Thesis (Ed. D.)--Boise State University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-151).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-199). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-119). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Higher education in South Africa faces severe challenges due to the under preparedness of many students entering the system. Research (Perkins 1991; Pretorius 2000, 2005; Balfour 2002) has shown that many students who enter higher education do not have the required academic literacy knowledge and strategies to engage meaningfully with the relevant texts in their disciplines. A major obstacle to students’ success is their limited reading strategies. A significantly large number of students are not able to read at the appropriate grade and/or age level. Yet, reading is one of the most important academic tasks encountered by students. This thesis focuses on the use of reading strategy interventions together with integrated reading/writing activities to enhance reading comprehension. The study is located at the Durban University of Technology, using as participants the students who were registered on the first year extended Dental Technology programme in 2004. The interventions are implemented through an action research project. The piloting phase of the interventions reveals the need for an understanding of the students’ backgrounds in, amongst others, their reading and writing practices, attitudes, approaches to learning, and motivational factors. Consequently, the action research project was conducted in parallel with an ethnographic inquiry into students’ reading worlds and practices. Given that reading and writing are complementary processes whereby the enhancement of the one has a positive effect on the other, the ethnographic inquiry also explores students’ attitudes and practices towards writing. Using the ideological model (Street 1984) and, in particular, the new literacy approach to teaching and learning as a framework for the thesis, I argue that the students’ early childhood and schooling experiences of reading and writing impact on their current attitudes and practices. I further suggest that for children from disadvantaged backgrounds learning and retaining literacy is more difficult than for children from advantaged, middle class backgrounds. The ethnographic inquiry involved a series of interviews with students, as well as a questionnaire to ascertain students’ attitudes and practices towards reading and writing. In addition, a questionnaire was designed for lecturers to obtain their attitudes and practices towards reading and writing in their disciplines. A major finding of the ethnographic inquiry was that the majority of participants in the study come from a background that can be described as traditionally oral in the sense that it is one in which very little or no emphasis is placed on reading. For some participants story telling was a more common form of interaction or communication with the elders. Also, the majority of participants come from lower socio-economic backgrounds where the purchasing of reading materials is considered a luxury. In addition, for many of the English additional language students, their school environment and experiences were not adequate enough to foster the need for reading and/or any engagement in reading. Based on my research, as well as the findings of other researchers, I argue that reading strategy interventions are essential in order to raise awareness and promote the use of reading strategies so as to enhance the learning (reading) process. The review of literature on reading development and the findings from the interviews indicate that the explicit teaching of reading strategies is essential for students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds (Heath 1983; Delpit 1986; Cope and Kalantzis 1993). To this end the action research component of the study was implemented through the explicit teaching of three reading strategies, namely, identifying the main idea in a paragraph, using context clues to guess the meaning of unknown words in a text, and summarization. The focus of the intervention was on the process and on raising students’ levels of metacognitive awareness. The approach is novel in two ways. First, via the process approach to reading the chosen reading strategies were initially taught independently to the students using the explicit explanation approach which involved scaffolded tasks involving explanations, modeling (using the think-aloud protocol), practice, and transfer exercises. Thereafter, using the cognitive apprenticeship approach, students were taught to use all three strategies simultaneously during reading. Second, discipline specific materials were used as reading sources during the interventions which were conducted with integrated reading/writing activities. Data was collected by means of a language proficiency pre-and post-test, a reading strategy pre-and post-test, worksheets, student reflective pieces, portfolios, and observations. An analysis of the pre-and post-test data showed that the reading strategy interventions were highly successful. Students performed better in the reading strategy post-test than in the pre-test. Furthermore, their performance was better than that of a control group of students who were registered for the first year mainstream programme and who wrote only the reading strategy post-test. A marked improvement was also noted in the language proficiency post-test. These results stress the need for the teaching of reading strategies through integrated reading and writing activities. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

The research problem was to determine whether tutoring with the Ball-Stick-Bird reading method with moderately to severely mentally retarded adults would: 1) teach mentally retarded adults to read, 2) show an effect on cognitive functioning, 3) show improved scores on a behavioral scale. Six moderately to severely retarded adults were tutored with the reading method, and six moderately to severely retarded adults served as controls. All twelve subjects were administered pre and post tests of reading ability, intelligence, and behavior. A descriptive analysis of the data resulted in the finding that none of the subjects in either group successfully completed this research design's requirements for the reading program. However, the Ball-Stick-Bird word list data resulted in a strong interraction factor (.017) of the means appearing between the pre and post test scores for the two groups. Because the effects on cognitive functioning and on social interactions were dependent on successful completion of the reading program, the results of the study must be considered inconclusive.One outcome of the study are strong indicators that these inconclusive findings are due to the limited time span as well as the limited sample size of this research, rather than lack of promise of the tutoring instrument (Ball-Stick-Bird). A larger tutoring period with an extended sample should result in more positive findings.

The purposes of this study were (a) to determine the levels of metacognition in developmental readers before and after ten weeks of instruction in metacognitive reading skills, (b) to examine differences in mastery of metacognitive skills determined by years away from secondary education, and (c) to investigate the effect of instruction in metacognitive skills on the improvement of reading comprehension in less-skilled readers.Participants in this study were 48 adult students (ages 19-56) enrolled in developmental reading courses at Indiana Vocational Technical College on the Muncie campus and at the Anderson site. Students responded to a 20-item, multiple-choice questionnaire, the Adult Index of Reading Awareness (AIRA), specifically formulated by the author to measure levels of metacognition in adult readers.In addition, the usual pre and post comprehension tests (Reading Comprehension, Forms A and B, of the College Board, ETS, Princeton, NJ, 1979) were administered both before and after instruction. Students also indicated the number of years they had been away from secondary education.Data were analyzed using the t test, the paired t test, and repeated-measures with one between-subjects factor to determine whether statistically significant relationships existed in regard to each of the research questions.Findings indicated that:Metacognitive reading awareness as measured by the AIRA significantly increased (.000 level) after ten weeks of instruction.Years away from secondary education did not significantly affect changes in the students' metacognitive awareness as measured by this instrument.There were no significant differences in comprehension growth scores between those who measured high in metacognition and those who scored low.Instruction in metacognitive reading skills significantly (.000 level) improved comprehension asmeasured by College Board Reading Comprehension tests.There were no significant differences in comprehension growth scores between students who graduated from high school within the last four years and those who had been away for five years or more.The following conclusions were drawn from this study: (a) Less-skilled adult readers can be taught the metacognitive reading skills which are acquired intuitively by effective readers. (b) Age is not a factor in increasing levels of metacognition in adults. (c) Instruction in metacognitive reading skills significantly improved comprehension scores of adult readers; therefore, instructors should include this skill instruction in developmental reading courses. / Center for Lifelong Education

Research paper (M.A.) -- Cardinal Stritch College -- Milwaukee, 1971. / A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education (Reading Specialist). Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-33).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Boise State University, 2009. / Title from t.p. of PDF file (viewed April 12, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-151).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-211).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [141]-146).