Text-based Questions Research Articles

How Think-and-Feel-Aloud Instruction Influences Poetry Readers

Assuming readers' emotional responses can inform literary analysis, this study of poetry readers featured an instructional intervention that involved modeling both cognitive and affective reading processes through a think-and-feel-aloud pedagogy. Eleventh-grade students in 2 conditions participated in a 4-week unit on reading poetry. Control group instruction focused on textual analysis and vocabulary building, whereas experimental group instruction focused on readers' personal responses, which were mapped back to textual elements. Experimental group students reported more favorable orientations to poetry and wrote longer responses to poems than control group students. Analysis of classroom discourse revealed that the experimental group participated in discussions more frequently and asked more sophisticated text-based questions while identifying with the poem's speakers.

SERT: Self-ExplanationReading Training

This study examined the effects of providing reading strategy instruction to improve the effectiveness of self-explanation (i.e., explaining the meaning of information to oneself while reading). The effects of the reading strategy instruction, called Self-Explanation Reading Training (SERT), were examined both in terms of comprehension scores and self-explanation quality. Half of the participants (n = 42) received SERT, which included reading strategy instruction and self-explanation practice with 4 science texts (SERT condition). The remaining participants read aloud the 4 science texts (control condition). During this training phase, self-explanation, as compared to reading aloud, only improved comprehension for the most difficult of the 4 texts. Prior domain knowledge consistently improved comprehension performance, whereas reading skill and reading span had minimal effects. After training, both SERT and control participants self-explained a difficult text about cell mitosis. SERT improved comprehension and self-explanation quality only for participants with low domain knowledge. However, the effects of SERT on low-knowledge participants' comprehension emerged only for text-based questions and not for bridging-inference questions. Protocol analyses indicated that SERT helped these participants to use logic, or domain-general knowledge, rather than domain-specific knowledge to make sense of the text.

Effects of Graphs on Text Comprehension

Sources of information, from textbooks to multimedia encyclopedias combine text and graphics. This paper applies the construction-integration model of text comprehension to the processing of text and quantitative graphs. The model suggests that, when reading a graph that has information that is redundant with the text, a reader may directly connect the propositional information from the graph and the text due to overlap. When reading a graph that has information that elaborates on the text, a reader makes inferences to connect the propositional information from the graph and the text. Hypotheses from this model are that (1) use of an elaborative graph should produce better comprehension if the graph and text are concurrent, whereas (2) use of a redundant graph should produce better comprehension if the graph and text are separated. Three experiments tested these hypotheses by giving readers text with three types of graphs – text only, redundant graphs, and elaborative graphs — with the graphs either concurrent with (Experiment 1), before (Experiment 2A), or after (Experiment 2B) the text, then giving readers text-based or inference-based questions. In all three orders of the graph and text, performance on the inference-based questions was better in the elaborative graph condition than in the redundant graph condition. The discussion extends the application of the construction-integration model to reading text with graphs.

Effects of Repeated Readings on Bilingual and Monolingual Memory for Text

Repeated readings is a recognized method for improving students′ memory for text. In this paper, we investigated the variables that influence the effectiveness of repeated readings. Across four experiments, college students read narrative or expository texts and answered comprehension questions about the texts. The time interval between the repetitions (massed or spaced repetitions), the language of repetitions (same or different) as well as the type of activity between the two repetitions (interfering or noninterfering passages) were manipulated. These variables affected performance only on text-based questions that asked for details rather than on questions that asked for main ideas and inferences. A spaced repeated reading led to better performance than a massed repeated reading. However, a bilingual presentation could overcome the disadvantages of a massed repetition.

Text-Based and Knowledge Based Questioning by Children

Three studies investigated the ability of elementary school children to ask and recognize educationally productive questions. Knowledge-based questions formulated in advance of instruction were found to be of a higher order than text-based questions produced after exposure to text materials. Depending on familiarity of the topic, knowledge-based questions varied between basic questions asking for information needed for orientation to a topic and wonderment questions often aimed at explanation or at resolving discrepancies in knowledge. Children's questions are seen as a potentially valuable resource in education but one that requires a different kind of classroom community from the several kinds commonly found. The potential of a computer-based medium, computer-supported intentional learning environments, for supporting a knowledge-building community is briefly considered.

Comparison of Question-Response-Feedback Interactions During Basal Reader Instruction

This study was designed to explore differences in interactions between two sets of fourth-grade teachers and their average reading groups during the period of time following the reading of a basal story. The researchers sought to add depth to the question-response-feedback pattern of interaction that is already considered to be effective by process-product investigators and to formulate hypotheses for future experimental studies. The teachers in this study were chosen as a result of their class' adjusted mean score on the Reading Comprehension subtest of the SRA Achievement Series. The two teachers with the highest adjusted mean score (HM) and the two teachers with the lowest adjusted mean score (LM) provided audiotapes of basal reading lessons. These were transcribed and comparisons were made. The results revealed that HM teachers tended to ask more text-based questions, provided more positive feedback, probed more often, and used more probe types than did LM teachers. Further, they tended to stick more closely to the gist of the story when asking reader-based questions. By combining several of the results and examining transcripts, four hypotheses for future research were generated. These are: (1) Effective questioning behaviors tend to focus on depth rather than breadth of response; (2) Effective questioning is explicit and precise rather than vague; (3) Effective questioning is cohesive; and (4) Effective questioners clarify misconceptions following an incorrect response. Future directions for research in this area were also provided.

The Effects of Time, Access, and Question Type on Response Accuracy and Frequency of Lookbacks in Older, Proficient Readers

This investigation examined the effects of variation in conditions for learning on lookback use and response accuracy in proficient readers and explored readers' awareness of their strategic behavior. Fifty-two college undergraduates studied a 1300-word expository passage and answered three text-based questions and one reader-based question. Half of the subjects worked under a 10-minute time limit, while the others had unlimited time. For half of the subjects, questions were presented with the passage; for the other half, questions were received after the passage had been studied and turned over. Analysis revealed that subjects who had the questions presented with the text looked back more and responded more accurately than did those receiving questions separately. Time limit did not affect use of lookbacks or accuracy, and subjects looked back for text-based questions only. Based on comparison with observational data, post-task verbal reports were found to be fairly accurate records of lookback use.

Students’ Differentiation of Reader-Based and Text-Based Questions

This study examined the number of text lookbacks encouraged by tutors, appropriate text sampling, and the use of other strategic text behaviors (i.e., rewording, segmenting, and commenting). Eighty pairs of students, (one fifth-grade tutor and one third-grade confederate) worked with an expository text passage; an investigator observed and noted anv evidence of the strategic behaviors while the confederate was answering five questions with the tutor’s assistance. It was expected that there would be good comprehender (40 tutors)-poor comprehender (the other 40 tutors) differences among the strategic behaviors. A series of analyses of variance were performed on the observational notation data; significant differences by reader proficiency level were found for all three strategies being studied. The use of a confederate in the tutoring role is proposed as a means of reducing tutee confounding.

Externalizing Question-Answering Strategies of Good and Poor Comprehenders

THIRTY PAIRS of students (one sixth-grade tutor and one fourth-grade tutee in each pair) worked with an expository text and five questions following the text in the presence of an investigator. Under study were number of text lookbacks encouraged by tutors, differentiation of use of lookbacks for text-based versus reader-based questions, and appropriate text sampling. Good comprehender-poor comprehender tutor differences in strategic behavior encouragement were expected. Audiotape data and observational notation data were reduced for a series of analyses of variance; significant differences by reading proficiency level were found for all strategies under test. The tutoring methodology is discussed as a reasonable alternative to traditional (e.g., interview and error detection) methods, as a means of externalizing strategic repertoires of readers.

Use of Passage Cues in Answering of Questions: Investigation of the Effects of an Explicit External Criterion on Adults' Studying Behavior

Thirty proficient adult readers were directed to read a passage of about 4200 words under one of two treatments. Half read; responded to a reader-based question; and were given an explicit, external criterion for completing a text-based question. The other 15 subjects read; responded to the same reader-based question; but were given no criterion for completion of the text-based question. All subjects completed a response satisfaction scale and chose either to stop the task at that point or to reanswer the questions with text pages available as external cues. The adults given the criterion treatment—despite superior question-answering performance to their non-criterion peers—expressed dissatisfaction with responses, and chose in large numbers (14 of 15) to reanswer the questions; no non-criterion treatment subjects chose to exercise the same option. Criterion subjects who did choose to reread and reanswer generally selected highly informative pages to assist in work on the text-based questions and improved their answers substantially. Implications from the findings are drawn for classroom practice in the area of “studying.”