If at First You Don′t Succeed: Children′s Metacognition about Reading Problems

Abstract

The development of children′s metacognition about the influence of ability and effort on reading problems was investigated. Twenty-one subjects from each of grades 1, 3, 5, and 7 were presented with short descriptions of four fictitious children (same age and sex as the subject) with reading problems. The intellectual ability (high versus low) and the level of effort (high versus low) of the fictitious children were varied systematically across the four descriptions. Subjects were asked to determine the cause of each fictitious child′s reading problem and to recommend remediation strategies. The major findings were that (a) subjects appointed effort, but not ability, a major role in the cause and remediation of reading problems; (b) although subjects had relatively sophisticated metacognition about the cause of reading problems, integrating intellectual, cognitive, motivational, and effort variables in their causal explanations, their metacognition about remediation was less elaborate; and (c) few developmental differences in metacognition about reading problems were evident. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance and limitations of children′s beliefs about reading problems.