We compared high school students' performance in a traditional comprehension assessment requiring them to identify key information and draw inferences from single texts, and a scenario-based assessment (SBA) requiring them to integrate, evaluate and apply information across multiple sources. Both assessments focused on a non-academic topic.…

The note- and test-taking skills of typically functioning undergraduates are significantly and positively related to handwriting speed, listening comprehension, background knowledge and sustained attention. This study attempted to replicate these findings with two groups of high school students--those with and without the diagnosis of a learning…

This study demonstrates the generalization of previous laboratory results showing the benefits of Self-Explanation Reading Training (SERT) to college students' course exam performance. The participants were 265 students enrolled in an Introductory Biology course, 59 of whom were provided with SERT. The results showed that SERT benefited students…

This study demonstrates the generalization of previous laboratory results showing the benefits of self-explanation reading training (SERT) to college students' course exam performance. The participants were 265 students enrolled in an Introductory Biology course, 59 of whom were provided with SERT training. The results showed that SERT benefited…

The current study evaluates guessing behaviors in a vocabulary size test (VST) and examines whether including an "I don't know" in a VST may have an impact on the results of the test. One-hundred-fifty first-year students at a university in China took part in the study. They were randomly assigned to three groups. Each group took a…

Various sequences for teaching genetics have been proposed. Three seventh-grade biology textbooks in Taiwan share similar key knowledge assemblages but have different knowledge arrangements. To investigate the influence of knowledge arrangements on student understanding of genetics, we compared students' reading comprehension of the three texts…

The present study examined whether observed differences in naturally occurring classroom instruction of reading comprehension strategies were reflected in students' independent use of strategies to comprehend expository text. Based on a descriptive classroom study in 4 ninth-grade language arts classrooms, participants were divided into two groups…

"Time to Act," a 2009 report of the Carnegie Corporation's Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy, concludes that U.S. students are ill-prepared for the literacy challenges of 21st century higher education, employment, and citizenship. Word Generation (WG) is a research-based vocabulary program for middle school students designed to…

The purpose of this experimental study is to investigate the effects of using content acquisition podcasts (CAPs), an example of instructional technology, to provide vocabulary instruction to adolescents with and without learning disabilities (LD). A total of 279 urban high school students, including 30 with LD in an area related to reading, were…

We examined young readers' comprehension as a function of text genre (narrative, science), text cohesion (high, low), and readers' abilities (reading decoding skills and world knowledge). The overarching purpose of this study was to contribute to our understanding of the "fourth grade slump". Children in grade 4 read four texts,…

The present study examined how a reader's subject knowledge, the analogy versus nonanalogy difference in text type, and type of test (written recall, sentence completion, and multiple choice) affect first language (L1) and second language (L2) reading comprehension. There were three participant groups: (a) 53 native Costa Ricans enrolled in…

Reviews some notions that have influenced the generation of comprehension questions, and describes a study that compared the knowledge sources third-grade students drew upon in answering text questions with the assumptions underlying the question hierarchies represented. (HOD)

This report describes 12 studies dealing with the knowledge monitoring component of metacognition. It is assumed that knowledge monitoring is basic to other metacognitive activities, such as evaluating learning, selecting appropriate strategies, or planning, because distinguishing between what students know and do not know ought to be a…