Reading Strategy Training: Automated Verses Live

Reading Strategy Training: Automated Verses Live Tenaha O’Reilly (t.oreilly@mail.psyc.memphis.edu) Grant P. Sinclair (gsinclair@mail.psyc.memphis.edu) Danielle S. McNamara (d.mcnamara@ mail.psyc.memphis.edu) Psychology Department, University of Memphis Memphis, TN 38152 USA Abstract This study examined the effectiveness of Self- Explanation Reading Training (SERT) and an automated version of this intervention called Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking (iSTART) in improving science text comprehension. College students (N=297) were assigned to one of three conditions: SERT (trained by a human instructor), iSTART (trained by a computer), or no treatment control. Participants read a text on cell mitosis and answered text-based and bridging inference questions. There was a significant overall effect of condition indicating that both iSTART and SERT out performed controls on comprehension. However, this effect was modulated by question type: both SERT and iSTART significantly enhanced comprehension for text-based questions, but the effect was not reliable for bridging inference questions. Introduction Many students have difficulty understanding what they read; in particular, many students have trouble comprehending science texts (Bowen, 1999; Snow, 2002). Problems associated with comprehension are augmented by the lack of strategic reading interventions in classrooms: students seldom use high-level comprehension strategies that promote deep comprehension (Cox, 1997; Garner, 1990). One way to improve comprehension is to teach reading strategies that encourage deeper processing of the text. Interventions that promote deeper processing such as self-explanation and elaborative interrogation have been successful in improving student comprehension (e.g., Chi, De Leeuw, Chiu, & LaVancher, 1994; Pressley, Wood, Woloshyn, Martin, King, & Menke, 1992). For example, McNamara (in press) has reported positive learning gains for her Self– Explanation Reading Training (SERT). SERT is a modified version of the self-explanation learning strategy (e.g., Chi et al., 1994). The SERT training program helps improve comprehension by encouraging students to utilize various sub-strategies to build strong connections between the reader’s knowledge and the text. SERT teaches students various reading strategies, including comprehension monitoring, logic and common sense/elaboration, paraphrasing, bridging inferences, and prediction to improve their ability to explain text and understand it at a deeper level. McNamara (in press) examined the effectiveness of SERT with college students who varied in prior knowledge of science. Half of the participants learned to self-explain and use reading strategies while reading four science texts. The other half of the participants read aloud the texts and answered questions concerning them. After the training phase, the two groups’ ability to self-explain was compared. They also answered text-based and bridging-inference questions about the text that they had all self-explained. The results indicated that low-knowledge readers who were trained to use SERT outperformed control participants on measures of text comprehension. However, this advantage only occurred for text-based questions. In addition, protocol analyses of the readers’ self- explanation indicated that the low-knowledge readers improved in terms of their ability to paraphrase the text, and more importantly, in their ability to use domain- general knowledge (or logic and common sense) to make sense of the text. Not having the requisite knowledge, they were not able to make inferences requiring domain specific knowledge while reading. Nonetheless, they showed the same level of comprehension on the text-based measures as did the high-knowledge readers, and substantially greater performance than their low-knowledge counterparts. These findings are particularly encouraging because it demonstrates improvement for the students who need the training the most: the low-knowledge students. The present study compares the effectiveness of SERT and a similar, but automated version of the training, called Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking (iSTART; McNamara, Levinstein, & Boonthum, in press). Automating the core aspects of SERT training has several advantages including self-paced learning and standardized training. iSTART is a computer program that uses automated agents to provide SERT-based training to students. The program, like SERT, has three sections, introduction,