Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
8-1996
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Education
Major Professor
J. Estill Alexander
Committee Members
Schuyler Huck, Mike Johnson, John Peters
Abstract
College readers, identified as "developmental" in ability, were taught to generate visual representations and verbal associations for written text to determine if such a strategy improved reading comprehension and if it was used independently. Other strategies, such as SQ4R are thought to appear formal and complex and, therefore, are unlikely to be used by this population, who typically has poor study skills and is accustomed to failure. On the contrary, the generation of representations and associations while reading (the generative model of learning), as proposed by Merlin Wittrock, could be used quite flexibly, depending on the reading task and the reader's learning style and preference. The strategy also addresses the influence of well accepted factors affecting reading comprehension such as text structure, the role of schema, and metacognition. Participants consisted of students enrolled in several sections of a developmental reading course. A control group made up of 33 students was tested on three occasions. An experimental group of 67 students was tested in the same manner but was also instructed and encouraged in the generation of representations and associations while reading college assignments. Researcher-made reading comprehension tests were used and the researcher provided instruction over six weeks. Research questions were as follows:
1. Is there a significant difference between the means of the control group and the experimental group on the pre, post, and follow-up reading comprehension tests?
2. Due to the nature of both the method of instruction and the generative reading strategy, will participants use the strategy independently?
3. Will themes such as "usefulness," "ease of application," or "individualization" of the generative reading strategy be referred to by participants as reasons for choosing to use part or all of the generative reading strategy? Analysis of the reading comprehension tests found no treatment effects demonstrating improvement in the experimental group or changes occurring between experimental and control groups during the course of the study. This indicates that improvement in reading comprehension is independent of strategy instruction as provided in this study. Analysis of questionnaires tailed to yield data that would strongly support conclusions concerning participants' strategy use. Few dramatic differences were demonstrated between experimental and control groups' responses at the time of any questionnaire administration. Modest improvements in experimental participants' descriptions of their strategy use were evident, but were not considered to be significant by the researcher. The researcher has concluded that further study concerning the teaching of reading comprehension strategies to developmental college readers and their decisions to use these strategies is much needed. Issues concerning the instruction of strategies and questionnaire administration should be considered prior to initiating another study. This population of students is difficult to influence, yet doing so should improve students' college learning experiences and higher education's attrition rates.
Recommended Citation
Schroeder, Elizabeth McKamy, "The effectiveness and independent use of a generative strategy to improve reading comprehension by adults enrolled in college developmental reading. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1996.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/9848