No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This study examined adult students of limited reading ability, determining the extent to which their performance on a standardized examination was a function of their reading ability, rather than function of their knowledge of the material tested by the examination.

No description available.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between rapid automatized naming (RAN) and reading in Chinese through manipulating four processes involved in RAN’s production: access and retrieval, articulation, naming and serial processing, as well as the developmental pattern of this relationship. A total of 126 Hong Kong children with 42 in Grade 1, 41 in Grade 3 and 43 in Grade 5 were assessed on both the digit and picture versions of Discrete RAN, Continuous RAN, Yes/No Naming and Cancellation tasks, in addition to Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices, Chinese word and text reading fluency. The results of the regression analyses suggested serial processing and articulation were core component processes that underlied the RAN-reading relationship in Chinese across all three grades, while naming, i.e. the oral production of names of stimuli, was found to be a significant underlying process in Grades 1 and 3 only. Comparison between the present findings and those of a past research on an alphabetic language, i.e. Greek, indicated serial processing and naming were common component processes of their RAN-reading relationships, while the role of articulation was only significant in Chinese. Implications for developing visual scanning and articulation training for Chinese poor readers were suggested. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

No description available.

Purposes of the study were to (1) develop an instrument for evaluating teacher expectations in regard to factors influencing reading achievement; (2) administer the instrument to first grade teachers of a selected school district to ascertain range of teacher expectations regarding factors that influence reading achievement; (3) identify teachers in two groups--Those revealing the Greatest Expectation of Differences in pupil achievement (TGED) and Those revealing the Least Expectation of Differences in achievement (TIED); and (4) collect data from student records for the two groups of teachers to determine extent to which the self-fulfilling prophecy may be manifested as it relates to reading achievement. An instrument, based on factors which research has indicated influences teacher expectations concerning reading achievement, was administered to seventy-eight first grade teachers in the selected school district. Responses were analyzed by computer. Thirty-two teachers were selected for the latter part of the study and were divided into two groups: sixteen teachers who "agreed" most often that certain factors influence reading achievement (TGED) and sixteen who "disagreed" most often with statements regarding expected reading achievement (TLED). Data were recorded for 349 students from the sixteen TGED and 348 students from the sixteen TLED, a total of 697 students, which comprised the population for this phase of the study.Data for the 697 students included: (1) Metropolitan Readiness Test rating (administered at conclusion of kindergarten);(2) sex of child; (3) ethnic origin; (4) order of birth; (5) area of residence; (6) parent occupation; (7) socioeconomic level; (8) attendance in kindergarten; (9) age at entry to first grade; and (10) scores on GatesMacGinitie Reading Tests (administered at conclusion of first grade).Ratings from the Metropolitan Readiness Test were used as a constant. Students were grouped into "high," "average," and "low" categories from MRT scores. Instruction by teachers with greatest or least expectation of differences was used as the treatment (independent variable). Data from student records were used as dependent variables for ninety-six analyses of variance. Significant differences favored students taught by TGED on thirteen of forty-eight analyses. Only three significant differences favored students taught by TLED. Therefore, it appears that this student population tended to be more successful in learning to read when working with the TGED group. The three significant differences which favored the students instructed by TLED teachers appeared in the categories with "low" readiness ratings. Perhaps the TLED teachers obtain better results from pupils in these groupings because less differences in reading achievement are expected. Twenty-two differences were statistically significant in forty-eight analyses performed on groups subdivided according to sex of student, parent occupation, area of residence, ethnic origin, and socioeconomic level. It appears that certain factors analyzed exerted influences which affect a child learning to read regardless of teacher expectations. The variables of order of birth, attendance in kindergarten, and age at entry to first grade revealed no statistically significant differences.In this study, reading achievement scores were significantly higher at the end of first grade for girls compared to boys, for Caucasian students compared to students of minority groups, for children from "white collar" families compared to children from "blue collar" families, for children who live in other areas compared to children who live in the inner-city, and for children from middle and upper socioeconomic levels compared to children from lower socioeconomic level. Therefore, it would appear that these differences involved important factors operating to determine reading achievement whether instruction was provided by teachers with greater or lesser expectation of differences among students.

This study investigated the relationship between instructional level scores as determined by a cloze test and instructional level scores as determined by an informal reading inventory. Subjects used in this study were selected from schools in a mid-western community. Five schools were selected from a total of twenty-two elementary schools by means of a random numbers table. Administrative officials acknowledged the fact that the schools selected were representative of the various socio-economic classes serviced by the school system. Fifty male and fifty female subjects were selected from the total fifth grade population of these five schools. This was accomplished by matching assigned pupil numbers with random numbers generated by a computer.A cloze test and an informal reading inventory (IRI) were administered to all subjects over a six-week period during the months of April and May of 1972. For purposes of this study, the IRI was accepted as the criterion with which all other variables were compared. Teachers' estimates of their pupils' instructional levels were also gathered during the testing period. Participating teachers were not able to consult previously determined estimates of their pupils' instructional levels during the data gathering process.Statistical analysis of the data was accomplished by the application of the Pearson Product Moment Correlation. A classification analysis yielded information in terms of the quantities of scores on any two variables which were in exact agreement. Also determined were the quantities of scores which ranged within plus or minus one year of each other, and the quantity of scores which ranged within plus or minus two or more years of each other.The testing of five null hypotheses resulted in significant correlation coefficients at the .01 level between:1. Instructional level scores as determined by an IRI and instructional level scores as determined by a cloze test (.78).2. Instructional level scores as determined by an IRI and teachers' estimates of their pupils' instructional levels (.82).3. Instructional level scores as determined by a cloze test and teachers' estimates of their pupils' instructional levels (.74).4. Instructional level scores as determined bya cloze test and instructional level scores as determined by the word recognition subtest of the IRI (.78).5. Instructional level scores as determined by a cloze test and instructional level scores as determined by the comprehension subtest of the IRI (.69).A classification analysis revealed that while correlations were highly significant, the percentage of pupils' scores which were in exact agreement was 26.2 per cent for all hypotheses tested. Approximately 38.2 per cent of the pupils' scores fell within a range of plus or minus one year of each other. The remaining scores which amounted to 35.6 per cent fell within a range of plus or minus two or more years of each other for all hypotheses tested.These findings seem to indicate that high correlation coefficients are an inadequate criterion on which to accept the cloze procedure as a valid technique for determining the instructional levels of pupils, since only thirty-one per cent of the population sample made identical instructional level scores on both the cloze test and the IRI.An additional finding of this study is that teachers' estimates of their pupils' instructional levels are inaccurate to the point that their continued usecannot be justified. Only twenty-two per cent of teachers' estimates are in exact agreement with the instructional level scores as determined by the IRI.In conclusion, the possibility exists that the cloze procedure may yet provide classroom teachers with a technique for assessing instructional level. However, this practice cannot be recommended based upon the findings of previously conducted correlational studies.