Comparing two modes of teaching a question-answering strategy for enhancing reading comprehension: didactic and self-instructional training.

Full Abstract

This study investigated the comparative efficacy of two instructional approaches--didactic teaching and self-instructional training--in teaching average and poor readers a comprehension question-answering strategy. Forty-five average students and 45 poor readers from Grades 5 and 6 participated. These 38 girls and 52 boys were equally and randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions:
didactic teaching of the strategy, self-instruction, or control (no training). Students in the first two treatment conditions learned a mnemonic strategy ("Here," "Hidden," and "in my Head") to indicate question-answer relationships that are text explicit, text implicit, or script implicit, respectively. Essentially, the 3H mnemonic cued students to use appropriate text and/or knowledge-base information in answering comprehension test questions. In addition, students in the self-instruction group learned three self-questions to guide their use of the 3H strategy. Specifically, the self-questions focused students' attention on the task, provided a basis for decision making concerning the categorization of comprehension test questions, and reminded students to check their answers. The results indicated that both didactic teaching and self-instructional training of the strategy effected significant improvements in students' reading comprehension performance. However, self-instructional training was more effective in enhancing and maintaining students' reading comprehension performance than didactic teaching. Moreover, results from the oral questionnaire indicated that the 3H strategy training increased students' general meta-cognitive knowledge. Lastly, of the 60 trained students, 52 wrote that they would encourage other children to learn the 3H strategy. Thus, the response to strategy learning was clearly positive.

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Author information

Author/s: Graham, L (L); Wong, B Y (BY);

Affiliation: Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal: Journal of learning disabilities (J Learn Disabil), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1993-Apr; vol 26 (issue 4) : pp 270-9

Dates: Created 1993/07/20; Completed 1993/07/20; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 8515191, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Attention
Child
Concept Formation
Dyslexia - psychology; therapy
Education, Special - methods
Female

Humans
Male
Mental Recall
Programmed Instruction as Topic
Reading
Underachievement

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