In response to the concern of the need to improve the scientific skills of school children, this study\ud investigated the influence of text design (in terms of text cohesion) and individual differences, with\ud the aim of identifying pathways to improving science education in early secondary school (Key\ud Stage 3). One hundred and four secondary school children (56 females, 48 males), aged 12–13\ud years took part in the study. To assess the influence of local cohesion (lexical and grammatical links\ud between adjacent sentences) in science texts, we measured students’ comprehension (through multiple\ud choice questions) of science text that was high and low in local cohesion. To explore the role of\ud individual differences, students completed tests to measure general reading ability, general intelligence,\ud facets of conscientiousness, science self-concept and individual, friends and family aspirations\ud in science. Students were more accurate in answering comprehension questions after reading\ud text that was high in cohesion than low in cohesion, suggesting that high local text cohesion\ud improved students’ comprehension of science text. Reading ability predicted increased comprehension\ud for both text designs. Individual aspirations in science accounted for unique variance for comprehension\ud for high cohesion text. Implications for the teaching of secondary school science are\ud discussed

1The present study examined associations between individual differences and 2 comprehension capabilities of secondary school children when reading texts about science 3 topics of varying levels of cohesion (i.e. low versus high cohesion). We administered 4 measures of learning after reading high and low cohesion texts to 60 students (31 boys, 29 5 girls) and measured cognitive ability, facets of conscientiousness, and science self-efficacy. 6Students achieved better learning from high cohesion text. High cognitive ability was 7 associated with good performance with both texts, whereas low cognitive ability was grouped 8 with poor performance on low cohesion text. High science self-efficacy grouped with good 9 performance on both texts, low science self-efficacy grouped with average performance with 10 the texts. Low dutifulness (conscientiousness facet) grouped with poor performance on low 11 cohesion text. These results have significant implications for the design of science textbooks 12 and potential teacher intervention strategies with the aim of improving science education. 13 14