Goal orientation and reading comprehension strategy use among students with and without reading difficulties

Our aim in this paper was to provide an analysis of goal orientation parameters with respect to reading comprehension strategy use for students with and without reading difficulties (RD). Non-RD students appeared to be more mastery oriented and less performance avoidant compared to RD ones. Also, non-RD students used, more, deeper, more sophisticated and complex ones compared to those of RD students (who used fewer and more surface strategies). Non-RD children appeared to metacognitively monitor their comprehension process while their RD classmates were either ignorant of the existing comprehension problems or bridged meaning gaps in inappropriate ways. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Phonological awareness skills: internal structure and hierarchy

The goal of this study was the examination of the internal structure of phonological awareness skills in the Greek language. A total number of 104 children participated in the study. All of them were first graders. Data collection took place during the first two weeks of the academic year 1997-8, in order to avoid the effects of reading instruction. The data collection instrument included thirteen exercises, of multiple items. A quantitative analysis of the data revealed that there are significant differences in the performance of children on the various levels of phonological awareness, especially in regard to syllable or phoneme awareness

Assessing self-regulation in individuals with visual impairments: Generality versus specificity in self-regulatory functioning

The purpose of the present study was to assess self-regulation of students with visual impairments across two academic subjects, language and math. The participants were 46 Greek students with visual impairments who completed self-regulation measures across the subject matters of language and math. Initially, the factorial validity of the scale was established. In turn, results pointed to the existence of a single universal self-regulation functioning pattern in individuals with visual impairments across subject matters (at the mean level). Measurement invariance was also observed at the item level through imposing equality constraints between items from different subjects. Based on the findings, it is suggested that self-regulation is not context specific for individuals with visual impairments. © 2012 Hammill Institute on Disabilities

Predicting LD on the basis of motivation, metacognition, and psychopathology: An ROC analysis

We examined how strongly motivation, metacognition, and psychopathology acted as predictors of learning disabilities (LD). The results from five studies suggested that level of motivation (as shown through self-efficacy, motivational force, task avoidance, goal commitment, or self-concept) was highly accurate in classifying students with or at risk for LD. Metacognition and psychopathology were also strong predictors. Classification accuracy using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves ranged between 77% and 96%. These rates were much higher than the chance-level (i.e., 50%-55%) rates sometimes yielded by cognitive indices. Linear discriminant function (LDF) analysis substantiated classification accuracy. These results suggest that motivation, metacognition, and psychopathology are strong predictors of LD. Understanding the influence of these characteristics may help researchers and practitioners more accurately screen and treat students with LD