasted 35 minutes, and then, 3-5 subjects were chosen to be interviewees. ANCOVA was used to analyze the collected data: group was the independent variable, the score on reading comprehension test and cognitive load scale were dependent variables, and the score on pre-test was covariate variables. The findings showed that there were no significant differences between two groups in the first experiment (text, vocabulary definitions integration) and the third experiment (text, pictures/photos integration). However, there was a significant difference between two groups in the second experiment (text, text summary integration). Finally, the recommendations of teaching and research for educators and future researchers were provided as well. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education