Effect of Ideational Prominence on Children's Reading Comprehension of Expository Prose

Baumann, James F.

doi:10.1080/10862968109547393

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(15 reference statements)

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“…Second, results of the present study, coupled with prior research findings (Baumann, 1981;Dunn et al, 1979;Taylor, 1980;Tierney et al, 1978-79), strongly suggest that elementary children are not highly skilled at comprehending main ideas after reading expository textbook prose. What are the implications of this finding?…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

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Children's ability to comprehend main ideas in content textbooks

Baumann

1983

Reading World

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This article describes an applied educational study which explored third and sixth graders' ability to comprehend main ideas after reading natural expository reading materials taken directly from elementary social studies textbooks. Results indicated that elementary students have much difficulty comprehending main ideas in textbook prose, and that the manner in which main idea comprehension is measured interacts with this ability. The discussion emphasizes concrete, practical suggestions elementary classroom teachers can employ to (a) develop strategies for teaching main ideas which require students to practice this skill within the medium of content textbooks, and (b) provide students more exposure to expository textbook prose in order to familiarize them with this distinctive genre and hence develop a schema for expository prose.Content textbooks contain vast amounts of information, all of which conceivably cannot be remembered. It is important, therefore, for readers to be able to identify central themes or main ideas in texts. This enables a reader to reduce, organize, and synthesize the information in a passage so that the significant ideas can be remembered, retained, and learned. Thus, an important textbook reading skill involves the ability to extract the central thoughts from a text; that is, to comprehend the gist or main ideas of a passage.Research investigating skilled readers' ability to comprehend central thoughts in expository (textbook) prose has suggested that adult readers retain main idea, gist information better than subordinate, detailed ideas (e.g.,

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Other studies involving children's comprehension of expository text (Baumann, 1981;Dunn, Matthews, & Bieger, 1979;Taylor, 1980;Tierney, Bridge, & Cera, 1978-79) suggest that children are not highly skilled at comprehending main ideas.…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%

Children's ability to comprehend main ideas in content textbooks

Baumann

1983

Reading World

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“…One explanation is that because recognition tasks are consistently less difficult than recall (i.e., constructive or generative) tasks (see Baumann, 1981Baumann, , 1983Baumann, , 1984, the recognition task failed to challenge the students adequately. However, because the students were able to recognize only 48% of the main ideas after reading original versions and only 50% of the main ideas after reading the rewritten versions, this hypothesis is discredited, as there was no ceiling effect for either group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although main idea instruction assumes an important place in educational curricula (Armbruster, Stevens, & Rosenshine, 1977;Baumann, in press;Hare & Milligan, 1984;Jenkins & Pany, 1980;Johnson & Barrett, 1981;Rosenshine, 1980;Winograd & Brennan, 1983), research with young and developing readers suggests that students are generally not facile at recognizing, recalling, or constructing the gist, theme, central thought, or main idea of expository prose passages (e.g., Baumann, 1981Baumann, , 1983Dunn, Matthews, & Bieger, 1979;Eamon, 1978Eamon, -1979Otto, Barrett, & Koenke, 1968;Taylor, 1980;Tierney, Bridge, & Cera, 1978-1979Winograd, 1984; see reviews by Baumann, 1982, and Winograd & Bridge, in press). Several instructional studies, however, have demonstrated that students can be taught to improve main idea comprehension of expository text.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Rewritten Content Textbook Passages on Middle Grade Students' Comprehension of Main Ideas: Making the Inconsiderate Considerate

Baumann

1986

Journal of Reading Behavior

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This study sought to determine if content area textbook passages could be rewritten such that middle grade students' main idea comprehension ability was enhanced. Excerpts from fifth-grade science textbooks were read by fifthgrade students in one of two versions: (a) an original (inconsiderate) version in which main ideas were frequently implicit, those main ideas that were explicitly stated in the text were not always prominent (i.e., placed initially) in paragraphs and passages, and there were few, if any, headings or typographical aids to cue main ideas, or (b) a rewritten (considerate) version in which all main ideas were explicit in the text and typed in italic, each main idea appeared at the beginning of the text unit, and headings cued main ideas. Several recognition and recall items assessed students' ability to identify and generate main ideas at both the paragraph and passage levels. Results revealed that after reading the rewritten text versions, some students were able to compose significantly more passage main ideas, and all students were able to compose significantly more paragraph main ideas. Groups did not differ on a main idea recognition task. Additional data from a series of questions which required the students to compare original and rewritten versions of the science texts tended to support the finding that content area selections rewritten to make them more considerate improves students' main idea comprehension.

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“…Analyses of the free recalls revealed no significant differences between the comprehension of superordinate versus subordinate information for either the children or adult subjects. Baumann (1981). Baumann randomly selected experimental texts from pools of natural, unaltered passages, which were taken directly from third and sixth grade social studies textbooks.…”

Section: Dunn Matthews and Bieger (1979) Dunn Et Al Conducted A Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on Children's Main Idea Comprehension: A Problem of Ecological Validity

Baumann¹

1982

Reading Psychology

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This article discusses the generalizability of educational research. The argument is made that educational researchers too frequently take the results from highly-controlled, laboratory studies that possess low levels of ecological validity (generalizability) and apply them to real-life, educational settings. It is further argued that this practice is dangerous and can lead to unjustified or erroneous educational recommendations. The research area of children's main idea comprehension of connected discourse is used to illustrate how a line of research can be overgeneralized and lead to unfounded conclusions and pedagogical implications. A discussion of the need for more generalizable prose comprehension research and the necessity of additional replication research concludes the article.

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Effect of Ideational Prominence on Children's Reading Comprehension of Expository Prose

Cited by 15 publications

References 14 publications

Children's ability to comprehend main ideas in content textbooks

Children's ability to comprehend main ideas in content textbooks

Effect of Rewritten Content Textbook Passages on Middle Grade Students' Comprehension of Main Ideas: Making the Inconsiderate Considerate

Research on Children's Main Idea Comprehension: A Problem of Ecological Validity

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