The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of written prequestioning on the reading comprehension of fifth grade students. The sample for this study consisted of 144 fifth grade students randomly selected from six elementary schools in Muncie, Indiana. These students ranged in reading ability from 3.0 to 9.0 on the reading subtest of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.The 144 students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Half of the students (question-read-question group) received questions to guide their reading prior to each of the reading selections, while the other half (read-question group) did not. The two groups were equated on the basis of (1) levels of reading ability and (2) on the basis of sex.The reading material used in this study consisted of three reading passages. Each of the passages was approximately 1025 words in length. The passages were judged to be at the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade reading levels. Twenty multiple choice questions over each of the reading passages were constructed. The questions were classified as recall, inference or evaluative types of comprehension questions according to Barrett's taxonomy. The reliability coefficients (KR-20) for the three tests were .73 for the fourth grade questions, .74 for the fifth grade questions, and .76 for the sixth grade questions.Seven indices of comprehension were used with the reading materials. These seven indices were measures of: (1) total of all the materials, (2) the recall questions, (3) the inference questions, (4) the evaluative questions, (5) the fourth grade reading level materials, (6) the fifth grade reading level materials, and (7) the sixth grade reading level materials. Mean scores for the seven indices of comprehension were computed for the total sample, male, female, high reading ability students, average reading ability students, and low reading ability students. Comparisons of these mean scores were obtained by the utilization of the statistical technique of analysis of variance.Twenty-one null hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of confidence to ascertain the effect of prequestioning on the reading comprehension of the students taking part in the study.No significant differences were found among any of the mean scores of the seven indices of comprehension for the total sample, male, female, high reading ability students, average reading ability students, or low reading ability students. Nor were any interactions found between the two groups and the factors of sex, reading ability, and question type.It was concluded from the results of the analysis of data that the prequestioning technique utilized in this study had no significant effect on the reading comprehension of the fifth grade students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/176670 |
| Date | January 1973 |
| Creators | Hayes, Bernard Lee |
| Contributors | Wolpert, Edward M. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | viii, 147 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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