In this review, we explore whether and how literature education may foster adolescent students' insight into human nature. A systematic search of five databases was complemented with citation tracking, hand searches, and expert consultation. We included 13 experimental and quasi-experimental intervention studies. Methodological quality and quality-of-intervention descriptions were assessed. Analysis of empirical support for expected intervention effects indicated that, under certain conditions, literature education may foster students' insight into human nature. One intervention affected students' insight into themselves, two affected their understanding of fictional others, and six affected their understanding of, views on, or intended behavior toward real-world others. Subsequent analysis of interventions with full or partial empirical support yielded instructional design principles on (a) text selection; (b) activating, annotating, and reflecting on personal life and reading experiences in writing activities; and (c) verbally sharing these experiences with others in exploratory dialogues. Limitations and implications for future studies are discussed.

The Dutch Institute for Curriculum Development argues that literature education is important for broadening students' personal, social and cultural horizons. Indeed, reading literary fiction may alter readers' self-and social perceptions, but little is known about whether adolescents gain such personal and social insights through reading in the secondary literature classroom, nor about how these perceived learning outcomes are related to their teachers' approaches to various aspects of literature teaching. Thus, the aims of this study were to examine the impact of literature education on students' self-and social perceptions and to explore relationships between students' learning experiences and their teachers' classroom practices. Dutch students (N=297, grades 10-12) wrote a learner report about what they learned about themselves and other people through literature education, and completed a measure on familiarity with fiction. Their teachers (N=13) completed the Teachers' Approaches to Literature Education Questionnaire (TALE-Q), which indicated more analytical-interpretative or personal-experiential approaches to three 2 M. SCHRIJVERS, T. JANSSEN, O. FIALHO & G. RIJLAARSDAM aspects of teaching. Students of teachers with distinct approaches to these aspects were grouped to compare their learning experiences. Findings showed that nearly all students (99%) reported to have learned something about themselves and others through literature education, mainly personal characterizations of oneself and others, learning about oneself and others as literary readers, descriptions and evaluations of people's behaviors, and lessons for life. In addition, teachers' reports of more classroom interaction and student autonomy were related to students' more frequent reports of personal and social insights, but this may also partly be explained by students being more familiar with fiction and having a more positive attitude toward literary reading. Implications for personal and social learning in the literature classroom are discussed.

This quasi-experimental study assessed the effects of the newly developed Transformative Dialogic Literature Teaching (TDLT) intervention on 15-year-old students' insight into human nature, eudaimonic reasons for reading, use of reading strategies, and motivation for literature education. Six TDLT units centered around short stories about "justice and injustice". Students were stimulated to engage in internal dialogues with stories and in external dialogues with peers about stories and reading experiences. TDLT students (n = 166) were compared to students who received regular literature teaching (RLT) focused on analysis of literary texts (n = 166). Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data indicated that TDLT fostered students' insight into human nature, eudaimonic reasons for reading, reported use of strategies to deal with difficulties in literary texts, and motivation for literature education, whereas RLT did not. Strategy use and one motivational factor mediated effects of TDLT to a small extent. Limitations and implications are discussed.

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In light of the hard times in which literary education has been finding itself, this paper evaluates the merits of two instructional interventions. It describes an experiment which contrasts interpretive and experiential approaches to reading carried out with 17 Comparative Literature Canadian university students. Two different sets of pre-reading and reading instructions were prepared. The group working under the control condition followed a set of 'interpretive instructions' while the one working under the experimental condition followed 'experiential instructions'. Participants in both conditions completed four measures: three questionnaires and a response essay. Videorecording of small group discussions also occurred. Intervention effects were evaluated statistically. No differences were found in any of the measurements except for story-driven reading, in which the control group scored higher than the experimental one. This means that participants preferred to focus on the plot or story-line and showed interest for action and compelling conclusions. The video recording, however, indicated higher voluntary participation in the experimental condition. As regards class assessment, the results were rather contradictory and unexpected, leading to the conclusion that interpretation and experiencing may not present us with an either-or situation but may most productively be regarded as complementary. Ultimately, this study advances the debate on the need to examine instructional interventions in literature classes empirically.Corresponding author: ofialho@ualberta.ca 236