The effects of explicit science reading instruction on selected grade 7 students' metacognition and comprehension of specific science text

Abstract

This study investigated the correlations between metacognition and comprehension of science text and the differential effects of reading ability and gender on the acquisition of metacognition and science reading comprehension among an intact group of 27 students. A single-group pretest/posttest design was carried out over a 22-week instructional period by a teacher-researcher. Six reading strategies were taught using an explicit model of instruction embedded in the regular science program and reinforced across other curriculum areas as appropriate. Pretest and posttest results indicated positive correlations between metacognition (awareness and self-management) and success on reading comprehension tasks. Pretest-posttest gains indicated that 22 weeks of schooling with explicit strategy instruction significantly enhances students' metacognition and their abilities to comprehend science text across all reading abilities. A significant gender difference favoring females was found for the metacognitive selfmanagement results.

Investigating the Effectiveness of Inquiry-Based Instruction on Students With Different Prior Knowledge and Reading Abilities

“…For example, explicit textual and graphic organizer instruction improved recall and retention of science information (Spiegel & Barufaldi, 1994). In addition, explicit instruction about text features, finding main ideas, summarizing text, accessing prior knowledge, using contextual clues, and monitoring understanding improved science RC (Spence, Yore, & Williams, 1999). Furthermore, for students with less prior knowledge, Phillips (1988) found that students who used productive reading strategies, which included questioning their interpretations and considering alternative ones, were able to compensate somewhat for their lack of background knowledge.…”

The metacognition levels of students: a research school of physical education and sports at Anadolu University

“…Similarly, in researches which were evaluated the students' metacognitive levels according to their gender by Saban & Saban (2008), Tosun & Irak (2008), it is observed that girls have higher score of at the level of their control requirements than boys levels. In the research to determine the situation which was studied by Spence et al (1999), while there were no significant difference between the levels of girls' and boys' metacognitive levels statistically, researches showed that girls' metacognition levels developed than those of boys. In the light of this study, female students are more successful in controlling negative beliefs than male students.…”

Pacific CRYSTAL Project: Explicit Literacy Instruction Embedded in Middle School Science Classrooms

“…This cross-disciplinary result suggests core competencies for discipline-specific literacy, which vary to reflect the ontological and epistemic nature of the target discipline. Our earlier projects made assumptions about background knowledge of language arts and science instruction that underestimated the awareness levels of participants and overestimated the anticipated ease of combining best practices in language arts and science education (Holden and Yore 1996;Spence et al 1999). The current project strives to avoid these difficulties by more accurately estimating the demands on teachers with a 5-year (2005-2010) professional development effort focussed on discipline-specific language functions, metalanguage, discourse patterns, informational text, genre, modes of representation, argumentation, content knowledge, scientific inquiry, and alternative instructional approaches to achieve an acceptable end result in science literacy achievement and effective classroom practices.…”