MODELS OF READING COMPREHENSION

FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Sonja Pečjak, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Svjetlana Kolić Vehovec, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Rijeka, Croatia

Neža Ajdišek, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Barbara Rončević, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Rijeka, Croatia

Anja Podlesek, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

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THE AIM OF THE STUDY

how different factors affect reading comprehension

of younger and older primary school students

to establish differences between

these two age groups in the pattern

of functioning of factors of reading comprehension

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READING LITERACY

• Reading comprehension as an indicator of reading literacy.

• Reading skills and abilites represent an effective means for acceptance, organization, and usage of information in different areas.

• Reading skills and abilities are an important cross-curriculum competence in educational context.

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FACTORS OF

READING COMPREHENSION

COGNITIVE METACOGNITIVE MOTIVATIONAL EMOTIONAL

(META)COGNITIVEFACTORS

COGNITIVE METACOGNITIVE

Decoding speed Vocabulary SummarizingMetacognitive

awareness

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MOTIVATIONAL &

EMOTIONAL FACTORS

MOTIVATIONAL EMOTIONAL

Reading interestEmotions during

reading/attitudes

Flow

METHOD

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PARTICIPANTS

205 5th grade students

• 105 boys

• 100 girls

265 9th grade students

• 120 boys

• 145 girls

statistically significant differences in reading comprehension between younger

and older students

(t (df = 383,88) = -5,384; p = 0,000)

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INSTURMENTS

Reading comprehension

• exploratory text for 5th grade students (from PIRLS 2001 study)

• exploratory text for 9th grade students (from PISA 2003 study)

• 12 questions (6 multiple choice questions and 6 questions which demanded a written answer )

• total of 17 points

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(META)COGNITIVE FACTORS

• COGNITIVE– One Minute Reading Test

– Vocabulary test (Hershl's Test of Reading (Level 3 – Elementary Form)

• METACOGNITIVE– Summarizing:

summarizing main ideas from three texts

– Metacognitive knowledge Questionnaire

(main purpose of reading and display knowledge of different reading and learning strategies)

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MOTIVATIONAL and EMOTIONAL FACTORS

MOTIVATIONAL

• Reading Motivation Questionnaire for Young Students (Peklaj and Bucik, 2003):– interest in reading – lack of

self-efficiency/incompetency

– self-efficiency in oral reading • Reading Motivation

Questionnaire for Older Students (Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997) – extrinsic motivation – interest in reading – flow in reading– lack of

self-efficiency/incompetency

EMOTIONAL

• Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (McKenna and Kear, 1990)– a recreational reading score – an academic reading score – total score = emotional

dimension in reading situations = emotions during reading

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PROCEDURE

• In a classroom setting, participants completed reading tasks and questionnaires during three school hours at two different times. Written consent was obtained from parents for all participating students prior to the students’ participation in the study.

• Path analysis was performed using LISREL. Covariances between the variables were entered into a model, and the MLM was used for estimating the parameters. We allowed for the correlation between the exogeneous variables and for the correlated errors in the endogeneous variables.

RESULTS

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GENERAL MODEL OF READING COMPREHENSION

Reading interest

Incompetency

Emotions

Decoding speed

Vocabulary

Metacognitive awareness

Summarizing

Reading comprehension

Motivational and emotional

factors

(Meta)cognitive factors

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A MODEL OF READING COMPREHENSION FOR 5th GRADE STUDENTS

1,00

1,00

1,00

0,72

-0,49

-0,40

-0,30

0,13

0,39

0,36

-0,28

0,51

0,22

0,16 0,17

0,28

0,63

0,92

0,85

0,81

0,91

Reading interest

Incompetency

Emotions during reading

Decoding speed

Vocaboulary

Metacognitive awareness

Summarizing

Reading comprehension

(RMSEA=0,066; 90 % interval of thrust for RMSEA = 0,015–0,11; AGFI = 0,91; NNFI = 0,95)

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MODEL OF READING COMPREHENSION FOR 9th GRADE STUDENTS

1,00

1,00

1,00

-0,32

-0,28

0,83

1,00 0,67

-0,22

0,69

0,70

-0,19

-0,14

-0,20

0,26

0,14

0,15

0,31

0,96

0,93

0,93

Reading interest

Incompetency

Emotions during reading

Vocaboulary

Metacognitive awareness

Summarizing

Reading comprehension

Flow

(RMSEA=0,044, 90 % interval of thrust for RMSEA = 0,00–0,083; AGFI = 0,95; NNFI = 0,98)

5th GRADE vs. 9th GRADE

• Included factors explained 37% of variance of reading comprehension.

• A direct effect of two (meta)cognitive factors on reading comprehension:– vocabulary (0,51),– summarizing (0,22).

• Metacognitive awareness was not an independent predictor of reading comprehension (was related to vocabulary and summarizing).

• Motivational factors were not directly related to reading comprehension, but to (meta)cognitive factors.

• Medium to high intercorrelations between motivational and emotional factors.

• Included factors explained 17% of variance of reading comprehension.

• A direct effect of two (meta)cognitive factors on reading comprehension:– vocabulary (0,31),– metacognitive awareness (0,15).

• Among motivational factors incompetency was an independent predictor of reading comprehension (-0,14).

• Flow and emotions during reading were related to (meta)cognitive factors – the relations are probably reciprocal.

• Reading interest was not correlated with (meta)cognitive factors.

• Medium to high intercorrelations between motivational and emotional factors.

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CONCLUSIONS AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

• the proposed model better explained reading comprehension with younger than with older students (37% vs. 17% of variance in reading comprehension)

• motivational and emotional factors are strongly interconnected

• greater predictive power for cognitive and metacognitive factors than for motivational-emotional factors

• vocabulary had the strongest predictive power

• incompetency was established as the only motivational factor which was directly connected to reading comprehension of older students

entity of motivational-emotional factors

•enlargement of students’ vocabulary

•the importance of different reading learning strategies to achieve better reading comprehension

•model the use of these strategies and create such learning situations, in which usage of these strategies would be meaningful

inclusion of other factors (e.g. intelligence) or more specific valid measures (e.g. situational interest)