College of Education
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Item Strategy and bias in comprehension of multiple texts: How do readers with topic beliefs use strategies when reading controversial documents?(2014) Kim, Jong-Yun; Afflerbach, Peter P; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research on multiple text comprehension reveals key principles and elements of comprehension: readers' mental representation, cognitive text processing, and strategy use while reading multiple texts (Goldman, 2004; Rouet, 2006). However, many studies of multiple text comprehension fail to investigate the influence of reader bias. Grounded in both the literature on reading strategies and the social psychology literature on bias (e.g., Edwards & Smith, 1996), this study investigated how readers' topic beliefs influence comprehension strategies in relation to bias. The participants for this study were 15 undergraduate students, chosen as they represented three distinct topic beliefs related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There were 5 pro-Israel, 5, pro-Palestine, and 5 neutral participants. While thinking-aloud, participants read two maps and five texts about Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The texts and maps were presented in the iMTC (internet-embedded Multiple-Text Comprehension measurement tool) environment (Kim & Cho, 2011). In addition, measures of participants' prior knowledge and topic beliefs were gathered, while their reading times and Internet searches were recorded by the iMTC. Participants' verbal reports were coded based on existing coding schemes for reading strategies (Goldman et al., 2012; Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). Five families of strategy were determined: Considering text content, Acceptance and resistance, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Information need and search. The study has three major findings. First, initial belief differences between groups of different beliefs increased after reading, meaning that participants showed biased assimilation processing during reading. Second, the participants' biased processing was not detected in the three types of reading measures: reading times, reading orders, and Internet searches. Finally, the study found that participants with different topic beliefs showed different strategic patterns in relation to bias. In particular, acceptance and resistance distinguished the three participant groups' strategic processing. Participants accepted belief-consistent text information and resisted belief-inconsistent text information. In addition, three cases of participants' biased strategy use were qualitatively analyzed. The analyses demonstrated that participants' topic beliefs played a role in creating an interpretive framework that evaluated, accepted, or resisted information during reading. The findings, limitations, implications for future research and instructional practices are discussed.Item CONTRIBUTIONS OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE, MOTIVATION, AND STRATEGIES TO KOREAN COLLEGE STUDENTS' L2 WRITING DEVELOPMENT(2011) Chae, Soo Eun; Alexander, Patricia A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current study examined Korean college students' L2 writing development and performance, motivation, and strategies while taking ESL writing classes. The present study expands the literature by examining the effects of various learner characteristics on L2 writing development. The selection and the expected effects of learner variables were particularly guided by the Model of Domain Learning (MDL). Prior work has demonstrated motivation, strategy, and prior knowledge are associated with L2 writing development. For example, a study by Leki (2007) showed L2 writing motivation (i.e., goals) to be related to L2 writing proficiency. He (2005) developed a model and a measure for assessing strategies relevant to motivation in L2 writing. The current study sought to expand and elaborate on previous works, as the extant L2 writing literature has been limited in showing changes in learning factors over time and in incorporating learner characteristics into studies of L2 writing. The current study sought to answer the following questions: 1. To what extent and in what manner do Korean college students' initial self-efficacy and interest contribute to changes in L2 writing performance over time?; 2. How are Korean college students' interest and self-efficacy at the beginning (Time 1) and at the conclusion (Time 3) of an L2 writing course related to L2 writing performance and self-reported strategiy use at time 1 and 3?; 3. How is Korean college students' prior L2 writing knowledge associated with their L2 writing motivation, self-reported strategy use, and writing performance? In order to answer these questions, a multi-methods design was performed, where interviews were used to support what was found in analyses results with self-report measures. Results based on growth curve modeling with cohort data at three time points suggested that students' motivational orientation significantly predicts Korean college students' L2 writing performance at the beginning of a semester. However, the influence of initial motivation on the growth rate of L2 writing proficiency, specifically L2 writing performance, was negative. The cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses in this study concluded that the contributions of motivation constructs to L2 writing performance depended on time. While there were a few exceptions (i.e., non-significant relation between L2 prior knowledge and students' interest at Time 1), study findings generally indicated that L1 and L2 writing prior knowledge were significantly related to L2 writing motivation, performance, and strategy use. In addition, interview data demonstrated students' level of L2 writing self-efficacy, interest, and strategy uses. While the records from self-report data and interview data did not perfectly match, the two data sets were similar.Item The Effects of Two Summarization Strategies Using Expository Text on the Reading Comprehension and Summary Writing of Fourth- and Fifth-Grade Students in an Urban, Title 1 School(2009) Braxton, Diane Marie; Dreher, Mariam J.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation:THE EFFECTS OF TWO SUMMARIZATION STRATEGIES USING EXPOSITORY TEXT ON THE READING COMPREHENSION AND SUMMARY WRITING OF FOURTH- AND FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS IN AN URBAN, TITLE 1 SCHOOL Diane M. Braxton, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Directed By: Dr. Mariam Jean Dreher Department of Curriculum and Instruction University of Maryland, College Park Using a quasi-experimental pretest/post test design, this study examined the effects of two summarization strategies on the reading comprehension and summary writing of fourth- and fifth- grade students in an urban, Title 1 school. The strategies, Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text (GIST) and Rule-based, were taught using authentic social studies materials that are part of the school system's curriculum. Four intact classes participated in fifteen 40 - 60 minute lessons. One fourth-grade (17 students) and one fifth-grade (13 students) received GIST instruction, and one fourth-grade (20 students) and one fifth-grade (14 students) received Rule-based instruction. The Qualitative Reading Inventory - 4 was used to determine the effects on the expository reading comprehension. For the fourth graders, there was no significant interaction between time and intervention. However, there was a significant main effect for time with a very large effect size. Additional analyses showed a significant time by intervention by gender interaction for implicit questions (but no effect for explicit questions). GIST group males outperformed the females, while Rule-based group females outperformed males. For the fifth graders, there was no significant interaction between time and intervention. However, there was a significant main effect for time with a very large effect size. For the quality of summaries, there was a significant interaction between time and intervention with a very large effect size for both grades, favoring the Rule-based group. Questionnaire responses showed the greatest change for students in both grades and interventions on concepts of summary writing. Ratings indicated an increase in knowledge about summary writing, paralleling the gained knowledge that was evident in students' post test summaries. These results suggest that both summarization methods can improve the expository reading comprehension and summary writing of urban, Title 1 students. These findings provide evidence to encourage the teaching of summarization strategies to promote reading achievement especially with students who are lagging behind their peers in the area of reading. This study extended summarization research by (a) using authentic expository text rather than research-generated material, and (b) instructing a student population that has had limited representation in past studies.