Abstract
Higher education aims for university students to produce knowledge from the critical reflection of scientific texts. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a deep mental representation of written information. The objective of this research was to determine through a systematic review and meta-analysis the proportion of university students who have an optimal performance at each level of reading comprehension. Systematic review of empirical studies has been limited from 2010 to March 2021 using the Web of Science, Scopus, Medline, and PsycINFO databases. Two reviewers performed data extraction independently. A random-effects model of proportions was used for the meta-analysis and heterogeneity was assessed with I2. To analyze the influence of moderating variables, meta-regression was used and two ways were used to study publication bias. Seven articles were identified with a total sample of the seven of 1,044. The proportion of students at the literal level was 56% (95% CI = 39–72%, I2 = 96.3%), inferential level 33% (95% CI = 19–46%, I2 = 95.2%), critical level 22% (95% CI = 9–35%, I2 = 99.04%), and organizational level 22% (95% CI = 6–37%, I2 = 99.67%). Comparing reading comprehension levels, there is a significant higher proportion of university students who have an optimal level of literal compared to the rest of the reading comprehension levels. The results have to be interpreted with caution but are a guide for future research.
Highlights
Reading comprehension allows the integration of knowledge that facilitates training processes and successful coping with academic and personal situations
There are investigations (Yussof et al, 2013; Ulum, 2016) that identify levels of reading comprehension ranging from a literal level of identification of ideas to an inferential and critical level that require the elaboration of inferences and the data transformation
The exclusion criteria are as follows: (a) book chapters or review books or publications; (b) articles in other languages; (c) studies of lower educational levels; (d) articles that do not identify the age of the sample; (e) second language studies; (f) students with learning difficulties or other disorders; (g) publications that do not indicate the level of reading comprehension; (h) studies that relate reading competence with other variables but do not report reading comprehension levels; (i) pre-post program application work; (j) studies with experimental and control groups; (k) articles comparing pre-university stages or adults; (l) publications that use multitexts; (m) studies that use some type of technology; and (n) studies unrelated to the subject of interest
Summary
Reading comprehension allows the integration of knowledge that facilitates training processes and successful coping with academic and personal situations. Within the framework of the construction-integration model (Kintsch and van Dijk, 1978; Kintsch, 1998), the most accepted model of reading comprehension, processing levels are differentiated, : A superficial level that identifies or memorizes data forming the basis of the text and a deep level in which the text situation model is elaborated integrating previous experiences and knowledge. At these levels of processing, the cognitive strategies used, are different according to the domainlearning model (Alexander, 2004) from basic coding to a transformation of the text. There are investigations (Yussof et al, 2013; Ulum, 2016) that identify levels of reading comprehension ranging from a literal level of identification of ideas to an inferential and critical level that require the elaboration of inferences and the data transformation
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