A procedure to evaluate cognitive requirements of beginning reading materials

Many factors may be associated with difficulties experienced by beginning readers. The cognitive development of young children is receiving increased attention as one such factor. Investigations into instructional materials intended for use with beginning readers have shown that activities suggested by teachers' manuals may not be appropriate to the cognitive development of many of the children with whom they are being used. Analyses of reading materials are needed to determine their appropriateness for use with children at the developmental levels likely to be found in first grade.

No procedure, checklist, or assessment device was available to facilitate such analyses. It was the purpose of this research to develop a procedure to evaluate the cognitive requirements of beginning reading materials. Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development provided the theoretical framework for the study. Information was sought concerning the complexities, usefulness, and practicality of such a procedure.

The literature was examined to identify activities, methods, or requirements which are thought by some authorities in the fields of reading, psychology, and early childhood education to be inappropriate for preoperational children. A panel of expert judges was used to establish face and content validity for the principles which were included in the exploratory version of the procedure.

A pilot study was conducted in which the procedure was used with a sample of beginning reading materials. The first part of the pilot study was conducted by educators such as those who might participate in textbook selection decisions. These educators represented five groups-first grade teachers, elementary school principals, elementary school librarians, system-level supervisors, and college or university professors. Each pilot study participant used the procedure with the same text based on synthetic phonics and answered questions concerning its use. The procedure results and responses to the questionnaire were used as the basis for revision of the instrument.

The second part of the pilot study consisted of application of the procedure by the researcher. . Samples of three other types of readers were used. The three categories were an analytic program, a linguistic program, and a program with literary emphasis.

When various raters used the procedure to evaluate the same reading book, results were relatively consistent across raters. Use of the procedure to evaluate reading materials with different approaches showed that the procedure discriminates between types of instructional materials.

Conclusions of the study emphasized the complexity of the topic under consideration. It was recommended that consideration be given to alteration in instructional materials to make them more suitable for use with preoperational children. It was further recommended that attention be given to alternative ways of teaching reading to children who have not yet reached the stage of concrete operational thinking. Hypothesis-testing research is needed to extend the findings of the present study.