Evaluation of understanding in college students: Effects of text structure and reading proficiency

Abstract

Abstract An error detection paradigm was used to examine the ability of college students of different reading proficiency levels to evaluate their understanding of texts. Students read passages containing inconsistent sentences varying in referential coheslveness and were asked to find the textual problems. Error detection was measured by both a performance measure (recording the inconsistent sentences) and a verbal report measure (rating passage understanding following reading). Students were more likely to detect Inconsistent sentences when they were referentially cohesive and good readers were more likely than poor readers to detect Inconsistencies. Students rated passage understanding high regardless of whether they detected problems, resulting In what Glenberg, Wilkinson, and Epstein (1982) have termed Illusion of knowing. Results suggest that college students frequently fail to adequately evaluate their understanding of texts and that Instruction in evaluation strategies would benefit many students.