Metacognitive Scaffolding in Reading Comprehension: Classroom Observations Reveal Strategies to Overcome Reading Obstacles of Engineering Students at QUEST, Nawabshah, Sindh, Pakistan

This study aimed at investigating the development of reading comprehension of engineering students through metacognitive strategies and scaffolding. This study used 12 classroom observations in four engineering departments of one public university in Pakistan. The researcher observed 3 classes in each department at the time of read-aloud sessions. The class in each department was comprised on minimum 55 students and maximum 75 students. The researcher himself conducted all the 12 observations to maintain reliability without interfere of the complete teaching method. Teacher in each class was introduced by the observer and his aim to come in the first observation session. The observer sat at the back of every classroom and noted all instructional practices carefully on the field-notes based on teachers using metacognitive strategies to support students in terms of reading comprehension instructions. This study revealed the promising results based on metacognitive scaffolding and strategies as the most important tools for engineering students and language teachers to use for the development of reading and comprehension

Improving Reading Comprehension of First Year Engineering Students: A Quantitative Study at QUEST, Nawabshah, Pakistan

This paper reports the results of the research conducted to explore whether students learn reading comprehension more successfully using the different approaches based on strategies in reading texts. The study was conducted at QUEST, in Pakistan and the respondents were selected from four engineering departments. Data was collected through a set of questionnaire used as the qualitative instrument among 311 respondents. However, Questionnaire data was analyzed by using SPSS 17. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze research variables for producing the Percentages, Mean and Standard Deviation of the data. The findings of this study reported that this research investigated 18 categories of reading comprehension. The highest mean score in reading comprehension was for “read aloud practices” category (=2.40) rated by all respondents; while the mean score for “asking questions before, during, and after reading” (= 1.48) was the lowest. However, no category of reading comprehension fell into low level of usage. In short, results, discussion and recommendations are presented for developing effective reading strategies to design syllabus for the engineering students to improve their reading proficiency

A Quantitative Research for Improving Reading Comprehension of First Year Engineering Students of QUEST, Pakistan Through Metacognitive Strategies

This quantitative research investigates first year engineering students’ reading comprehension using the different metacognitive strategies and scaffolding strategies. The research was undertaken at QUEST, Nawabshah, Pakistan. The respondents of this research were taken from four engineering departments including Mechanical Engineering, Energy and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer System Engineering. A set of questionnaire was used among 311 respondents. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics to analyze research variables through SPSS 17 for producing the Percentages, Mean and Standard Deviation of the data. The results acquired from data suggested that the engineering respondents used their metacognitive strategies in order to make their comprehension easy to apprehend the meaning of reading passages. This research also revealed the average uses of twenty important categories on metacognitive strategies as reported by engineering respondents. The mean score for ‘I often find that I have been reading for class but don’t know what it is all about’ category (M = 2.65) was rated by the respondents of this research as the highest; while the mean score for ‘reading instructions carefully before beginning a task’ (M = 1.54) was rated as the lowest. The results also showed that the respondents of this study revealed the average uses of the twelve important categories of scaffolding. However, the mean score for ‘When studying this course I often set aside time to discuss the course material with a group of students from the class’ category (M = 2.29) was the highest for all respondents; whereas, the mean score for ‘I ask teachers/students for help when they do not understand’ (M = 1.37) was the lowermost. However, no category of metacognitive strategies and scaffolding fell into low level of usage. To sum up, results are presented for developing effective reading strategies for engineering students to improve their reading proficiency

Investigating Metacognitive Strategies for overcoming Barriers to Reading Comprehension: Insights from a Pakistani Context

The main aim of this research was to investigate metacognitive strategies through reading comprehension practice by first year students of engineering departments. The students of four engineering departments were selected as the participants in this research work. The qualitative instrument based on focus group interview was used for collecting data from first year students of four engineering departments to know the perceptions and their needs to develop reading comprehension through metacognitive strategies. The researchers developed interview questions for this study. These questions were validated by two experts of faculty of cognitive science and human development at university Malaysia Sarawak. The researchers obtained permission from the chairmen of four departments at a university in Pakistan. Almost 8 groups consisting of 5 informants in each participated in this research. The data was documented by using audio-tape; NVivo software, version 8 was used to organize data for obtaining main themes of the study. This research generated the most important themes for the interpretation of the results. The study contributed the most promising results which revealed that more than half of these groups used metacognitive strategies in classroom reading practice while less than half of groups did not use strategies and remained poor in reading comprehension. This research suggested administrators, teachers, and curriculum designers to design and implement reading comprehension courses and syllabus for first year engineering students

Investigation on Thermal Comfort Characteristics of Regenerated Bamboo and Cotton Woven Structured Fabrics

In this research work, thermal properties of plain woven fabrics generated from regenerated bamboo and cotton fiber blended yarns were investigated. Seven mixtures of fiber (100% bamboo, 100% cotton, 10:90 bamboo: cotton, 20:80 bamboo: cotton, 30:70 bamboo: cotton, 40:60 bamboo: cotton and 50:50 bamboo: cotton) were developed to create 60 Tex ring spun yarn. The warp yarns were used as 100% regenerated bamboo and the bamboo: cotton blends were used alternatively in weft to produce plain woven fabrics. The plain structured woven fabrics show eminent thermal comfort properties with the blending of regenerated bamboo fibers. The air permeability of 100% regenerated bamboo fiber was recorded higher than the compared blends; the increased key factor contents of bamboo changed the air properties of the fabric. Furthermore, plain woven fabric of bamboo/cotton (50/50) has shown greater thermal conductivity and heat retention properties. The work reported in this paper is ensuring highpoints of thermal comfort properties of regenerated bamboo (100%) and cotton (100%) with plain woven structured fabrics, and potentially, the fabrics can be used for winter suiting apparel products