The present study had three main purposes: first, to explore the baseline skills and strategies of struggling readers as they conducted online Internet inquiry; second, to scaffold these children to develop effective online reading comprehension and information seeking-skills and strategies in the context of an integrated curriculum; and third, to examine the affective, cognitive and social dimensions of learning in groups and the role of peer collaboration in developing online reading skills and strategies during Internet inquiry. Three theoretical frameworks underpinned the study: a new literacies framework, a motivation and engagement framework, and a cognitive scaffolding framework. The study was conducted in a disadvantaged school in Ireland over an 18 month period with 3rd and 5th class cohorts. It employed a Formative and Design Experimental methodology to iteratively refine the study intervention, as barriers to implementation of the pedagogical goal of the study were identified and factors that enhanced effectiveness of the intervention were revealed. The study was conducted in three interlinked phases: a Baseline phase, a Reading Development and Critical Web Literacy (RDCWL) phase, and the Main Study phase. A range of essentially qualitative data sources was analysed, using inductive and deductive methodologies, to extract themes from the data. Findings from the study suggested that (a) the development of an ecological learning community within the classroom coupled with an integrated curriculum enhanced engagement and motivated the pupils to develop online reading skills; (b) new literacies were acquired through explicit instruction, adaptive scaffolding and peer-to- peer collaboration; (c) developmental differences between children indicated the importance of nurturing self-regulatory reading processes and metacognitive knowledge in developing effective online reading comprehension and information-seeking skills and strategies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:523046 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Dwyer, Bernadette |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12426/ |
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