Search

Students often struggle with developing understanding from expository science texts. This study explored whether training students to engage in a POE (Predict-Observe-Explain) study strategy might be beneficial when learning from texts that introduce theories by describing experiments and empirical results, a common style in social science textbooks. The main questions tested in this experiment were if training students how to use a POE study strategy while reading textbook excerpts would support better comprehension and comprehension monitoring outcomes when students engaged in future learning attempts for an introductory psychology class. In one condition students were trained to use the POE study strategy, while in a comparison condition students were simply trained to use an explanation study strategy. Analyses suggested that students in the POE strategy training condition may have become preoccupied with whether or not their experimental predictions were correct, prohibiting them from engaging with the POE strategy as intended. Although both POE and explanation strategy training helped students to improve their comprehension monitoring on a new set of texts, students in the explanation condition displayed better comprehension on those new texts than students in the POE condition.

Students tend to have poor metacomprehension when learning from text, meaning they are not able to distinguish between what they have understood well and what they have not. Although there are a good number of studies that have explored comprehension monitoring accuracy in laboratory experiments, fewer studies have explored this in authentic course contexts. This study investigated the effect of an instructional condition that encouraged comprehension-test-expectancy and self-explanation during study on metacomprehension accuracy in the context of an undergraduate course in research methods. Results indicated that when students received this instructional condition, relative metacomprehension accuracy was better than in a comparison condition. In addition, differences were also seen in absolute metacomprehension accuracy measures, strategic study behaviors, and learning outcomes. The results of the current study demonstrate that a condition that has improved relative metacomprehension accuracy in laboratory contexts may have value in real classroom contexts as well.

A set of four experiments assessed the effects of establishing a comprehension-test expectancy (in contrast to a memory-test expectancy) on relative metacomprehension accuracy. Typically readers show poor relative metacomprehension accuracy while learning from text (i.e., they are unable to discriminate topics they have understood well from topics they have understood poorly). In the first experiment, both readers who were given no test expectancy and those who were given a memory-test expectancy made judgments that were more predictive of performance on memory tests than inference tests. However, readers who were given a comprehension-test expectancy made judgments that were more predictive of inference-test performance. This effect was replicated and extended in two additional experiments that showed an effect of comprehension-test expectancy even when no example test items were provided, and when the expectancy was established only after reading. A fourth experiment showed that establishing a comprehension-test expectancy still had an effect on accuracy even when metacomprehension accuracy was already being improved via a self-explanation activity. The results show robust and reliable benefits to metacomprehension accuracy from a comprehension-test expectancy that serves as portable knowledge that learners can apply to monitoring future learning from text.

The main goal for the current study was to investigate whether individual differences in domain-general thinking dispositions might affect learning from multiple-document inquiry tasks in science. Middle school students were given a set of documents and were tasked with understanding how and why recent patterns in global temperature might be different from what has been observed in the past from those documents. Understanding was assessed with two measures: an essay task and an inference verification task. Domain-general thinking dispositions were assessed with a Commitment to Logic, Evidence, and Reasoning (CLEAR) thinking scale. The measures of understanding were uniquely predicted by both reading skills and CLEAR thinking scores, and these effects were not attributable to prior knowledge or interest. The results suggest independent roles for thinking dispositions and reading ability when students read to learn from multiple-document inquiry tasks in science.

Background: Self-regulated learning requires accurate monitoring and effective regulation of study. Little is known about how effectively younger readers regulate their study. Aims: We examined how decisions about which text to restudy affect overall comprehension for seventh-grade students. In addition to a "Participant's Choice" condition where students were allowed to pick texts for restudy on their own, we compared learning gains in two other conditions in which texts were selected for them. The "Test-Based Restudy" condition determined text selection using initial test performance--presenting the text with the lowest initial test performance for restudy, thereby circumventing potential problems associated with inaccurate monitoring and ineffective regulation. The "Judgement-Based Restudy" condition determined text selection using metacognitive judgements of comprehension--presenting the text with the lowest judgement of comprehension, thereby circumventing potential problems associated with ineffective regulation. Sample: Four hundred and eighty seventh-grade students participated. Method: Students were randomly assigned to conditions in an experimental design. Results and conclusions: Gains in comprehension following restudy were larger for the "Test-Based Restudy" condition than for the "Judgement-Based Restudy" condition or the Participant's Choice condition. No differences in comprehension were seen between the "Judgement-Based Restudy" and "Participant's Choice" conditions. These results suggest seventh graders can systematically use their monitoring to make decisions about what to restudy. However, the results highlight how inaccurate monitoring is one reason why younger students fail to benefit from self-regulated study opportunities.

This article describes several approaches to assessing student understanding using written explanations that students generate as part of a multiple-document inquiry activity on a scientific topic (global warming). The current work attempts to capture the causal structure of student explanations as a way to detect the quality of the students' mental models and understanding of the topic by combining approaches from Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, and applying them to Education. First, several attributes of the explanations are explored by hand coding and leveraging existing technologies (LSA and Coh-Metrix). Then, we describe an approach for inferring the quality of the explanations using a novel, two-phase machine-learning approach for detecting causal relations and the causal chains that are present within student essays. The results demonstrate the benefits of using a machine-learning approach for detecting content, but also highlight the promise of hybrid methods that combine ML, LSA and Coh-Metrix approaches for detecting student understanding. Opportunities to use automated approaches as part of Intelligent Tutoring Systems that provide feedback toward improving student explanations and understanding are discussed.

Graphics presented alongside expository science texts can have a number of positive effects for instruction, including facilitating engagement, arousing interest, and improving understanding. However, because students harbor expectations about which contexts are likely to support better understanding, the mere presence of graphics also has the potential to lead to inaccurate judgments of understanding when those graphics do not actually lead to presumed levels of performance. Previous work has demonstrated that including graphics alongside text can alter the judgment process. The present work explores different categories of instructional graphics found in biology textbooks and tests how different graphic types, classified by their form and function, can affect expectations of understanding prior to actual reading. Experiment 1 found that realistic, depictive graphics predominated in a middle school text, whereas more abstract and explanatory graphics predominated in a college text. Experiment 2 demonstrated that different categories of graphics led to differences in expectations of how helpful graphics would be for understanding.

We examined students' understanding of the causes of a scientific phenomenon from a multiple-document-inquiry unit. Students read several documents that each described causal factors that could be integrated to address the given writing task of explaining the causes of change in average global temperature. We manipulated whether the document set included a document that took a position on climate change policies and whether a reading/writing prompt focused only on understanding the causes ("explain how and why recent temperature changes are occurring") or also included a solution-related addendum ("and what we can do about it"). The results suggest that including a policy-related document can lead to poorer learning outcomes for the causes of climate change, with evidence that students focused on policy in lieu of, rather than in relation to, a causal understanding of the issue.

We explored whether exposure to different kinds of comprehension tests during elementary years influenced metacomprehension accuracy among 7th and 8th graders. This research was conducted in a kindergarten through 8th grade charter school with an expeditionary learning curriculum. In literacy instruction, teachers emphasize reading for meaning and inference building, and they regularly assess deep comprehension with summarization, discussion, dialogic reasoning, and prediction activities throughout the elementary years. The school recently expanded, doubling enrollments in 7th and 8th grades. Thus, approximately half of the students had long-term exposure to the curriculum and the other half did not. In Study 1, metacomprehension accuracy measured with the standard relative accuracy paradigm was significantly better for long-time students than for newcomers. In Study 2, all students engaged in delayed-keyword generation before judging their comprehension of texts. Metacomprehension accuracy was again significantly better for long-time students than for newcomers. Further, the superior monitoring accuracy led to more effective regulation of study, as seen in better decisions about which texts to restudy, which led, in turn, to better comprehension. The results suggest the importance of early exposure to comprehension tests for developing skills in comprehension monitoring and self-regulated learning. (Contains 3 tables, 3 figures and 1 footnote.)

Two experiments explored concept map construction as a useful intervention to improve metacomprehension accuracy among 7th grade students. In the first experiment, metacomprehension was marginally better for a concept mapping group than for a rereading group. In the second experiment, metacomprehension accuracy was significantly greater for a concept mapping group than for a control group, while a group of students who were given already constructed concept maps had accuracy between these two groups. In both experiments, control groups had poor metacomprehension accuracy. That is, they performed worse on tests they predicted better performance and performed better on tests they predicted worse performance. Although constructing concept maps did not produce the same high level of accurate monitoring previously reported in the literature, it still reduced the illusion of knowing. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

Background: Theory suggests that the accuracy of metacognitive monitoring is affected by the cues used to judge learning. Researchers have improved monitoring accuracy by directing attention to more appropriate cues; however, this is the first study to more directly point students to more appropriate cues using instructions regarding tests and practice tests. Aims: The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the accuracy metacognitive monitoring was affected by the nature of the test expected. Sample and method: Students (N = 59) were randomly assigned to one of two test expectancy groups (memory vs. inference). Then after reading texts, judging learning, completed both memory and inference tests. Results: Test performance and monitoring accuracy were superior when students received the kind of test they had been led to expect rather than the unexpected test. Conclusion: Tests influence students' perceptions of what constitutes learning. Our findings suggest that this could affect how students prepare for tests and how they monitoring their own learning.

Two studies attempt to determine the causes of poor metacomprehension accuracy and then, in turn, to identify interventions that circumvent these difficulties to support effective comprehension monitoring performance. The first study explored the cues that both at-risk and typical college readers use as a basis for their metacomprehension judgments in the context of a delayed-summarization paradigm. Improvement was seen in all readers, but at-risk readers did not reach the same level of metacomprehension accuracy as a sample of typical college readers. Further, whereas few readers reported using comprehension-related cues, more at-risk readers reported using surface-related cues as the basis for their judgments. To support the use of more predictive cues among the at-risk readers, a second study employed a concept-map intervention, which was intended to make situation-model level representations more salient. Concept mapping improved both the comprehension and metacomprehension accuracy of at-risk readers. The results suggest that poor metacomprehension accuracy can result from a failure to use appropriate cues for monitoring judgments, and that especially less-able readers need interventions that direct them to predictive cues for comprehension. (Contains 5 figures and 2 tables.)

As more affordable synchronous communications are becoming available, the use of synchronous interactions has not been noted in course Web sites as often as asynchronous communications. Previous research indicated that the integration of synchronous tools into course Web sites has made a positive impact on students. While most of the previous studies were limited to open-ended questions and qualitative inquiries, this study extended the study of synchronous interaction by performing a sequence of quantitative and in-depth data analyses to explore how important this factor is relative to other factors and how this factor affects satisfaction of students majored in Information Systems with course Web sites. In a sample of 102 undergraduate students who were taking classes offered by Department of Computer Information Systems, the 89 percent of those students were majoring in Computer Information Systems while the rest of them, except a few, were pursuing a minor in Computer Information Systems. Findings in this study suggest that improving student satisfaction with synchronous interactions will effectively raise their overall satisfaction with course Web sites. While the delivery of educational materials is undergoing a remarkable change from the traditional lecture method to dissemination of courses via Web-based teaching-support systems, improving student satisfaction with course Web sites is closely linked to quality of day-to-day teaching. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.)

The typical finding from research on metacomprehension is that accuracy is quite low. However, recent studies have shown robust accuracy improvements when judgments follow certain generation tasks (summarizing or keyword listing) but only when these tasks are performed at a delay rather than immediately after reading (K. W. Thiede & M. C. M. Anderson, 2003; K. W. Thiede, M. C. M. Anderson, & D. Therriault, 2003). The delayed and immediate conditions in these studies confounded the delay between reading and generation tasks with other task lags, including the lag between multiple generation tasks and the lag between generation tasks and judgments. The first 2 experiments disentangle these confounded manipulations and provide clear evidence that the delay between reading and keyword generation is the only lag critical to improving metacomprehension accuracy. The 3rd and 4th experiments show that not all delayed tasks produce improvements and suggest that delayed generative tasks provide necessary diagnostic cues about comprehension for improving metacomprehension accuracy.

The 1970s saw a significant increase in the number and proportion of women in U.S. medical schools that resulted in a more equal distribution of women students throughout all medical schools. Female enrollment increased from 9.1 percent of the total to 26.2 percent. (Author/MSE)

Discusses the future role of developmental education and educators. Predicts changes in jobs and life and learning perceptions that will affect teaching methods and techniques. Sees increases in developmental studies influencing economics, production, cultural identity, and interrelationship recognition. (DMM)