The Use of New Technologies for Improving Reading Comprehension

Since the introduction of writing systems, reading comprehension has always been a foundation for achievement in several areas within the educational system, as well as a prerequisite for successful participation in most areas of adult life. The increased availability of technologies and web-based resources can be a really valid support, both in the educational and clinical field, to devise training activities that can also be carried out remotely. There are studies in current literature that has examined the efficacy of internet-based programs for reading comprehension for children with reading comprehension difficulties but almost none considered distance rehabilitation programs. The present paper reports data concerning a distance program Cloze, developed in Italy, for improving language and reading comprehension. Twenty-eight children from 3rd to 6th grade with comprehension difficulties were involved. These children completed the distance program for 15\u201320 min for at least three times a week for about 4 months. The program was presented separately to each child, with a degree of difficulty adapted to his/her characteristics. Text reading comprehension (assessed distinguishing between narrative and informative texts) increased after intervention. These findings have clinical and educational implications as they suggest that it is possible to promote reading comprehension with a distance individualized program, avoiding the need for the child displacements, necessary for reaching a rehabilitation center

Prospects for applying a theory of change model to the use of research evidence in autism education

Educators and educational researchers show continued interest in how schools can best make use of research evidence in bringing about change in practice in schools. A number of models have been developed to support schools in this challenge, such as research learning communities and lesson study. However, questions remain about the effectiveness of such models, their fit to the particular needs of schools and the extent to which they contribute meaningfully to the body of evidence used to inform changes to practice within the field of education. This issue is of particular relevance when considering the inclusion of autistic children in the classroom partly because of the large body of research being undertaken on autism across a range of domains with varying epistemological perspectives (e.g., neuroscience, psychology, pedagogy) and partly due to the widespread need to support autistic children in the classroom. Questions have also been raised about the evidence policy “agenda,” particularly in terms of reliance on positivist models centered on randomized controlled trials. These concerns focus on the extent to which performative or neoliberal perspectives on effectiveness might mask the complexity of how practice and knowledge (or evidence) are related in models of teacher professional working. One particular approach that could have potential in addressing these is that of Theory of Change (ToC). ToC models come from the field of theory-driven evaluation and draw on frameworks for relating practice to knowledge such as realist evaluations whereby the evaluation focuses on understanding how complex programs work in specific contexts by examining the mechanisms that lead to particular outcomes. ToC models consider under what conditions, for whom, and for what reasons or aims a given activity will achieve its intended outcomes. This paper considers the scope for the application of ToC models by reviewing a selected case from a completed study on the implementation of models for developing evidence informed practice in schools for autism education. By applying a ToC lens to what did happen in this case, we will “re-imagine” this case from a ToC perspective. This approach will serve to illustrate the possibilities for how ToC models could be used in future practice to advance evidence-informed practice in autism education

Reading comprehension studies in the last decade: global trends and future direction of Indonesia language researches

The publication trend related to reading comprehension studies in the last decade has sharply grown. Nevertheless, studies offering comprehensive bibliometric and bibliographic reviews related to reading comprehension studies have not been conducted nor also found in the journal or conference proceeding. The purpose of this study is to present a bibliographic and bibliometric review of the numerous documents studying reading comprehension skills. A bibliometric analysis was performed to carry out this study whereby 1,681 eligible documents from the Scopus database published from 2013 to 2022 were used as research materials. Results showed that in 2013-2022, the publication trend of reading comprehension studies slightly increased while the citation trend on the documents regarding reading comprehension skills tended to fall sharply. Additionally, at least there were several major emerging themes of reading comprehension studies such as methodology, language, educational level, reading disability, reading intervention, reading comprehension predictor, and moderating factor of reading comprehension. This study implies that researchers in the field of Indonesian language education can focus on the utilization of Indonesian textbooks in investigating learners’ reading comprehension skills, develop innovative and effective reading interventions to enhance learners’ reading comprehension skills, and explore some other moderating factors of reading comprehension skills such as ethnicity, culture, geographical location, and textbook topic

Cross-sectional Study of the Contribution of Rhetorical Competence to Children’s Expository Text Comprehension between Third- and Sixth-Grade

Readers' rhetorical competence is related to reading comprehension and moderates the impact of rhetorical devices in expository texts. In this cross-sectional study, we examine the differences in four measures of rhetorical competence (knowledge of anaphors, organizational signals, refutations, and a total score) in grades three through to six, we determine its contribution to expository text comprehension after controlling the effect of a wide set of linguistic and cognitive variables, and we study whether this contribution is moderated by grade or any of our control variables. First, although we found evidence for some level of rhetorical competence at early ages, data suggest that rhetorical competence development takes many years. Second, we found that knowledge of some rhetorical devices is acquired before knowledge of others. Finally, rhetorical competence was a unique predictor of expository text comprehension, and its influence was evident regardless of grade and all of the control variables

The Effects of Web-based Text Structure Strategy on Adult Chinese ELLs' Reading Strategies and Reading Comprehension

The inability to develop reading comprehension skills can limit academic success across many fields, especially for English Language Learners (ELLs). The current study investigated whether the structure strategy, delivered through the Intelligent Tutoring of Structure Strategy (ITSS) to adult Chinese ELLs, can improve students’ reading strategies, thus improving their reading comprehension. With a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design, 207 adult Chinese ELLs from four classes were assigned to experimental or comparison groups. The experimental group utilized the ITSS to support their English reading instruction, whereas the comparison group used traditional instruction. My results indicated that the ITSS intervention had a statistically significant positive effect on adult Chinese ELLs’ reading comprehension (β=3.07, p< 0.001) with Cohen’s d = 0.43 on College English Test-4 (CET-4). Furthermore, I found that Chinese ELLs reported using more higher-order reading strategies (p< 0.01) after the intervention. However, there was no significant change in reported reading strategies in the comparison group between pretest and post-test. The current study did not provide evidence that the change of reading strategies mediated the relationship between the intervention/control condition and Chinese ELLs’ reading comprehension

The Impact of Task Difficulty on Reading Comprehension Intervention with Computer Agents

The Impact of Task Difficulty on Reading Comprehension Intervention with Computer Agent

Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Academic Achievement for Exceptional Student Education Inclusion Students

Students with disabilities are less likely to graduate from high school and tend to score lower on standardized tests than their general education peers. Although use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can improve these outcomes for traditional students, it has been unclear whether its use positively affects learning gains for the inclusion student. The purpose of this study was to determine if the academic test performance of 5th grade ESE inclusion students was enhanced by implementing ICT as a curriculum resource in their classrooms. Two frameworks provided structure for this study: the theory of social constructivism and the capability approach. The study population consisted of all 5th grade ESE inclusion students in 74 school districts in one southern state. Data sources were the state\u27s annual assessment scores for English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. Data were analyzed using 2 Mann Whitney U tests to compare ESE inclusion students\u27 assessment scores in the 2nd year of testing as compared to the 1st year of testing (2015-2016 as compared to 2014-2015). The findings of the study revealed no significant difference between the ESE inclusion students\u27 scores in the 1st and 2nd years for ELA and math scores even with ICT used as a resource. This outcome impacts social change by answering a question about whether ICT made a difference as used, and indicates that other studies must be done to better understand why ICT was not successful or how it can be used to significantly improve inclusion student outcomes

An Investigation into Factors Affecting Teachers' Implementation of a Reading Comprehension Strategy

Professional development (PD) is defined as ongoing learning opportunities available to educators and is known to be one of the most important tools in improving the effectiveness of teachers and teaching practices. Results from state and national reading assessments indicate that reading achievement among grade 4 and grade 8 students has continued on a downward trajectory for several decades. In knowing that making meaning of the text is the goal of reading, teachers providing students effective instruction in reading comprehension is essential. Intentional instruction in reading comprehension begins with teachers receiving effective PD leading to growth in teacher knowledge and practice, resulting in student gains in reading comprehension. However, research has shown that many PD initiatives fail to achieve changes in teachers’ practices, which leads one to consider what occurs throughout PD that may encourage or discourage teachers from being open to change. Factors such as a teacher’s mindset, zone of proximal development, self-perception of abilities to teach reading comprehension, attitudes and beliefs related to PD, and feelings about pedagogical change should be considered when teachers attend a PD event. This research aims to identify the variables which may foster or hinder a teacher’s ability to implement evidence-based practices learned at a reading comprehension professional development event

A ciência da leitura e a produção acadêmica: caminhos trilhados

Linguistics focuses on the different phenomena of language. In macrolinguistics areas, there is Psycholinguistics. This subfield researches (de)coding processes of messages with verbal codes. Thus, one of its influential fields of activity is reading. Reading is one of the most complex information processing tasks. It begins with the graphemes decoding and it finishes with the text comprehension. Regarding the assessment of reading, there are several exams and large-scale tests, such as Pisa, Saeb (Aneb and Anresc/Prova Brasil), ENEM. Alarming statistics come with the indicators from these evaluative instruments. There are, among Brazilians, low levels of reading comprehension and marked functional illiteracy rate. Therefore, this study aimed to research what scientific communication has shared in terms of knowledge about reading. Specifically, the objectives were synthesize, considering the psycholinguistic approach of reading research, studies and research with the most recurrent theme in the reading field evidenced from the electronic communication, in order to investigate the dimensions and limitations of knowledge about this subject. For this, through WebQualis system, Qualis A1 and A2 scientific journals with electronic format and with focuses/scopes related to reading from the areas of (1) Language Arts/Linguistics, (2) Psychology and (3) Education were selected. With the selected journals and through Capes Journals Portal, all their volumes and issues from 2011 to 2015 were analyzed. With this, scientific articles related to reading were mapped. With the mapped articles abstracts, the recurrent themes in reading in the scientific production were observed. Finally, with the full articles that had the recurrent theme, the researches results were integrated, synthesizing and pondering about them. With a critical-reflexive assessment of the data, relevant information was found. First, on one hand, it was noted that the reading has achieved a stable and upward space through the electronic communication. On the other one, it was checked that the contributions of Psychology have a great influence in reading and comprehension research. Second, it was shown that the most frequent theme in electronic productions is comprehension. Finally, with the synthesis, it was found that, increasingly, comprehension topics related to reading neurobiological aspects were empirical and directly investigated. In addition, there are several studies that propose reading teaching methods as well as strategies for improving the comprehension, including the use of TICs. Moreover, it was found that many research results are limited. This is because the comprehension involves several components – cognitive processes and skills. Researches often focus attention on one or the other component of it only, and each research fixes a specific methodology design and that vary considerabably. Regarding the assessment of reading, many of the methodological apparatus tasks evaluate only the product of comprehension and not its process. In other words, built mental representations are evaluated and not how the encoding of this text occurred. Therefore, in short, both the researches advancement in the comprehension field and several limitations were observed.A Linguística atém-se aos mais diferentes fenômenos da língua(gem). Nos domínios macrolinguísticos, há a Psicolinguística. Essa subárea tem como foco de investigação os processos de (de)codificação de mensagens de códigos verbais. Assim, um de seus influentes campos de atuação é o de leitura. A leitura é uma das tarefas de processamento de informações mais complexas. Ela tem como princípio a decodificação grafêmica e como fim a compreensão textual. Em relação à avaliação da leitura, existem diversos testes e provas em larga escala, como o Pisa, o Saeb (Aneb e Anresc/Prova Brasil), o ENEM. Com os indicadores desses instrumentos avaliativos, vêm estatísticas alarmantes. Há, entre os brasileiros, baixos níveis de compreensão leitora e acentuado índice de analfabetismo funcional. Por conseguinte, este trabalho pretendeu investigar o que a comunicação científica tem compartilhado em termos de conhecimento sobre leitura. Especificamente, objetivou-se sintetizar, considerando a abordagem psicolinguística de investigação da leitura, estudos e pesquisas cuja temática evidenciada da comunicação eletrônica fosse a mais recorrente no campo da leitura, a fim de investigar dimensões e limitações do conhecimento a respeito dessa temática. Para isso, selecionaram-se, por meio do sistema WebQualis, periódicos científicos Qualis A1 e A2 em formato eletrônico e com focos/escopos relacionados à leitura, das áreas de (1) Letras/Linguística, (2) Psicologia e (3) Educação. Com os periódicos selecionados e por meio do Portal de Periódicos Capes, analisaram-se todos os seus volumes e números de 2011 a 2015, a fim de mapear artigos científicos com assunto em leitura. Com os resumos dos artigos mapeados, evidenciaram-se temáticas mais recorrentes na produção científica em leitura. Por fim, dos artigos completos cuja temática era a mais recorrente, integraram-se resultados das pesquisas, fazendo-se uma análise, com fins de síntese e reflexão. Da apreciação crítico-reflexiva dos dados, constataram-se relevantes informações. Em primeiro lugar, de um lado, observou-se que a leitura tem conquistado um estável e ascendente espaço em meio à comunicação eletrônica. De outro, demonstrou-se que contribuições da Psicologia têm forte influência na pesquisa de leitura e compreensão. Em segundo, evidenciou-se que a compreensão é a temática mais frequente nas produções eletrônicas. Por fim, com a síntese, constatou-se que, cada vez mais, se investiga empírica e diretamente facetas da compreensão em relação às bases neurobiológicas da leitura. Igualmente, há diversas pesquisas que propõem metodologias de ensino da leitura, bem como estratégias para a melhoria da compreensão, incluindo a utilização das TICs. Além disso, concluiu-se que muitos resultados de pesquisas são limitados. Isso porque a compreensão envolve diversos componentes – processos cognitivos e habilidades. E as pesquisas, muitas vezes, apenas focam a atenção em um ou em outro componente, além de definirem específicos e variados designs de metodologia. Em relação à avaliação da leitura, muitas das tarefas do aparato metodológico das pesquisas apenas avaliam o produto da compreensão e não o seu processo. Ou seja, avaliam-se representações mentais construídas e não como ocorreu a codificação desse texto na mente do leitor. Por conseguinte, em suma, tanto o avanço de pesquisas no campo de compreensão quanto, também, diversas limitações ficaram evidentes