I L I N 0 S

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

PRODUCTION NOTE
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Library
Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007.
~~3'/c2. /6)-'

T
E R Technical Report No. 187

C E RESEARCH ON TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

H P Robert J. Tierney
N 0 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

I R James W. Cunningham
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill
C T November 1980
A S
L

Center for the Study of Reading

•. ,• Vc ,-.u
A UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
51 Gerty Drive
Champaign, Illinois 61820

The National BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN INC.

Institute of
Education 50 Moulton Street
U.S. Department of
Health. Education and Welfare
Washington. D.C. 2020H Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
 CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF READING

Technical Report No. 187

RESEARCH ON TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

Robert J. Tierney
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
James W. Cunningham
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill

November 1980

University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.
51 Gerty Drive 50 Moulton Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

To appear as a chapter in P. D. Pearson (Ed.), Handbook on Research in

Reading, Longman, in press.

The research reported herein was supported in part by the National Insti-
tute of Education under Contract No. HEW-NIE-C-400-76-0116. We would
like to acknowledge and thank Richard C. Anderson, Mark Aulls, Anna Marie
Brophy, Jerome Harste, David Moore, David Pearson, John Readence, Joseph
Vaughan, Jill Whaley, Cathy Wilson, and especially Jill LaZansky for their
assistance in the development of this paper.
 EDITORIAL BOARD

Peter Johnston, Chairperson

Roberta Ferrara Jim Mosenthal

Scott Fertig Ann Myers

Nicholas Hastings Andee Rubin

Asghar Iran-Nejad William Tirre

Jill LaZansky Paul Wilson

Peter Winograd

Michael Nivens, Editorial Assistant

 Research on Teaching Reading Comprehension

I. [INTRODUCTION] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

II. INCREASING LEARNING FROM TEXT/PROSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A. Prereading Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1. The Role of Background Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2. Building Background Knowledge Prior to Reading . . . . . 6

a. Preteaching vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
b. Analogy . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 8

3. Activating Background Knowledge and Attention-

Focusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

a. Advance organizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 11
b. Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
c. Pretests and prequestions . . . . . . . . . . . .. .16
d. Prequestions and student-centered/generated
purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 19
e. Pictures, prefatory statements, and titles . . . .. .22

B. Guiding Reader/Text Interactions During Reading to

Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 26

1. Inducing Imagery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2. Inserted Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3. Self-Questioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4. Oral Reading, Lesson Frameworks, and Study Guides . . . 31

a. Oral reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
b. Lesson frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 32
c. Study guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 33

C. Teacher Interventions Following Reading to Learn . . . . .. .34

1. Postquestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 35
2. Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3. Group and Whole-Class Discussions . . . . . . . . . .. .38

D. General Comments on Increasing Learning from

Text/Prose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. 40
 ii

III. INCREASING ABILITY TO LEARN FROM TEXT/PROSE . . . . . . . . .. .42

A. [Introduction] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
B. Some Directions for Research in Reading Comprehension
Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 45

1. Metacomprehension and Inference Training . . . . . . .. .45

2. Meeting Text-Based Needs of Readers . . . . . . . . .. .50

C. General Comments on Increasing Ability to Learn From

Text/Prose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

IV. HOW SHOULD RESEARCH IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

PROCEED? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

A. Methodological Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 55

1. Apply a "Greatest Likelihood Principle" to

Experimental Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 57
2. Design Studies Where the Complexities of Texts,
Teaching and Context are Addressed and Can Reveal
Their Impact . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

a. Text-treatment interactions . . . . . . . . . . .. . 60
b. Teacher-treatment interactions . . . . . . . . . .. . 61
c. Context-treatment interactions . . . . . . . . . .. .63

3. Design Studies Where the Complexities of Classroom

Learning Can be Addressed . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 64
4. Design and Implement Research Which Can be Coherently
Interpreted in Light of the Literature from all the
Relevant Disciplines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5. A Call for Action . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. 76

V. A FINAL WORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Reference Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 80

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Footnote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ill
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

Research on Teaching Reading Comprehension

The present paper represents an attempt to address the "state of the

art" relative to research on teaching reading comprehension. The reading

researcher and practitioner will find the paper a review of what we know

about reading comprehension instruction, and a framework for addressing

the adequacy and promise of existing and forthcoming lines of inquiry. Two

basic questions drive our discussion: With whom, in what situations, and

in what ways does teaching improve reading comprehension? How should

research in teaching reading comprehension proceed?

Our purpose was threefold: (a) Describe the nature and distribution

of research in teaching reading comprehension in the context of stated

and/or implied instructional goals; (b) consider issues of methodological

significance as they emerge; and (c) suggest some reasonable guidelines

for future research in accord with rising research interests and alterna-

tive approaches to investigation. We have adopted two discussion headings

which represent the nature and scope of this research in terms of

two fundamental goals for instruction: increasing learning from text

and increasing ability to learn from text. The former reviews the

large array of studies which examine the efficacy of teacher inter-

vention intended to improve students' ability to understand, recall, or

integrate information from specific text passages. The latter addresses

those studies whose goal is to improve general and specific reading compre-

hension abilities which will transfer to students' reading of passages

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

they later encounter on their own. These two discussions then merge in

the final section of the paper where we consider future directions for

reading comprehension instructional research and guidelines for how that

research might or should be conducted,

We recognized from the outset that a review which exhausted the litera-

ture was neither realistic nor within the bounds of our goals. Instead,

we decided that studies cited in the context of our remarks should be

selected largely for their representativeness, significance, or promise.

And, with respect to research paradigms, an attempt was made to include

descriptive studies dealing with theoretical issues of relevance to teaching

reading comprehension, empirical studies involving such prototypical

methodology as treatment group comparisons, research syntheses of instructional

procedures, and discussions relating aspects of pedagogical intuition. To

these ends, we believe the present review is comprehensive,

INCREASING LEARNING FROM TEXT/PROSE

It is the purpose of this section to highlight research which studies

instructional intervention as a means to improve students' understanding,

recall, and integration of information, stated in or inferable from specific

text passages. Our review of such interventions includes prereading

activities, guided reading activities and postreading activities. Note

that we have drawn a distinction between activities or strategies based

upon when and for what purpose intervention takes place. This distinction

might be characterized in the following trichotomy: building upon

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

background knowledge, activating readers' existing background knowledge

and attention focusing before reading to learn; guiding reader-text

interactions during reading to learn; and providing review, feedback,

or cognitive stimulation after reading to learn.

Prereading Activities

Most reading lessons include a prereading activity which provides a

bridge of sorts between a reader's knowledge base and the text. Most

lesson frameworks used in conjunction with basals and content area text-

books consider this step a preparatory one in which purpose setting and

concept development are primary goals. In principle most of these

activities are directed at the reader's background knowledge; implicitly,

they reflect at least tacit acceptance of the role of background knowledge

and the importance of building and activating readers' knowledge before

reading to learn.

The Role of Background Knowledge

In general, both theory and research support the notion that back-

ground knowledge affects how much information is recalled and what informa-

tion is recalled from reading, as well as readers' perceptions of such

aspects of the reading situation as an author's background and pur-

poses. Recent theorists, such as Ausubel, 1963, 1968, 1978, and the schema

theorists of the past decade (Anderson, Spiro, S Anderson, 1978; Rumelhart &

Ortony, 1977; Spiro, 1977) have addressed the role of background knowledge and

its relation to text comprehension, in particular as it applies to

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

broader issues of processing and recalling information. In the process

of confirming this relationship, several recent investigations have

contributed toward specifying the differential impact of background knowl-

edge upon the type and amount of information recalled by readers. For

example, a study by Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert, and Goetz (1977) found

that recall and comprehension of passages capable of two alternative

interpretations were highly related to the background knowledge of the

readers. More physical education students took a wrestling perspective

in response to a prison/wrestling passage and a card-playing perspective in

response to a card/music passage; for music students the reverse was true.

Similarly, Steffensen, Joag-Dev, and Anderson (1979), in a cross-cultural

study involving subjects from the United States and India, found that

subjects tend to read more rapidly, recall more information, and produce

more consistent elaborations for passages dealing with culturally relevant

material. A study by Pearson, Hansen, and Gordon (1979) again demonstrated

this differential effect, as the extent to which young readers were able

to respond to questions tapping implicit and explicit information tended

to vary with respect to their idiosyncratic backgrounds of experience.

More recently Tierney, LaZansky, Raphael, and Mosenthal (Note 1) have ob-

served familiarity to manifest itself not only in terms of what information

is recalled, but also in readers' perceptions of an author's purposes,

intended audience, and relationship with that audience.

In addition to providing empirical evidence for longstanding notions

regarding the role of background knowledge, such findings compel one to

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

suppose that activating or building a reader's existing knowledge prior to

reading to learn will improve or at least alter comprehension and recall.

As we have already suggested, if one examines the conventional wisdom

of reading practices, one encounters a number of references to the

importance of activating or building background knowledge prior to reading,

and an even greater barrage of specific suggestions, strategies, and

activities directed toward these ends. Yet, examining results of inter-

vention studies which make use of specific strategies intended to activate

or build readers' background knowledge, one is confronted with a rather

fragile generalization: namely, whatever positive effects these strategies

may have, in general their effects tend to vary considerably across such

variables as texts, teachers, and readers. Rather than suggesting the

futility of attempting to activate and build background knowledge,

this situation serves to point out that: (a) we may not, at the

present time, know enough about the relationship between intervention and

learning; (b) experimental methodology may be so distorting the instruc-

tional environment that whatever effects would occur under typical learning

conditions are either lost or distorted; (c) it would be naive to assume

any strategy sensitive enough to warrant its implementation across all

reading situations; and (d) current means of measuring a reader's back-

ground knowledge or assessing the impact of its activation are in need

of further development.

We begin our discussion of specific intervention techniques in the

context of building background knowledge during prereading instruction. We

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

hope that this discussion, and the three which follow, will provide an

introduction, some illustration, and a partial explanation of the problems

to which we have only just alluded.

Building Background Knowledge Prior to Reading

When readers apparently lack the prior knowledge necessary to read to

learn, what can be done to compensate? Three suggestions appear most often

in instructional literature: teach vocabulary as a prereading step; pro-

vide experiences, vicarious or otherwise, which fill in and expand upon

students' existing knowledge; or introduce a conceptual framework analogous

to that of the text which will enable students to build appropriate back-

ground for themselves.

Preteaching vocabulary. An enduring piece of conventional wisdom in

reading education is the recommendation that students be taught crucial

word meanings prior to encountering them in text. In most directed reading

lessons which accompany basals and content area textbooks, introduction to

new vocabulary is an integral first step. As Bridge (in press) suggests,

introduction to new vocabulary is perceived as serving "the function of

arousing previous conceptual associations and providing new associations . . •

to help students to relate the unfamiliar concepts to familiar ones." In

a similar vein, Pearson and Johnson (1978) describe such activities as

providing anchors for new information. Or as Beck, McKeown, McCaslin,

and Burke (1980) have suggested, teaching vocabulary is a specialized

aspect of developing background knowledge essential for comprehension

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

and is widespread in most reading programs. In fact, one person (Becker,

1977) has recommended that disadvantaged students be taught 25 word

meanings per week, starting in third grade and continuing through twelfth

grade, in order to compensate for the students' lack of conceptual knowl-

edge.

The fact that vocabulary development is such a widespread instructional

focus may be partially a function of that research which alludes to the re-

lationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension. Correlations between

knowledge of word meanings and ability to comprehend passages containing

those words, between knowledge of word meanings and verbal intelligence, as

well as between word difficulty and passage difficulty are all high and

well established. (For a review of this work, see Anderson & Freebody,

1979; Davis, 1971.) These relationships have been further demonstrated

by studies which show that not only do good and poor readers appear to

differ with respect to knowledge of word meanings (Belmont & Birch, 1966),

but replacing high-frequency words with low-frequency synonyms in texts

decreases subjects' passage comprehension (Marks, Doctorow, & Wittrock,

1974; Wittrock, Marks, & Doctorow, 1975).

Less encouraging, however, are those findings related to the effects

of vocabulary instruction upon reading comprehension. Researchers employing

carefully designed interventions in which subjects are pretaught word

meanings have consistently found that such instruction improves students'

knowledge of the words taught but does not significantly improve their

passage comprehension (Jackson & Dizney, 1963; Jenkins, Pany, & Schreck, 1978;
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

Lieberman, 1967; Pany & Jenkins, 1978; Tuinman & Brady, 1974). While

these results may seem counterintuitive, they do suggest either that con-

ventional wisdom is astray, or that "the effects of vocabulary knowledge

on reading comprehension are far more subtle than either conventional

wisdom or reading educators had imagined" (Jenkins & Pany, in press). We

would posit that the subtle effects of vocabulary knowledge may have been

short-circuited by the failure of researchers to fully consider readers'

background knowledge and purposes for reading as well as such aspects of

text as key vocabulary and the relationships which exist between concepts.

Thus, it may be more instructionally beneficial to ask questions similar to

the following: What types of vocabulary activities would likely build a

reader's background knowledge prior to reading a text? To what extent

should these vocabulary activities be individualized and extended over time?

In what situations is vocabulary development likely to be essential? In what

ways (during or after reading) will differences in background knowledge due

to vocabulary development most likely be manifested?

Analogy. Analogy might be defined as an expositional method for

comparing sets of information which are similar enough in certain essential

respects to permit transposition of attributes across sets, usually

from familiar to unfamiliar information. The classroom being what it is,

explanation must often suffice for experience. Teachers, therefore, have

long operated under the assumption that while explanation via analogy is

not a substitute for experience, it affords a practical means for intro-

ducing students to unfamiliar information in the context of a familiar

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

framework. Many philosophers (Black, 1962; Campbell, 1920) and psychologists

(Rumelhart & Ortony, 1977), especially those advocating a schema-theoretic

point of view, concur on this point.

Despite the potential utility of analogy claimed by educators,

philosophers, and psychologists, research on its pedagogical efficacy has

been reported by only a few studies, and some of these studies only in-

directly address analogy's instructional utility. Dowell (1968) and Drugge

(1977) found no significant effects stemming from the instructional use of

analogy. Mayer (1975) and Royer and Cable (1975, 1976) found results which

favored the advance presentation of analogous material but did not directly

address questions related to analogy's instructional utility per se. The

most positive evidence of analogy's value comes from a study by Ausubel

and Fitzgerald (1961), who found a superiority for readers given an

advance expository passage on an analogous familiar topic, and a study by

Hayes and Tierney (1980), who found that students given different modes of

presenting or embedding analogous information had an advantage on certain

measures over students not given analogies. Generally, the results suggest

that if analogy is to be used effectively to increase background knowledge,

care must be taken in: (a) the selection of students, as one would expect

the benefits of analogy to manifest themselves differently for readers of

varying abilities and backgrounds of experience; (b) the presentation of the

analogous information, as it is likely different modes will have different

impacts; and (c) the methods used to assess effects. In terms of our third

point, we would posit that any research attempting to improve background knowledge
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

10

needs to consider the possibility that a complex interaction exists among

teaching methodology, texts, topics, and readers, and needs to recognize

that the influence of changes in background knowledge may be subtle and difficult

to measure except with a variety of on-line as well as posttest measures

which are sensitive to the idiosyncratic nature of the analogy to be studied.

Activating Background Knowledge and Attention-Focusing

If readers have the necessary background knowledge prior to reading

to learn, what can or should be done to activate that knowledge or focus

attention in order to expedite their learning from text? Many theorists

and practitioners advocate strategies which encourage students to actively

relate the new information they gain from reading to their prior knowledge.

Such strategies are based on the assumption that learning is a constructive

process rather than merely one of acquisition. A number of suggestions

for activating background knowledge have arisen as a result, a great many

directed at teachers, a very few directed at students, and still fewer

directed at texts. For the purposes of discussion, we have selected the

following as illustrative of teacher initiated/directed strategies for

activating background knowledge: advance organizers, objectives, and

pretests and prequesticns. From among those strategies indicative of

student generated/monitored activity, we will consider student centered/

generated questions and purposes. With respect to text adjuncts we will

discuss prefatory statements, pictures, and titles.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

II

Advance organizers. One of the most widely researched and contro-

versial strategies designed to activate a reader's background knowledge

is that of the advance organizer, proposed by Ausubel (1963, 1968).

In Ausubel's (1968) words, the intent of the advance organizer is "to

bridge the gap between what the reader already knows and what the reader

needs to know before he/she can meaningfully learn the task at hand" (p. 148).

Based upon Ausubel's theory of verbal learning, which posits the

existence of hierarchically organized cognitive structures, the function

of the organizer is to provide ideational scaffolding for the stable in-

corporation and retention of the more detailed and differentiated material

that follows in the passage. In a practical sense, its purpose is to

prepare readers to gain information from reading they could not have other-

wise gained (Bransford, 1979).

Ausubel (1978) has suggested that for advance organizers to function

effectively they must be written at a higher level of abstraction or

generality than the material to be learned, address the conditions of

their specific use, account for both the reader's existing subsumers and

the unfamiliar concepts presented within the text, and take into account

those factors involved in posttesting. In the case of unfamiliar material,

Ausubel prescribes the use of an expository organizer to provide "relevant

proximate subsumers." With familiar material, he suggests a comparative

organizer to facilitate the integration of new ideas and to increase dis-

crimination between ideas.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

12

There is some evidence that advance organizers effect the subsequent

learning of some students some of the time with some texts when readers

have some prerequisite knowledge (Ausubel, 1978; Bransford, 1979). How-

ever, despite the fact that several hundred research studies and any

number of synthesis attempts have explored the differential worth of

advance organizers, we still lack any "real" closure regarding their

instructional value. Over the years researchers intent on synthesizing

the bulk of advance organizer research have resorted to extensive literature

reviews (Barnes & Clawson, 1975; Hartley & Davies, 1976; Lawton & Wanska,

1977; Mayer, 1979) and, most recently, meta-analysis, a statistical

technique suggested by Glass (1978) to standardize and compare treatment

effects (Luiten, Ames, & Ackerson, Note 2; Moore & Readence, 1980). One

such review of the research by Sledge (1978), which focused on the use

of advance organizers with secondary students, reported that the majority

of studies did not favor advance organizers and, in studies for which

differences did favor advance organizers, less capable students benefited

most. A more recent synthesis, a meta-analysis which examined trends

across 135 advance organizer studies (Luiten, et al., Note 2), suggested

the following: most advance organizer treatment groups tended to perform

better than control groups; the effect of advance organizers had a

variable impact across special education, elementary, secondary, and

college students; the impact of aural and visual organizers varied with

the age level of students; and the effect of advance organizers tended to

increase rather than decay over time.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

13

Two major problems have had the effect of diminishing the worth of

most individual advance organizer research studies and synthesis attempts.

The first, manifest in the lack of a clearly specified operational

definition of advance organizers, has left advance organizer research

largely nonreplicable. Theoretical position papers, research reviews, and

research reports have virtually failed to provide either teachers or

researchers with specific guidelines for developing advance organizers.

Unfortunately, Ausubel (1978) suggests that "apart from describing

organizers in general terms with an appropriate example, one cannot be

more specific about the construction of an organizer. For this always

depends on the nature of the learning material, the age of the learner,

and his degree of prior familiarity with the learning passage" (p. 251).

These "general terms" to which Ausubel refers are scattered through-

out his writings and in what appears to us to be poorly articulated

examples. The result is such that for any single text, a variety of

advance organizers might be generated and the differential effect of

any one might become a legitimate research question.

The second problem relates to the global nature of those questions

researchers tend to ask about advance organizers. Given Ausubel's

warning with respect to the differential nature of learning material

and varying needs of learners, it seems misguided for researchers and

practitioners to continue to explore the efficacy of the advance organizer

without regard for the different potential effects these variables

may have. Questions should be pursued that go beyond the general

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

14

issue of whether or not advance organizers work. Clearly, only in the

context of examining a variety of data across a variety of specific

texts can researchers hope to develop descriptions which address the

instructional and theoretical significance of the advance organizer in

a useful manner.

In content reading classes, for example, social studies and science,

there exists a hybrid of the advance organizer--the structured overview--

whose widely advocated use deserves some comment. In theoretical papers,

both Barron (1969) and Earle (196 9a) proposed the development and use

of a visual overview to introduce students to the concepts and relation-

ships represented within a text or a unit within a course. They pro-

posed that the overview incorporate the terms arranged in outline

form to effectively highlight to students the content of a text or unit,

including its logical structure. In so doing, it was believed that the

overview assumed the properties of Ausubel's advance organizer; that is, it

related "new content to relevant subsuming concepts that have previously

been learned" (Barron, 1969, p. 33). Unfortunately, to date the research

dealing with the effectiveness of these graphic overviews suffers from

one of the same major problems ailing advance organizer research--namely,

the probes which have driven the research have failed to systematically

examine the impact of the strategy beyond whether or not it works. Studies

conducted in various content classrooms have provided general support that

under certain conditions with certain students structured overviews have

a positive effect on learning; however, these investigations have provided

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

15

very little data of an explanatory nature. The types of students, texts

and reading situations for which different types of overviews might be

effective has not been clarified (Baker, 1977; Barron, 1971; Berget, 1977;

Earle, 1969b, 1973; Estes, Mills, & Barron, 1969; Vacca, 1977; Walker, 1979).

Objectives. Those who endorse the use of behavioral objectives fre-

quently argue that as teacher-directed prereading activities, behavioral

objectives facilitate students' organization of their learning; this argu-

ment is based to some extent upon the assumption that if students know

what they are expected to learn, they will tend to pursue their learning

more systematically. R. Gagn6 (1965), for example, rationalizes the use of

behavioral objectives by proposing that objectives aid students in organizing

their learning, through the clarification of individual goals which permit

not only more efficient study time but also a system for monitoring indi-

vidual progress.

While common sense would suggest that providing students with objec-

tives before they read to learn will enhance that learning (Levin &

Pressley, in press), such a facilitative effect is far from certain.

Duchastel and Merrill (1973) reviewed the effects of providing behavioral

objectives on student achievement and found that few studies show a

positive effect. Further, in a review of over forty research studies

which were analyzed in terms of teaching strategies, task characteristics,

and learner characteristics, Hartley and Davies (1976) concluded that

". .. .behavioral objectives have an effect upon learning, but this [effect]

is less clear cut than many of the advocates of behavioral objectives

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

16

usually claim" (p. 251). Hartley and Davies suggest that the facilita-

tive effect of behavioral objectives depends upon the cognitive tasks,

student ability, and text organization. They concluded that while

behavioral objectives did not help students perform tasks at the lower

levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, they could increase learning for middle-

ability students performing tasks at higher levels of the taxonomy while

reading loosely-structured text.

Before research can determine the effect of behavioral objectives

upon reading to learn, researchers must concede that it is not sufficient

to know that some objectives aid some students for some reading purposes

in some text situations. Rather, they must be committed to a search for

the specific conditions responsible for specific effects. Second, con-

sistent with Hartley and Davies' criticism, a consensus as to what con-

stitutes an objective is necessary if the effects of objectives upon

learning are to be probed systematically and differentially. Certainly,

this would entail defining objectives in terms of text, reader, and learning

characteristics. Further, it demands going beyond behavioral definitions

limited to overt behaviors, behaviors quantifiable in some sense, to

research which probes under what conditions objectives, which tap meta-

cognitive and self-monitoring responses, might facilitate learning from

prose.

Pretests and prequestions. Two teacher-directed preinstructional

strategies somewhat related to objectives are pretests and prequestions.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

17

In the context of the classroom, both pretests and prequestions tend to

be used most frequently for purposes of assessment. But as Pressey

(1926) points out, questions asked prior to reading a text can serve a

learning producing function as well. Specifically, Pressey (1926) has

claimed that pretests increase a student's sensitivity to learning by

alerting him or her to the nature of the task and its relevance, as well

as providing a means to evaluate, categorize, or generalize,

The claim that pretests and prequestions have a beneficial effect

upon learning continues to be empirically supported, although somewhat

qualified. As Anderson and Biddle (1975), Hartley and Davies (1976),

Levin and Pressley (in press), and Rickards (1976) suggest with respect

to learning from prose, pretests (often in the form of adjunct prequestions)

can have a facilitative effect if the material to be read is difficult to

comprehend (Hartley & Davies, 1976; Levin & Pressley, in press), and if

the goal of the pretest is to have students learn only the information

from reading which is necessary to answer the pretest questions (Anderson

& Biddle, 1975), and if the information tested on the pretest is among

the most important in the text (Rickards, 1976). If, on the other hand,

the goal is to improve general understanding and retention of a passage,

pretests and prequestions tend to have a restricting effect on learning

(Anderson & Biddle, 1975). One may suppose, therefore, that if students

know something about the topic to be learned, if the material to be used

is difficult for them to read, and if the teacher wants students to gain
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

18

specific learnings from reading, then either a pretest or prequestions

which test in advance of reading will likely facilitate subsequent

learning from that text.

Such a claim, however, falls short of addressing the issue of

variability across texts, readers, and teachers in the following respects.

First, whatever effects pretests may have, it is doubtful they can over-

come the lack of prerequisite information necessary to process a text.

Logically, a pretest can only be expected to facilitate activation of

existing knowledge if a reader has such knowledge (Bransford, 1979).

Second, pretests and prequestions interact with passages to produce dif-

ferential effects (Richmond, 1976). The relationships which exist between

questions and texts are obviously complex and cannot realistically be

considered outside the purposes for which the questions are posed, as

well as the purposes for which they are interpreted. Clearly, the relation-

ship between questions, texts, and the reader's perception of a question's

intent cannot be depicted by simple taxonomies for question types, nor

can such taxonomies be used to generate questions. Unfortunately, most

of the research dealing with the facilitative effects of questions have

used taxonomies based upon such a pretense. Even recent attempts by Herber

(1970, 1978) and Pearson and Johnson (1978) tend to be too global with regard

to the relation between a text and a question and disregard intentionality

arising from the relation between the purpose of a question, the question

given, the text, and the student; the attempt by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975)

to address intentionality tends to impose categories somewhat too subjectively.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

19

Like research on advance organizers and objectives, research on prequestions

and pretests awaits modification in light of the development of methods to

assess the characteristics of these tasks as well as findings which will

take into account and explore the effects of such variables as texts,

teachers, and students.

Prequestions and student-centered/generated purposes. The three pre-

vious subsections have discussed prereading instructional strategies which

tend to be teacher-directed in nature; for while they may address student-

related issues, they are nonetheless generated and/or directed on behalf

of students rather than by students. We wish to contrast this approach

to activating students' background knowledge with that of student-centered

prequestions, predictions, and discussion of purposes for reading. As is

the case with most prereading activities, student-centered prequestions,

predictions, and discussion are principally purpose setting in their effect.

They differ, however, from teacher-directed preactivity in that their

intended function is to encourage and make use of spontaneous student

response in terms of directing both the focus of activity and

its outcome. And, characteristically, these procedures result in some

degree of student-teacher and/or peer interaction, as opposed to simple

exchanges limited to one-way question-response sequences. In the main,

student-centered prereading activities are based on the notion that such

activity has the potential to activate problem-solving behavior--namely,

inquisitiveness as well as the ability and desire to examine ideas and

generate alternatives.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

20

Most basal reading lessons and a number of reading educators advise

teachers to begin with either selected questions or a discussion of the

story topic designed to facilitate student-teacher and peer interaction

in the context of the "reading lesson." Stauffer's (1969) Directed

Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA) is one such procedure where purpose

setting together with interaction are integral. As Stauffer has des-

cribed the approach:

. . . either the reader declares his own purposes or if he adopts

the purposes of others, he makes certain how and why he is doing
so. He also speculates about the nature and complexity of the
answers he is seeking by using his fullest experience and knowl-
edge relevant to circumstances. Then he reads to test his purposes
and assumptions. (Stauffer, 1969, p. 40)

Another recommended strategy, Manzo's (1969) Request Procedure, uses a

simple questioning format whereby students are given the opportunity to

generate as well as respond to questions based upon a text selection or

a portion of it. The procedure is typically done in pairs, student-

teacher or individual students, and as sections from a text are read

silently, each participant in turn poses a number of questions based upon

their reading.

Research examining the efficacy of procedures similar to those des-

cribed above provides some support for student-generated questions and

discussion, but little mention is made with regard to either the type of

text and student for which specific procedures are most appropriate, or

the extent to which the rationale for each such procedure is justified.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

21

For example, Manzo (1970) and Manzo and Legenza (1975) found general sup-

port for the use of the Request Procedure with kindergarten children and

poor readers. Similarly, Bisken, Hoskisson, and Modlin (1976) reached

the general conclusion from their study that first- and third-grade Title I

children learned considerably more from passages taught by the DR-TA

than from listening to the stories without discussion. Davidson (1970)

and Petre (1970) found a similar advantage for the DR-TA over other

directed reading lessons for fourth graders of different ability groups.

Outside the context of research based on selected strategies, there

has been little support for the student-centered approach until recently.

Using both immediate and delayed passage-dependent recall questions,

Chodos, Gould, and Rusch (1977) found that having fourth graders generate

four questions from a brief summary of a passage before they read the

passage significantly improved the students' learning of that passage

as well as their ability to maintain what they had learned. Using a

paradigm suggested by Swaby (1977), Schachter (1978) used discussion to

link "to be read text" with prior experience. Swaby (1977) had presented

sixth graders, prior to their reading a passage, with a written state-

ment designed to create a link to prior experience. The procedure did

not facilitate comprehension, but Swaby speculated that a discussion of

prior experiences may have had an effect--especially an effect on infer-

ential comprehension. Schachter (1978) took Swaby's suggestion and

examined the impact of linking with prior experience through discussion.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

22

As predicted, Schachter's procedure yielded results which reflected an

enhancement of inferential comprehension.

In general, research on student-centered prereading activity leaves

us with two overriding concerns. First, despite the fact that informal

prequestioning and discussion are widespread classroom practices, we

could find little research which examined the tendency of teachers to

use the greater opportunity for interaction afforded by informal pre-

questioning and the effect such practice might produce. Together with

Durkin's (1978-79) and Guszak's (1967) research describing teacher questioning

behavior, "the state of the art" relative to both teaching practice and re-

search on informal questioning or discussion is far from encouraging.

Second, the few studies we could find examined effects in terms of overall

reading achievement rather than in terms of multiple measures established

for purposes of examining the specific rationale by which classroom

methodologies were originally justified. We again find ourselves faced

with a body of research which has yet to address the differential efficacy

of specific instructional strategies intended to focus attention or

activate background knowledge, and at the same time account for the

interaction among reader, text, and teacher variables.

Pictures, prefatory statements, and titles. To what extent do those

text adjuncts described by Hartley and Davies (1976) as content clarifying

improve a reader's ability to learn from text? While it is clear that

pictures, titles, and prefatory statements can provide relevant contextual

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

23

information and thereby improve comprehension for ambiguous or unclear

passages (Arnold & Brooks, 1976; Bransford & Johnson, 1972, 1973; Brans-

ford & McCarrell, 1974), it is less clear whether they are effective aids

when the adjunct reiterates information provided directly in the prose

(Aulls, 1975). Certainly, no one argues that having students read titles,

prefatory statements, or illustrations makes them better comprehenders in

any general sense (Jenkins & Pany, in press), but there does exist

evidence both to support and disclaim their facilitative effect when

students are reading to learn from text.

With respect to pictures, Samuels concluded in 1970 that there was

"almost unanimous agreement that pictures, when used as adjuncts to the

printed text, do not facilitate comprehension" (p. 405). Since that time,

Thomas (1978) investigated the effectiveness of pictorial illustrations

as adjunct aids in science texts using fourth graders of three ability

levels as subjects; he found the illustrations to have no facilitative

effect. Marr's research in 1979 led her to a similar conclusion, namely,

that it is often the case that pictures fail to have a facilitative

effect on learning.

In contrast, a growing number of studies have found evidence to the

contrary. Specifically, pictures have been shown to increase the prose

learning of: (a) young children when their effect is measured in terms

of responses to short-answer questions (Guttman, Levin, & Pressley, 1977;

Lesgold, Levin, Shimron, S Guttmann, 1975; Levin, Bender, & Lesgold, 1976);
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

24

(b) fourth graders (Peeck, 1974); (c) sixth graders, as measured

by main idea responses (Koenke & Otto, 1969); (d) undergraduates (Dwyer,

1968; Snowman & Cunningham, 1975); and (e) the retarded (Bender & Levin,

1978; Riding & Shore, 1974). These and other studies have led Ruch and

Levin (1977) and Levin and Lesgold (1978) to argue strongly in support of

the notion that pictures have a facilitative effect on children's learning

from prose. This effect is said to be a special effect for pictures,

over and above an effect due to mere repetition of ideas (Levin, Bender,

& Lesgold, 1976).

The picture becomes murky when one considers that Rasco, Tennyson,

and Boutwell (1975) found a facilitative effect for pictures to be con-

founded with subjects' use of strategies. Dwyer (1967, 1968, 1969, 1971,

1972) found that not only were some pictures more effective than others but

that even when pictures were effective, they caused learners to slow down.

Several of these studies have used listening rather than reading modes

and assumed results were generalizable. When Readence and Moore (Note 3)

meta-analyzed those studies where pictures were used when subjects read

to learn (as opposed to listening to learn), they found the effect size

for those studies to be generally positive but nonetheless quite small.

Clearly, pictures do not have an equally facilitative effect for all

subjects (Levin, Divine-Hawkins, Kerst, & Guttmann, 1974).

It is the differential effect of pictures which leads us to conclude

again that certain students, when reading certain texts for certain purposes
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

25

with certain adjunct aids, are helped dramatically by those aids, but

that such facilitative effects are significantly reduced when no regard

is given to the likelihood of interaction. Indeed, this seems quite

compatible with a conclusion Schallert (in press) recently reached following

a review of the role of illustration in prose comprehension. She stated:

. . . where research has found pictures to be helpful, the

illustrations have seemed to be related to the text in certain
ways. For example, pictures which represent spatial information
or which are non-redundant with the text and portray information
important to the total message are likely to help readers learn
from written material. However, since not all pictures are
facilitative and some even seem to hamper the reading process,
it seems very important to determine the most effective use of
illustration. (in press)

Accordingly, she suggests three issues need to be addressed: How might

the information represented in pictures be measured? What kind of infor-

mation should be represented in pictures? How do students read or learn

to read pictures?

Research findings are in a similar state with respect to titles and

prefatory statements. With children and adults as subjects, neither

titles nor prefatory statements (Christensen & Stordahl, 1955; Cole, 1977;

Landry, 1966) were found to have a facilitative effect on comprehension.

In contrast, studies by Doctorow, Wittrock, and Marks (1978), as well

as Memory (1979), suggest that the inclusion of titles and prefatory

statements provide certain adolescent readers advantages in terms of their

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

26

ability to recall and answer selected questions. Unfortunately, in all

but a few studies, we are given only sparse descriptions of the adjunct

as well as the teacher, text, and reader variables. Rarely were multiple

measures employed to address systematically the impact of the adjunct

during and after reading.

Guiding Reader/Text Interactions During Reading to Learn

A variety of interventions have been used by teachers and researchers

in an attempt to influence how readers process text in order to increase

learning from reading. Among these interventions are those adjuncts

and activities which accompany the presentation and processing of the

to-be-learned text. Essentially such adjuncts and exercises appear to

have a two-fold purpose: increasing the extent to which to-be-learned

material is accessible to readers, and improving students' ability to

comprehend to-be-learned text. We shall briefly address each of the

following: inducing imagery, inserted questions, self-questioning, oral

reading, lesson frameworks, and study guides.

Inducing Imagery

In an effort to guide reader/text interaction, some researchers have

attempted to induce readers to image cognitively the objects and events

described in a prose passage. While such a strategy does not appear to

facilitate learning from text for very young children (Dunham & Levin,

in press) or even adolescent EMR students (Bender & Levin, 1978), it may be
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

27

that these students cannot image on command or that they do not learn well

from pictures (Levin, Divine-Hawkins, Kerst, & Guttmann, 1974). This

seems quite likely, since a number of studies demonstrate that careful

instructions and/or training to image can improve prose learning of

third (Lesgold, McCormick, & Golinkoff, 1975; Pressley, 1976, 1977),

fourth (Lesgold, McCormick, & Golinkoff, 1975; Levin, 1973), fifth,

and sixth (Kulhavy & Swenson, 1975; Pressley, 1977) graders. Other studies

have found a facilitative effect for readers imaging on reading to learn

with twelfth graders (Anderson & Kulhavy, 1972) and college students

(Steingart & Glock, 1979). While it must be noted that there are imagery-

inducing strategies which do not help learning from text (Tirre, Manelis,

& Leicht, 1979), that with longer passages it is difficult to get readers

to maintain an imaging strategy (Anderson & Kulhavy, 1972), and that

some students who do not learn well from pictures do not seem to benefit

from imaging (Levin, Divine-Hawkins, Kerst, & Guttmann, 1974), it seems

fair to conclude that inducing imagery is likely to increase learning

from text for selected students in and above grade 3.

In 1971, Paivio expressed concern for the fact that imagery researchers

could only speculate about the instructional effects of imagery. In

1980 there is sufficient data for educators to be optimistic that imaging

is proving effective. However, given that most increases in learning

from prose due to inducing imagery are slight, and given that some

students apparently have difficulty imaging, more research needs to be

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

28

conducted in which the following apply: (a) effects are examined

differentially and judiciously, and (b) care is taken to determine and

describe how well imagery is induced. Of relevance to classroom implementa-

tion, research needs to examine whether the effectiveness of imaging can be

extended to students reading different texts of varying length within the

realm of school-related purposes.

Inserted Questions

Providing students with questions during reading is a common in-

structional practice. in an attempt to guide students' reading of a

text selection, teachers frequently stop students who are in the process

of reading to pose a number of text-related questions. These questions

are often either retroactive in nature, requiring the reader to refer to

something just read, or proactive, requiring the reader to read ahead

in order to search out an answer or confirm a prediction.

Research seems to bear out teachers' intuitions concerning the facili-

tative effect of inserted questions. Hershberger's (1964) original study

and Rothkopf's follow-up work (1966) have not only provided a great deal

of research impetus in the area of questioning, but also have somewhat

clarified the role of inserted questions in reading to learn. Hershberger's

(1964) original investigation reported that students given self-evaluative

review questions outperformed a control group on a posttest based on

those same questions. This issue has since been examined by Rothkopf

(1966, 1971, 1972a), who initiated a number of studies addressing the

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

29

direct influence of questions inserted in text. Rothkopf's line of

research and methodology prompted a rash of investigations (Boyd, 1973;

Frase, 1967, 1968; Frase, Patrick, & Schumer, 1970; McGaw & Grotelueschen,

1972; Rothkopf & Bisbicos, 1967; Rothkopf & Bloom, 1970; Snowman &

Cunningham, 1975) which, with few exceptions, confirm that students

responding to inserted factual questions perform better on those same

questions given as a posttest than students who only read the text passage.

Further, when the questions which are given involve applying information

gleaned from text, students who respond to the questions both in the

inserted and the posttest situations perform better on not only the appli-

cation questions but others as well (Watts & Anderson, 1971).

Of interest to educators, however, is not just the fact that inserted

questions have an effect. Since the strategy is used by a great many

teachers on a day-to-day basis, it seems imperative that their use be

examined more closely. The available research provides only partial in-

formation on the value of inserted questions across different texts and

purposes for reading, especially if time on task is held constant (Carver,

1972). Only a limited number of studies have addressed the type of

attention-focusing functions inserted questions prompt as well as the

extent to which learning is tied to attention or vice versa (Britton,

Westbrook, & Holdredge, 1978; Reynolds & Anderson, 1980; Reynolds, Standi-

ford, & Anderson, 1979). Too few studies have examined the effective-

ness of using questions within classroom settings--for example, their

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

30

value with repeated use, and the worth of questions tied to a rationale

model of the text or reader, for example, sets of interrelated questions.

Self-Questioning

In an earlier section we addressed self-questioning and purpose-setting

strategies as they occur in prereading situations. We shall now extend

that discussion to include literature which deals with self-questioning

during reading.

Research-based information on self-generated questions is not only

conflicting but far from complete. Studies by Duell (1974) and Morse (1976)

demonstrated that college students induced to self-question had no advantage

over other students not induced to question, while Andr6 and Anderson (1978-

79), Frase and Schwartz (1975), Schermerhorn, Goldschmid, and Shore (1975),

and Weiner (Note 4) found reason to support their use. Indeed, results of

selected studies are encouraging; however, there are a number of reasons w y

a more comprehensive and rigorous research program is needed to investigate

further the effects of self-questioning as a prose learning strategy.

First, very few studies to date have trained students to ask

questions or given them the opportunity to practice that strategy. In

those studies where training did take place, peer training procedures

were most often used. Second, in some instances, the instructions which

were given to students severely limited the types of questions students

would tend to ask. This criticism would hold with respect to both the

Frase and Schwartz (1975) study, where students were required to identify

those lines from the text that contained answers to their questions, as
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

31

well as the Weiner (Note 4) study, where students were asked to generate a

singular set of question types across different texts, with little regard

for the idiosyncratic purposes for which the students might be reading.

Third, and typical of reading comprehension instructional studies, very

few self-questioning studies have used more than a single achievement

measure to assess the effectiveness of a self-questioning strategy. And

no study was found to use text analysis methodology for the purposes of

indicating the different types of inferences students generated. Fourth,

a majority of the studies failed to use a sufficient number of comparison

groups to separate out the effects of having students generate questions.

In summary, as Weiner (Note 4) has suggested in the conclusion of her

paper, analyzing training programs, comparing various types of strategies,

and using multiple comparison groups and different measures of effect

across a variety of texts are essential if we are to make explicit what has

only been implied about the strategy of self-questioning.

Oral Reading, Lesson Frameworks, and Study Guides

While questioning strategies are undoubtedly the most widespread

approach to guiding student-text interactions during reading to learn,

with imagery-inducing strategies being much less common, there are count-

less other adjunct devices and practices suggested in the literature.

We will briefly comment upon three which are frequently recommended for

classroom use: oral reading, lesson frameworks, and study guides.

Oral reading. When students find a textbook difficult to read,

teachers often ask that those students read the textbook aloud. This is
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

32

not only an observed classroom practice, but one to which teachers readily

admit. Research on oral reading as a strategy is sparse and equivocal,

although there exists a slight edge in favor of oral reading over silent

reading for purposes of comprehension. Poulton and Brown (1967) and

Rogers (1937) found no differences between learning from text after oral

reading as compared with silent reading, while Collins (1961), Elgart

(1978), Graham (1979), and Rowell (1976), all found comprehension and

retention to be superior after oral reading for students at several dif-

ferent age levels. There were no studies found which examined the

differential effects oral reading might have had upon recall of explicit

and likely-to-be-inferred information across texts read for different

purposes by students of varying abilities. Nor were any found to address

the long-term effects of oral versus silent reading in classrooms where

boredom, inattention, and other factors might mediate the apparent

superiority of oral reading.

Lesson frameworks. Lesson frameworks, including the Directed Reading

Activity (Betts, 1946), the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (Stauffer,

1969), and the Guided Reading Procedure (Manzo, 1975), are frequently

recommended to reading and content teachers as strategies for aiding

students in their efforts to learn from text. While they are designed

to provide readers with a way to approach a text, they are as much an aid

to teachers as to students. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of research

based on these practices, little to either support or refute their use.

In two experiments with seventh-grade poor readers in a geography class,

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

33

Bean and Pardi (1979) found better learning from text when the Guided

Reading Procedure was used in combination with prereading assessment

and structured discussion. As reported earlier, Biskin, Hoskisson, and

Modlin (1976) found that first- and third-grade Title I students remembered

story elements better after being taught a Directed Reading-Thinking

Activity than after listening to the stories without discussion. Also,

as reported earlier, Davidson (1970) and Petre (1970) examined student

responses and found results which favored the Directed Reading-Thinking

Activity over the Directed Reading Activity with fourth graders--especially

higher-ability students. Given, however, the limited amount of research

examining these strategies, there is little to prompt any general or

differential suggestions regarding either the construction or implementa-

tion of these strategies.

Study guides. Study guides are widely advocated adjuncts to textbook

material, particularly content area text. As described by Earle (1969c)

and Herber (1970, 1978) study guides use various adjunct activities and

questions to structure as well as guide students' reading of difficult

subject-matter prose. It is the purpose of a study guide to facilitate

readers' understanding of text content while improving their ability to

deal with patterns of ideas (cause-effect; comparison and contrast;

sequence or time-order; and simple listing) as well as levels of text

presentation. While there is not an extensive body of research on the

effectiveness of study guides at this time, several studies involving

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

34

some permutations of this methodology have produced encouraging but

differential results. Namely, for some subjects on some variables with

selected texts, study guides have proven effective (Berget, 1977; Carney, 1977;

Estes, 1970, 1973; Maxon, 1979; Phelphs, 1979; Riley, 1979; Vacca, 1977). With

the growth of interest in cataloging text characteristics, as well as describing

readers' inferences with and without adjuncts, research should be forth-

coming which will provide the differential information needed to examine

those intuitions which prompted Herber's and Earle's original rationales

for study guides. At the present, however, we are far from knowing how

different types of guides might and should be developed to facilitate

prescribed reading outcomes.

Teacher Interventions Following Reading to Learn

There undoubtedly exists as much variability among teacher inter-

ventions following reading (postreading activities) as between postreading

activities and those which we have set apart from them, namely, prereading

activities and interventions for guiding reader/text interactions during

reading. This state of affairs seems reasonable, since postreading

activities have come to imply anything from recall exercises tied ex-

clusively to explicit information in the text, to long-term projects of

an applied nature, which may be only tangentially related to what has

been read. Under the assumption that such activities will provide for

the retention, reinforcement, extension and/or application of previous

learnings from text, teachers are frequently encouraged to consider

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

35

postreading activity an integral part of reading to learn. A perusal

of most basal reading material, content area texts and lesson frameworks

will confirm this. The notion of postreading activity raises the issue

of whether intervention occurring after the fact has any influence upon

student performance. Furthermore, do they do what they purport to do?

We will attempt to pursue these issues as we address the effects of a

select group of postreading strategies: postquestions, feedback, and

discussion.

Postquest ions

Anyone who has visited public school classrooms very much will recog-

nize this scenario: Students are assigned to read a selection from a

textbook, either in class or for "homework"; the teacher then asks a

series of oral questions based on that selection which the students

answer orally, generally with their books closed; at some later time the

students take a test which includes questions based on that selection.

Experimental results addressing the effect of postquestions upon

student learning is quite conditional, as one would suspect. As in the

case of inserted questions, students responding to postquestions perform

better on those same questions given as a test than students who only

read the text passage. Similar instances of the facilitative effect of

postquestions on "intentional learning" is reported by Anderson and

Biddle (1975) to have occurred in 37 out of 40 such studies they examined.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

36

Results in the context of "incidental" learning, however, are much more

equivocal. While Anderson and Biddle (1975) reported that 26 out of 39

studies found a facilitative effect of postquestions on new questions

appearing on a later test, they did demonstrate that the size of this

effect was less than dramatic. In addition, others suggest that post-

questions might under some circumstances have a restricted effect on

incidental learning (Frase, 1975; Hiller, 1974; Rothkopf, 1972b; Sagaria &

DiVesta, 1978).

Another factor related to the issue of postquestioning is that of

question type. Rickards (1976) found that postquestions derived from

information with high structural importance in a selection facilitated

intentional learning from text; however, questions based on information

of low structural importance did not. Watts and Anderson (1971) and

Rickards and Hatcher (1977-78) suggest that application-type or meaningful

learning questions facilitate intentional learning while rote learning

questions do not. Friedman (1977) and Yost, Avila, and Vexler (1977)

report that "higher-level" questions produce a greater learning effect

than "lower-level" questions. Biskin, Hoskisson, and Modlin (1976) con-

sider reflective questions, such as those used by the Great Books

Foundation (1967), to enhance comprehension and retention of stories.

It is less clear what other factors might interact with the effect

of postquestioning upon learning. Richmond (1976) found the effect dif-

fered across passages. Watts (1973) found the effect diminished as the
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

37

time increased between postquestioning and testing. Shavelson, Berliner,

Ravitch, and Loeding (1974) found better readers gained much less than

poorer readers from postquestioning.

Based on what evidence we do have, however, it seems reasonable to

conclude that if teachers use text materials which students find challenging,

if teachers know specifically what they want students to learn from that

material, and if what teachers want students to learn is information which

the author also deems important, it is likely that teachers can facilitate

learning by asking application-type or inference questions based on such

text-derived information, assuming such facilitation is measured by a

test which asks the same questions and assuming little time elapses

between postquestioning and testing. Of relevance to classrooms, however,

very few studies have examined the value of sets of related questions tied

to either the pedagogical assumptions inherent within published reading

programs or the discourse flow within texts, for example, sets of questions

related to the events within a story.

Feedback

When students answer questions or take posttests based on what they

have read, teachers typically provide feedback, that is, let students know

how well they have performed. In general, research supports this practice.

E. Gagne (1978), Kulhavy (1977), and LaPorte and Voss (1975) all conclude

that feedback which occurs subsequent to postquestions or posttests results

in greater gains in learning than when feedback does not follow such
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

38

activity. The timing of such feedback, however, does not appear to be a

significant factor (E. Gagne, 1978; Kulhavy, 1977). Rather, it is the

quality of feedback which most often results in its differential effects.

While this may seem contra-intuitive, Kulhavy (1977) notes that it is

feedback following wrong answers which has the most dramatic effect on

learning. In fact, LaPorte and Voss (1975) found that feedback did not

increase students' learning for questions correctly answered, but did

for those questions which were incorrectly answered. Further, Barringer

and Gholson (1979) have shown verbal feedback to be consistently superior

to tangible feedback with respect to conceptual learning, but as Kulhavy

(1977) has pointed out, if students can cheat (obtain feedback before

answering the questions) or if material is too difficult, feedback will

matter little if at all. These findings as they stand are quite inter-

esting. It would be useful, however, to extend this research to address

the influence of feedback upon on-line processing of different texts

including, for example, an examination of the influence of feedback upon

students with different predispositions, varying degrees of certainty,

alternative purposes and divergent on-line processing tendencies.

Group and Whole-Class Discussions

Beyond post-questioning and feedback, there are numerous other post

reading strategies teachers use as a means of facilitating reading to

learn. Discussion bears specific mention as it surfaces in some form or

another during a great many of them. From the initiation of group projects
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

39

to the culmination of such individual pursuits as book reviews, teachers

frequently either schedule group discussion of some preread text or

assign projects which will necessitate interaction to some degree.

Support for the use of discussion as a strategy to increase learning from

text emerges, but quite indirectly, through research related to group

discussion.

A study which examined the use of guide material and small group dis-

cussion with social studies text led Estes (1970, 1973) to suggest there were

no direct benefits from small group discussions. In contrast, a study by

Vacca (1977) which incorporated the use of group discussion, claimed that

group discussion together with the specific text material and study guide

upon which it was based was both productive and beneficial in terms of

the student's acquisition of context. And Barron and Melnick (1973),

in a longitudinal vocabulary study in the area of biology, alluded to

the differential effectiveness of teacher-led full-class discussion and

student-led small-group discussion. They suggested that both the full-

class discussion and the small-group discussion were better than no

discussion, but that whole-class discussion tended to be easier to

operationalize given specific guidelines and a purpose for the discussion.

Intuitively it would seem that the effects of discussion, when it

occurs as part of some larger post-activity, are confounded somewhat

due to the likelihood that discussion facilitates some aspects of the

activity and the activity in turn feeds into discussion. Further, the
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

40

effects of discussion as a postreading activity in and of itself have yet

to be fully addressed. Researchers should, therefore, be encouraged to

examine discussion's influence upon reading to learn, remaining cognizant

of both the significance of discussion in light of other classroom strate-

gies and the nature of reader-text-teacher interactions. This implies

systematically measuring the impact of the text before, during, and after

discussion as well as the characteristics of the group, for example,

cohesiveness, composition, and goals.

General Comments on Increasing Learning from Text/Prose

A variety of interventions have been used by teachers and researchers

in an attempt to influence how readers process text in order to increase

learning from text. A number of studies have examined the influence

upon student learning of a variety of orienting strategies, guided reading

procedures and postreading activities. Attempts to synthesize the findings

from these studies have tended to reach the same conclusion (Hartley &

Davies, 1976; Levin & Pressley, in press). As stated by Levin and Pressley,

"alerting students to exactly what it is they are to learn is generally

more efficient than leaving them in the dark" (in press). Our synthesis

would seem to suggest that teachers who do attempt to focus attention,

build or activate students' existing knowledge before students read

to learn; especially those teachers who take a student-centered

approach to activation will probably experience more success than those

who do not. Likewise, teacher interventions designed to guide reader/text

interactions during reading as well as teacher-directed postreading

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

41

practices are usually better than no guidance or no postreading activi-

ties. Unfortunately, beyond these general guidelines the implications one

can draw from the research to date suffers from being overly global when, to

thoroughly understand practice, we need to examine it carefully and dif-

ferentially. Suffice it to say that whatever positive effects practices

or strategies tend to have, in general, their effects are likely to be

fragile across such variables as texts, teachers, and students. The

research thus far seems to grossly overgeneralize while underestimating

the complexity of the teacher, text, and task variables involved. The

means which have been used to develop, describe, and implement research

on these practices are limited in terms of describing the relationship

of the strategy or adjunct to different texts, readers, or teachers.

Very few studies have systematically addressed permutations of strategies

across a variety of text situations, readers, and teaching methodologies.

In this regard, the complexity of the relationship between intervention

and learning, especially classroom learning, either has not been addressed

or has been oversimplified to the point of distortion. Further, most

studies have restricted their measurement of effects to a single posttest

measure. Long-term retention and on-line measures have gone virtually un-

explored. It is this state of affairs, although disconcerting, which

points to the problems incurred in doing research on reading comprehension

instruction, but, at the same time, the most interesting research possi-

bilities still to be explored.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

42

INCREASING ABILITY TO LEARN FROM TEXT/PROSE

A principal question in research on learning from text/prose is,

"What teacher interventions before, during, and/or after reading can

increase what students learn from their reading beyond what they might

learn when reading without such intervention?" A principal question in

research on improving students' ability to comprehend what they read is,

"What teacher interventions can increase students' ability to comprehend

or learn from new passages (passages not taught to the students) beyond

the increase which might occur when students read independently?"

Clearly, the concern here is with transfer: Can students be taught

knowledge, skills, or strategies which will transfer to their reading

of passages not used in lessons with them?

In one sense, any study on reading can be viewed as a potential

source for instructional implications, in which case the term "instructional

research on reading" is synonomous with the term "research in reading."

If, however, it is worthwhile to distinguish between the two, then

instructional research must be characterized as that which tends toward

more direct and obvious implications for reading instruction than those

studies whose only link to instruction is that subjects read text. Cer-

tainly, it is important to know what the characteristics of good and poor

readers are and what the characteristics of comprehensible texts are.

Further, it is important to know how classrooms function during reading

instruction and the nature of practices presently in use. It seems,

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

43

however, that such knowledge is only useful when it is examined in the

context of what causes readers to comprehend better than they would under

other circumstances.

You will recall that throughout our discussion of "Increasing Learning

From Text/Prose," we consistently recommended that research address the

various effects of treatments across reader, text, and teacher variables.

This is both a call for a number of research replications and extensions

in the case of those treatments which are already shown to have positive

effects upon students' learning while reading, as well as a call for more

instructionally sensitive designs. Unfortunately, a recommendation for

replication is not yet possible with respect to treatments designed to

improve reading comprehension ability for untaught passages, because a

thorough search of the literature has revealed that, despite a few excep-

tions, in the words of Gertrude Stein, "there isn't any there there."

We perceive this rather unsettling state of affairs to be the outcome of

certain conditions. First, while it is the case that many studies have

investigated differences between good and poor readers or between good

and better readers, almost all such studies have been correlational in

nature. As a result, these studies tend to focus on differences which

themselves merely covary with the real causes for difference, or they

focus on differences which are in actuality differences between readers

and not differences in the effect a strategy may have upon readers'

ability to comprehend. Second, while a handful of studies over the past

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

44

decade have investigated the effects of treatment on transfer passages,

very few included a control group which read the treatment passages

when passages were part of the treatment. Calling for such causal design

research would not seem radical, since such designs have been employed

in learning from text studies and word identification studies (Cunningham,

1975-76, 1979). And third, while it is also true that a host of studies

have used one or two group designs to investigate the effect of reading

programs on students' standardized test performance, it is impossible to

determine if the instructional components of these programs were responsible

for whatever differences were observed, due to the variability across

programs with respect to materials, grouping patterns, inservice training

for teachers, and parent involvement. Of course, if there existed a

body of literature showing the efficacy of a particular practice while

isolating the causal effects of that practice, then looking at studies

evaluating programs which include that practice might add some additional

support for it. However, in the absence of such causal research on

instructional practices for improving comprehension ability, it can

only be concluded that such program evaluation studies are worthless.

This situation has placed us in a dilemma: Do we examine instructional

research in terms of how questions have traditionally been pursued, i.e.,

program evaluation research and good and poor reader paradigms? Or do

we attempt to outline a few studies which meet our qualifications as a

means of discussing how we perceive that instructional research in reading

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

45

ought to be conducted? In the name of a constructive approach, we have

chosen the second course, and for this purpose, taken our direction from

what has more recently been termed "process" research.

Some Directions for Research in Reading Comprehension Instruction

Over the past decade, text analysis research, schema theory research,

and classroom observation/ethnographic studies have enabled us, as never

before, to describe and explain how texts, readers and classrooms function.

Although process research is rarely prescriptive, it does explicate existing

conditions and in turn assists us in the development of research designs

which reflect in a more realistic sense the array of variables at play

in any instructional environment and thereby allow us to plan a reasonable

agenda for carrying out instructional research. Consider the research

efforts which have been and are being conducted in the area of metacompre-

hension and inference training as well as in the area of meeting the text-

based needs of readers.

Metacomprehension and Inference Training

The results from metacomprehension studies and studies of the infer-

ential behavior of readers suggest that many readers, especially young or

poor readers, often have an unclear concept about what reading is, do not

know how to cope with some of the task demands of reading, and often have

difficulty generating inferences for complex exposition, as well as inte-

grating information and identifying main ideas. A study by Pace (1979)

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

46

suggested that lower elementary age children, when compared with their

older peers, tend to be less aware of their own level of understanding

and of the possible resources they might use. Paris (1975) found young

children are less able to relate their own background experience in the

process of inferencing. Tierney, Bridge, and Cera (1978-79) found that

poor third-grade readers were less able to integrate information or generate

connectors for logically related propositions than good third-grade

readers. Studies by Brown and Smiley (1977), Otto, Barrett, and Koenke

(1969), and Smiley, Oakley, Worthen, Campione, and Brown (1977) have sug-

gested that main idea extraction is difficult for retarded children as

well as young and poor readers. Markman (1977) has demonstrated that

children in grades 1 through 3, when given incomplete directions, appear

to be insensitive to their failure to comprehend. Kreutzer, Leonard,

and Flavell (1975) have demonstrated that children have difficulty dis-

tinguishing between task demands; for example, gist and verbatim recall-

type demands. More recently, Raphael, Winograd, and Pearson (1980) noted

that the ability of good and poor readers to identify a strategy for

answering a question was related to their performance in answering the

questions.

From the point of view of the researcher interested in intervention,

the emergence of metacomprehension and inference studies is potentially

exciting, since these studies provide the basis for determining whether

or not inferencing ability or metacomprehension can be improved. In turn,

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

47

this research raises the issue: Can students learn to learn? That is,

can students be taught knowledge, skills, or strategies which will transfer

to their reading of unfamiliar passages? In pursuit of these questions,

a number of recent research efforts have attempted to examine the efficacy

of interventions intended to improve such abilities. We will describe

three such studies.

A study by Hansen (1979) examined the effectiveness of two intervention

techniques intended to increase the inferential comprehension ability of

second graders. Based upon the work of schema theorists (Anderson,

Reynolds, Schallert, & Goetz, 1977; Neisser, 1976) and studies by Trabasso,

Paris, Brown, and others (Brown, 1977; Paris & Lindauer, 1976; Riley &

Trabasso, 1974; Omanson, Warren, & Trabasso, Note 5), Hansen set up three treat-

ment groups. A strategy group focused on integrating text and background

knowledge prior to reading. A question group received a "steady diet" of

inferential questions. The control group received a mixture of literal and

inferential questions. After 10 stories across a 40-day period, Hansen's

treatments were tested on a variety of measures, including passages in-

tended to assess the transfer value of the training. In general, the

results she obtained reflected a rather localized effect due to the treat-

ment conditions, and little effect as measured on transfer tasks. In an

effort to rationalize these results, Hansen questioned whether or not it

was reasonable to expect students to spontaneously apply the training

strategies.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

48

The second study, by Gordon (1979), looked into the effects of infer-

ence training upon the responses of 42 fifth graders. Specifically,

Gordon compared the effects of two intervention strategies directed at

improving the readers' ability to engage prior knowledge and utilize

text cues. One treatment focused on building prior knowledge for

instructional selections along with an awareness of text structures. The

second treatment focused on providing students with strategies for

inferring. A control group received a "language-related" curriculum.

In general, the results Gordon obtained favored the inference strategy

group, especially on the transfer tasks--that is, the delayed posttests.

As Gordon rationalized, this treatment group "had the advantage through

the use of a metacognitive strategy which showed them when and how to

draw on relevant schemata" (p. 220).

A third study, completed by Day (1980) and reported by Brown, Campione,

and Day (Note 6), studied the effectiveness of summarization training with

and without explicit cuing. Specifically, college students were given

either: (a) encouragement to summarize and capture main ideas; (b) in-

structions for modeling certain rules; (c) instructions for modeling

certain rules and encouragement; or (d) instruction for modeling certain

rules and rules for using these rules. Across pre- and posttest measures,

Day found that providing students rules for summarizing influenced the

students' abilities to summarize, detect main ideas and delete trivial

information, but the influence of this training varied with the sophisti-

cation of the students. In other words, although all students profited

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

49

from the training conditions, less sophisticated students (students with

writing problems) needed more explicit training (i.e., training in the

rules and their application). As Brown, Campione, and Day reported:

Training results in greater use of the rules, and improvement

is effected with less explicit instruction with more advanced
students. For those students with more severe learning problems,
training results in less improvement and more explicit training
is needed before we can get any effect of training. (p. 16)

In response to the question, "Can students be taught knowledge, skills

or strategies which will transfer to their reading of passages not used

in lessons with them?", the findings of all three studies suggest it can

be done, provided a great deal of care and thought go into the questions

to be addressed, the operationalization of treatments, and the measurement

of effects. In other words, it is clear that integral to the success of

such endeavors, researchers must specify questions sensitive to students'

needs and abilities across a variety of different reading tasks, develop treat-

ments which depict variations of a desired quality (such as, explicitness),

and devise methods which measure potential effects. Treatments must in

some sense reflect the researcher's specific goals, and assessment, while

consistent with treatment objectives, must be capable of providing dif-

ferential information and detecting transfer effects. The fact that all

three studies reviewed in this subsection demonstrated some measure of

success is a testimony to the potential payoffs of detailed planning,

preparation, and implementation.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

50

Meeting Text-Based Needs of Readers

That area of research which explores the relationship between text

characteristics and reading comprehension promises to be equally as

significant as that of inference and metacomprehension, for it leads us

to address the complement of reader-based needs, namely, readers' text-

based needs. Given that certain readers have difficulty dealing with

certain text features, there has been a tendency for researchers to

subscribe to one of two postures: either pursue instruction which will

assist readers with these texts, or develop text in such a way as to

.avoid such difficulties. It is those studies adopting the former approach

which are a potential source of instructional implications for improving

the ability of readers to comprehend or learn from passages not taught.

We will consider two sets of such studies.

The first set addresses the strategy of sentence combining/reduction.

As Pearson stated in a recent paper entitled, Text Structure and Reading

Comprehension,

Perhaps the most obvious attempt to determine the influence of

direct instruction in the microstructure of text upon compre-
hension has been in the tradition of sentence-combining research.
(in press)

Disenchanted with the methodology associated with teaching writing via

formal grammar, but nonetheless encouraged by the interrelationships shown

to exist between syntax and reading, many have come to acclaim sentence-

combining as a potential means for improving both writing and reading

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

51

comprehension (Combs, 1975; Mellon, 1969; O'Hare, 1973). In terms of

improving reading comprehension, sentence-combining and its more recent

counterpart, sentence reduction (Ney, 1976), is based upon the assumption

that sensitizing students to the methods by which ideas are expressed

and related in text will likely develop their ability to comprehend text

structures. Unfortunately, attempts to validate these notions have pro-

duced what we would consider limited results, due to what we perceive to

be a failure on the part of researchers to reflect upon those situations

and measures which training in sentence-combining would most likely in-

fluence. A study by Straw (1979) is an appropriate example. Straw

attempted to examine the influence of sentence-combining and sentence-

reduction upon the reading comprehension of 124 fourth graders. After a

five-week training period for one-half hour daily, Straw found his training

to have positive effects upon cloze t&st results but no influence on the

results of a standardized reading test. Howie (1979) conducted a similar

study with ninth graders and obtained no impact upon cloze reading performance

nor any significant gains on the Gray Oral Reading Test. Howie attempted to

rationalize these results by questioning whether the influence of sentence-

combining upon reading can be measured.

Unlike sentence combining/reduction research which has come out of a

writing tradition, the second set of studies evolved from more recent develop-

ments in the area of text analysis; in particular, those text analysis

procedures which attempt to provide a diagrammatic representation for

the patterns of ideas represented within text. Four such thrusts,

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

52

Networking (Dansereau, 1979), Mapping (Anderson, 1978), Flowcharting

(Geva, 1980), and Rhetorical Structures (Meyer, 1975), have been adapted

for use as instructional tools. In this context, students use text cues

to define the fundamental relationships as they manifest themselves in

expository text. Flowcharting, networking, and mapping require students to

diagram how the ideas and their relationships are represented within text;

rhetorical structuring requires students to label these patterns as well

as identify the hierarchy of ideas. Apart from these three approaches, a

more common classroom strategy for schematically representing collected key

ideas, their interrelationships,- and subordinates is the structured overview

(Barron, 1969; Earle, 1969a). Used as a prereading or postreading activity,

the structured overview frequently serves as a device for presenting or

organizing the key ideas from a textbook unit in a diagrammatic form.

There is little research to date which addresses the transfer value

of strategies such as those we have just described. Studies examining

mapping (Armbruster & Anderson, 1980) and the creation of structured

overviews (Baker, 1977; Barron, 1971; Berget, 1977; Earle, 1969b, 1973;

Estes, Mills, & Barron, 1969; Vacca, 1977; Walker, 1979) have yet to

address whether such strategies have any transfer value to passages

which are not mapped or overviewed. (A fuller discussion of research

dealing with the utility of structured overviews is provided in the sub-

section, Advance organizers.) Nonetheless, studies by Bartlett (1978),

Dansereau, Holley, and Collins (Note 7), and Geva (1980) have provided some

data supporting the transfer value of training in such strategies.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

53

Bartlett, for example, examined the effects of teaching ninth graders

to recognize commonly found rhetorical structures on their ability to

identify and use these structures in their own recall protocols and the

amount of information they could remember. The instruction focused on

how to identify and use four commonly found top-level structures in

classroom text. Special aids for identifying the top-level structure

were faded out over the week of instruction, while the passages studied be-

came increasingly more complex. Students in the training group and control

group read and recalled passages prior to training, one day after the

training program, and three weeks after the completion of the program.

The instruction resulted in significantly increased use and identifica-

tion of the top-level structure as well as almost a doubling in the

amount of information recalled by the training group on the posttest

measures.

In response to the question, "What would it mean to find that text

structure influences comprehension?", Pearson (in press) stated

That text structure influences comprehension, . . . is not

an issue; what is an issue is the precise way in which the
influences are exerted, why the influences exist, and what the
influences have to say about practical matters of teaching and
writing instructional material. (in press)

At the present time, research which addresses the domain of meeting text-

based needs of readers is in its infancy. While research has provided

some clarification of those text characteristics which influence comprehension,

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

54

and results from training studies seem encouraging, we contend that

scholars interested in the area of "text" have just begun to move into

research which addresses the question:

Can students be taught knowledge, skills, or strategies which will

meet their text-based needs and transfer to their reading of
unfamiliar passages?

This will entail identifying these text-based needs. Researchers will

need to undertake concurrent analyses of: (a) the discourse features evi-

dent in the texts which students encounter; and (b) an examination of the type

of situation within which these features either enhance or detract from

learning. Thereupon it would seem that systematic research programs

could begin on several fronts: engineering texts for purposes of

improving their quality; providing students problem-solving strategies

to monitor and debug comprehension problems; increasing the students'

awarenesses of text features; including adjuncts intended to meet

readers' text-based needs; and improving reader-based strategies to

override text-based problems.

General Comments on Increasing Ability to Learn From Text/Prose

When asked to comment upon the general trend of research in reading

and learning disabilities, Chall (1978) stated that "they [researchers]

are describing, testing, correlating and predicting reading and learning

disabilities. Only a fraction are studying what the best treatments are

for children" (p. 34). Although we would concur with Chall's remark, we
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

55

are also encouraged somewhat by the fact that research has begun to appear

from both the domains of "process" and "practice," research which willingly

ventures into the classroom setting and attempts to deal with instructional

issues as only the classroom can define them. In the area of increasing

ability to learn from reading, even such a small beginning is welcome

and promising.

HOW SHOULD RESEARCH IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION PROCEED?

This final section of our review attempts to take what research sug-

gests in response to the question, "With whom, in what situations, and in

what ways does teaching improve reading comprehension?", and apply it

to the question, "How should research in teaching reading comprehension

proceed?" We will initially pursue this latter question primarily in terms

of methodological issues and thereafter generate a number of guidelines

for future research.

Methodological Issues

Traditional methods studies in reading are objects of severe criticism

and, in our estimation, rightfully so for a number of reasons. As a rule,

designs have been built around a concatenation of variables, making it

virtually impossible to attribute causation to any specific teaching

practice. Treatments have frequently been too short in duration to provide

any information regarding long-term effects. Subjects have seldom been

screened sufficiently, resulting in data based upon subjects who were either
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

56

familiar with what the treatment was designed to teach, or were not ready

to benefit from it. Posttests have all too frequently been global,

rarely selected in terms of their compatibility with either a specific

theoretical rationale, expected treatment outcomes, or the ability of

subjects at the time of initial treatment. Moreover, treatments have

not been operationally defined so as to rule out the possibility that

practice in reading alone would effect the same gains as treatment.

At the risk of oversimplification, we suggest that these conditions

have borne a serious shortcoming; namely, the inability of instructional

research to offer us much advice relative to teaching. In the case of

research on comprehension instruction, this is most certainly true,

for there are few if any instances where improvement in reading compre-

hension ability for new passages can be attributed to a particular

instructional strategy. Furthermore, we feel justified in proposing that

a new era in instructional research is not only long overdue, but forth-

comi ng.

We predict this new era will usher in a commitment to the study of

classroom dynamics, prompted by a recognition that we lose rather than

capture the essence of any instructional environment when we limit our

descriptions to the status of individual variables; for the characteristics

of this environment emerge only in the context of interaction. In all

likelihood this era will sponsor just as rigorous a commitment to the

development and application of a variety of research paradigms and their

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

57

ongoing refinement. This suggests, therefore, to researchers intent on

classical experimental paradigms that they avoid the pitfalls of past

studies and adopt procedures which are sensitive to the need for data which

considers the influence of a variety of classroom variables. Similarly,

it suggests to researchers intent on a more naturalistic inquiry that

they endeavor to be rigorous with respect to reporting learning as it

occurs "naturally" (Erickson, Note 8). Most importantly, it suggests that

researchers should be encouraged to consider an integrative approach

which assumes some of the advantages of both the classical and naturalistic

paradigms. Beyond these rather global predictions, the following guide-

lines for conducting research seem integral to the actualization of this

new era.

Apply a "Greatest Likelihood Principle" to Experimental Research

A very important question to answer initially is: Can we under any cir-

cumstances cause students to improve their ability to comprehend new passages?

It is our position that those of us who are prone to explore this question

through a classical experimental paradigm, must do so in the context of

what is termed "a greatest likelihood principle." As we perceive the

implementation of this principle, researchers pursuing the efficacy of

a strategy or teaching practice select students, materials, and activities

which are most likely to prove successful. This would be accomplished in

part by adherence to the following practices: (a) Subjects would be

screened prior to treatment on the basis of such potentially confounding

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

58

variables as background knowledge to insure that the sample includes only

those who do not manifest the ability the treatment is intended to

develop and would profit by such treatment. With respect to the

classical experimental and quasi-experimental comparisons, subjects would

be randomly assigned to at least two groups, a treatment group and a

control group, wherein the subjects independently read treatment material.

(b) Treatments would be designed to produce maximum benefits. This often

entails simply being sure that a treatment represents what we know

about instruction and the interests of students and is of sufficient duration

to be effective. (c) Dependent variables would be derived for passages and

from measures not included in the treatment. These measures would need to be

valid as well as reliable and sensitive to the treatment in terms of task

difficulty and type of outcome behavior. This might require that researchers

consider anew the types of impacts their interventions are likely to

have and devise methods for measuring such impacts. Further, this

suggests not only the need for multiple dependent variables, including

on-line processing measures, but the development of a new array of pro-

cedures for probing the readers' likely retention, appreciation, and

understanding.

It is unfortunate that most research in teaching reading comprehension

has resorted to the application of what might be aptly described as a "single

shotgun approach" to research, coupled with the use of rather global treat-

ment procedures and assessment measures. In accordance with implementing a

"greatest likelihood orinciple," we feel that this pattern should be reversed

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

59

and in its place be initiated a program of research similar to that of

Rothkopf (1966, 1971, 1972a) and Frase (1967, 1968), whereby research

questions are shaped across several studies in light of ongoing replication,

modification, and extension.

Design Studies Where the Complexities of Texts, Teaching and Context are

Addressed and Can Reveal Their Impact

Throughout this paper we have suggested that very few studies have

addressed the complexities of classroom learning. Tuinman (1979) alluded

to this state of affairs when he noted that the "fact that reading re-

searchers are in contact with readers only at the moment of data collection

is far from trivial" (p. 9). And as Trabasso (in press) argued in reaction

to reviews of research literature dealing with teaching reading comprehension:

. . . persons doing research on reading should go back to the

classroom. . . . This return to the real world would influence
several aspects of research. What tasks and texts are chosen
for reading as well as how an understanding of these tasks and
texts is to be measured. (p. 14)

Assuming this criticism is a valid one, that indeed researchers have

failed to recognize the subtleties of classroom operation as they exist

in conjunction with student-teacher transactions, how might researchers

begin to address the complexities of the classroom? Jenkins (1978) has

suggested that researchers in the process of studying any learning

situation consider and systematically examine at least four basic factors:

(a) the nature of the materials to be learned; (b) the characteristics

of the learner; (c) the learning activities or kinds of things that

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

60

learners do when presented with material; and (d) the criterial tasks.

Jenkins' argument is that since any question about learning involves all

four factors to some extent, researchers pursuing such questions must

recognize these factors and account for their individual and collective

contributions, lest erroneous conclusions be drawn from data. We would

extend Jenkins' argument and alter it slightly to suggest the need for re-

search dealing with learning from text or learning to learn from text which

examines systematically, separately, and concurrently the occurrence of

interactions involving text-treatment, aptitude-treatment, teacher-

treatment, context-treatment, learning-treatment, text-aptitude-treatment,

text-aptitude-teaching-treatment, and so on. Such examinations might be

a priori for purposes of studying variations across texts, teaching,

learning, and context within causal designs; minimally, researchers should

be held accountable for delineating text features, learner variables,

teacher and teaching variables, and contextual features which might be

of relevance to the ecological validity and generalizability of any

findings. Consider the ramifications of text-treatment, teacher-treatment,

and context-treatment interactions.

Text-treatment interactions. Obviously, the results of any study that

investigates learning from text or learning as measured by some text-related

assessment task will be influenced, in part, by the text used or under study.

Research on the characteristics of text features has suggested among other

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

61

things that: (a) certain aspects of text influence the amount and type of

information recalled; (b) predictions can be made, based upon text

features, as to where distortions, omissions, and additions will occur;

(c) text characteristics have a differential influence upon children

compared with adults and good readers compared with poor readers; and

(d) the influence of text features will vary with a reader's background

of experience or predisposition. It seems, therefore, not only

naive but misleading to disregard the potential for an interaction effect

likely to occur across different types of text, different treatment

conditions, and readers. Nor does it seem legitimate to select text

randomly or according to the global categories of narrative and exposition.

In any study, text should be selected, described, and analyzed in such a

way that either reasonable generalizations to other specific texts

can be made or the stability of results across texts can clearly be

established.

Teacher-treatment interactions. In various syntheses of research per-

taining to the teacher variable Rosenshine and others (Rosenshine, 1976;

Rosenshine & Furst, 1971; Rosenshine & Stevens, in press; Rosenshine, Note 9)

have argued that research involving teaching must consider an array of variables

ranging from the clarity of teacher communications to the student's engaged time

on task. Furthermore, they have suggested that a fairly consistent pattern

emerges with regard to those factors which distinguish successful from

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

62

unsuccessful teaching: namely, student-engaged time on task and a framework

for teaching involving demonstrate-prompt-practice--pacing and monitoring-

feedback. Recently, the training studies of Brown and her colleagues (Brown,

in press, a and b; Brown, Campione, & Day, Note 6) have called attention to

what might be considered two teaching principles for improving a learner's

strategies for learning. We will refer to them as the explicitness

hypothesis and the relevancy hypothesis. The explicitness hypothesis

suggests that the effectiveness of direct instruction related to strategy

training varies in accordance with the ability of students and the

explicitness with which teachers present rules for learning; the relevancy

hypothesis relates to the notion that students acquire strategies more

readily when they know the nature of the task at hand and that task is per-

ceived by them to be relevant. The implication of these notions is that

research on reading comprehension, especially helping students learn to learn

from text, must consider the teaching framework within which a treatment is

administered. This should not be foreign to reading researchers, as it

coincides with the age-old concern that the teacher variable often has a

confounding effect in reading methods studies. The ramifications of con-

sidering the teacher as a variable entail either controlling or systematically

examining teacher variation. Researchers might pursue the possibility of

a teacher-treatment interaction or as several research studies have sug-

gested a teacher-treatment-aptitude interaction (Brown, Campione, & Day,

Note 6; McDermott, 1976). In terms of controlling for the teacher

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

63

variable, researchers should not assume randomization of teachers will

suffice for matching. Minimally, they should report the teaching frame-

work within which treatments are operationalized, for example, including

information relative to student engagement, and teaching sequence, style,

clarity, monitoring, feedback, and so on. Ideally, researchers should

systematically consider varying these features and the teaching framework.

Context-treatment interactions. Of relevance to the teaching framework

within which instruction proceeds, researchers must be sensitive to the larger

context within which reading comprehension instruction occurs, in particular,

the extent to which an experimenter's intrusions have pushed or changed this

environment. (For our purpose, we are defining context as the dynamics

occurring in the regular classroom learning environment; context-treatment

interactions pertain to any intrusion by the researcher which disrupts the

classroom dynamics beyond that which was intended.) The issue of context-

treatment interaction relates to whether the researcher's intrusions had an

influence upon the classroom environment which in turn may have influenced

learning to read from text or learning to learn from text. In the classical

research tradition, the possibility of a context-treatment interaction

was often supposedly controlled with the use of a placebo--a treatment

group with all of the attributes of other treatment groups except

on the variable for which effects were being examined. Unfortunately,

the use of randomization or a placebo does not ensure against the context-

treatment interaction. Especially in classroom settings, a single feature

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

64

of a single treatment condition might uniquely and separately prompt a

context-treatment interaction; features of any treatment group, even

placebo, have the potential to alter the dynamics of a classroom. How

might researchers address these possibilities? They might observe

the verbal and nonverbal social exchanges within the classroom community

before, during, and after intrusion. As Bronfenbrenner suggests, re-

searchers might assess each subject's "definition of the situation,

how he or she perceives the setting and its various elements" (1976,

p. 8). In the classical experimental tradition, researchers might examine

the effect of systematically changing context--especially if they sus-

pect a context-treatment interaction occurs and is likely either to

detract from or to enhance learning. Otherwise, researchers should at

least be held accountable for systematically describing and reporting

what occurred in the context of the classroom. With the development of

ethnographic techniques and technology, these methods should be within

the grasp of most researchers and integral to reporting any classroom

research endeavor.

Design Studies Where the Complexities of Classroom Learning Can be

Addressed

If we were to enumerate those paradigms used within the past two

decades to address issues related to teaching reading comprehension, we

would be impressed with the predominance of quasi-experimental and

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

65

experimental studies which are tied to an analysis-of-variance model,

based upon pre- and posttest measures. For treatment groups, treat-

ment success is usually determined at least in part by a standardized

reading test. It is our general argument that to a large extent,

research within the context of these paradigms has been insensitive

to certain key issues related to learning.

First, research on reading comprehension has failed to address

whether or not students have acquired the prerequisite skills or

strategies intended to increase learning from text or learning to

learn from text. More specifically, within treatment groups some

subjects may or may not have reached a satisfactory level of proficiency

with a strategy; or for some subjects learning may not have stabilized.

When researchers fail to systematically examine whether some students

have acquired certain types of learning, it is not surprising that

within-group differences often exceed between-group differences.

Further, when researchers limit their measurement of effects due to

learning to single rather than repeated measures prior to, during,

and after training, it is difficult to know whether learning has

stabilized.

A second major shortcoming is the measurement of learning outcomes.

A single measure of reading comprehension, as has been typically the

case in most instructional research studies, cannot capture the various

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

66

and subtle effects due to learning researchers should be seeking. Like-

wise, the use of global recall scores generated either from oral or

written retellings do not capture the extent to which readers trans-

form, integrate, or summarize the information represented within the

text. Alternatively, in those situations where researchers have had

cause to examine a number of different effect measures, they often

fail to extend their analyses to address interdependencies between

variables--that is, the synergistic nature of learning.

For these reasons, we posit that although one cannot deny that

the notion of a learning-treatment interaction is quite complex, it

is essential that research on reading comprehension begin to address

its personality. This entails the following.

First, if researchers are intent on examining the effectiveness

of training to predetermined levels of proficiency, they have

essentially two choices. Researchers can determine a priori to

have students reach a criteria relative to strategy or skill utili-

zation prior to measuring effects; alternatively, they can plan to

examine the relationship between effect size and level or skill

or strategy acquisition in their data analysis. Second, if researchers

are to address the stability of learning, they might consider:

(a) obtaining multiple measures of the same variables prior to and

after the administration of treatments; (b) adopting a time-series

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

67

approach (in conjunction with multiple measures) to examine the relation-

ship of learning to treatment conditions across time; or (c) adopting

a single-subject research paradigm (involving baseline measures,

measurements during treatment conditions, and variations thereof) as

either a subset of a research study involving groups or as a means of

generating hypotheses for pursuit within the context of an experimental

paradigm involving groups (see Birnbrauer, Peterson, & Solnick, 1974;

Kratochwill, 1978). In so doing, researchers can establish the extent to

which learning prior to, during, and after learning has stabilized and

is reliable. Third, to address the possibility that subjects acquired

certain types of learning and not others, we would argue that researchers

need to give thought to what reading comprehension and learning are, as

well as what are valid ways to measure their various facets. With the

advent of text analysis procedures, researchers have available detailed

procedures for examining qualitative differences in readers' recalls

which can be related to theoretical notions of reading comprehension. With

the gradual refinement of theoretic notions of comprehension--for example,

schema-theoretic notions--researchers should be prompted to include measures

which address aspects of comprehension and learning including schema

selection, schema maintenance, schema transfer, and schema specialization

and generalization. These advances in technology and thinking about reading

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

68

comprehension should displace single and global measures of reading

comprehension which have done little to capture the idiosyncratic and

qualitative differences due to increasing learning from text and ability

to learn from text. Fourth, with the examination of learning from a

variety of vantage points comes the need for researchers to examine

effects due to treatment both independently and interdependently. We

therefore urge the employment of statistical examinations of data

which provide information relative to the amount of variance accounted

for by variables uniquely, separately, and together. This demands that

researchers go beyond univariate analyses of variance to multivariate

models.

In summary, then, it is our argument in suggesting these guidelines

that it is far from legitimate to arbitrarily select and administer

treatments and dependent measures in a simple pre- and posttest

design and thereafter assume the privileges of generalization

and causation. For clearly, notions of applying the "greatest

likelihood principle" and the notion of generalizability via repre-

sentativeness are valid for classroom research on reading comprehension

only within the context of a consideration of text-treatment, teaching-

treatment, and context-treatment interactions. While some may argue

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

69

that blind research is better than no research, we certainly run the

risk of obtaining misleading results when our research questions tend

to be "stabs in the dark" rather than informed probes. Whether our

questions take on the characteristic of an informed probe may depend

upon the willingness of researchers not only to address the complexi-

ties of such interactions, but also to agree that these factors are

worth examining systematically as they exist in relation to one

another.

Design and Implement Research Which Can be Coherently Interpreted in

Light of the Literature from all the Relevant Disciplines

All research on reading comprehension instruction requires, at

some point, curriculum (knowledge, skills, or strategies), instruction

(means for transmitting knowledge, skills, or strategies to students),

teacher(s) (whoever is employing those means during the research),

student(s), text(s), context (the dynamics occurring in the learning

environment), and data collection/analysis. All these aspects enter

into making a piece of instructional research "interpretable."

Unfortunately, a research study in reading comprehension instruction

can fall prey to naivet6 with regard to any of these seven aspects.

Our fourth guideline, then, deals with the necessity of inter-

disciplinary research in reading. As Goodman (1979) has stated,

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

70

What is still needed is a wider range of reading research

methodology and cross-disciplinary interaction . . . That
goal is difficult to achieve if psychologists feel constrained
to do "psychology," linguists to do "linguistics" and ethno-
graphers to do "ethnography" . . . we need interdisciplinary
research not multidisciplinary. (pp. 144-145)

No one researcher can expect to avoid naivet6 in all seven aspects of

a study on reading comprehension instruction, and yet, no criticism

of a piece of research can be more damaging than when knowledgeable

persons in a relevant discipline describe it as "uninterpretable." We

recommend that this guideline be achieved by asking questions of the

literature and/or of knowledgeable persons in relevant disciplines before

embarking upon a piece of reading comprehension instructional research.

Some of these questions are presented in the remaining paragraphs of

this section.

Curriculum. In any instructional study, there is some attempt to

transmit knowledge, skills, or strategies to students. This "content"

of the instruction to be investigated should come under scrutiny before

the study is undertaken.

Source Question

Linguists Do the knowledge, skills, or strategies

Psychologists to be taught represent conceivable and
Psycholinguists
important psychological constructs for

the comprehension of the kinds of language

under study?
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

71

Source Quest ion

Teachers Do you think it's important to teach

Reading Educators
this knowledge, these skills, or these

strategies to students of the kind

under study?

Students Do you think it's important to know this

knowledge, these skills, or these

strategies?

Psychometricians Can students be validly and reliably

Reading Educators
assessed as to this knowledge, these

skills, or these strategies?

Instruction

Source Question

Educational Psychologists Do the means to be employed for trans-

Instructional Designers
mitting the content under study to the
Reading Educators
kinds of students under study employ
Teachers
sound instructional principles?

Teachers Do you believe the instruction to be

Reading Educators
investigated is "do-able" in classrooms

and if so, under what conditions?

Students What would your reaction be if you were

taught in this manner?

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

72

Source Question

Admini strators/Supervisors What means can be developed to ensure/

Ethnographers
determine the degree of implementation
Reading Educators
of the instruction? Was the instruction
Teachers
actually carried out?

Teacher(s). Because any teacher has a personality, manifest both

verbally and nonverbally, it is impossible to speak of instruction

divorced from the verbal and nonverbal communicative channels used to

implement it. To some extent, of course, each teacher has unique behavior,

so there will always be a teacher-treatment interaction. Generalizability

of results of reading comprehension instructional research will be en-

hanced, however, by defining the instruction (discussed above) under study

as broadly as possible to include the type of verbal and nonverbal com-

munication to be used. These questions, then, should be helpful:

Source Question

Educational Psychologists What are some different ways effective

Instructional Designers teachers might go about conducting
Reading Educators
Teachers the(se) lesson(s)?

Students

Evaluators How can one assess the amount of idio-

Ethnographers
syncratic behavior in the lessons a
Psychometricians
teacher teaches?
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

73

Source Question

Research Designers How can one assess the impact of the

Ethnographers
teacher's idiosyncratic behavior in the

lessons taught?

Teachers Now that the instruction is completed,

Students
how do you think that instruction might

have been better?

Student(s)

Source Question

Teachers What knowledge, skills, or strategies

Reading Educators
are prerequisite to learning the knowl-
Educational Psychologists
Students edge, skills, or strategies under study

as taught by the instruction under study?

Psychometricians Can students validly and reliably be

Reading Educators
assessed as to the prerequisite knowl-

edge, skills, or strategies?

Text(s)

Source Question

Teachers Are texts relevant to students' needs

Reading Educators
and schools' goals?

Linguists Do the texts employed present avoidable

Psycholingui sts
obstacles to understanding?
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

74

Source Question

Teachers Are the texts to be used representative

Reading Educators
of the kinds of text(s) under study?
Linguists

Teachers Are texts to be used appropriate for the

Reading Educators
students to be used in terms of difficulty,
Students
style, format, appeal, and conceptual
Lingui sts
Psychol ingui sts load?

Context. A classroom can be described as learners, language-users,

a community, or a teacher with an audience, depending on whether one takes

the viewpoint of a psychologist, a linguist, a sociologist, or a super-

visor. Actually, a classroom is s imultaneously all of these things and

more. Classrooms can be examined from the vantage of verbal and non-

verbal interaction, classroom and school organization, or social community.

Source Question

Ethnographers How similar is the total instructional

Admi ni strators/Supervi sors
environment of the study (including in-
Teachers
struction, teacher(s), student(s), and
Students
text(s)) to the kinds of instructional

environments under study? Does the total

instructional environment of the study

have the "feel" or "rhythm" of a natural

learning environment?
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

75

Source Question

Ethnographers What are some different ways students

Teachers
might be effectively grouped to receive
Students
the instruction under study?

Data Collection/Analysis

Source Question

Ethnographers How will the data collection/analysis

Teachers
procedures themselves effect the data
Students
being collected? What will be the impact

on the teacher(s) and student(s) that

data is being collected the way it is?

Research Designers What designs could be used to determine

the individual and interactive contri-

butions of the independent variables

under study?

Statisticians What data analysis procedures are appro-

priate for making inferences based on

the data to be collected?

Teachers How much and what kind of a difference

Reading Educators
must result from the instruction under

study before you would consider it an

important difference?
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

76

The interdisciplinary research on reading comprehension instruction

which would result from seeking answers to these questions from the

literature or from knowledgeable persons in the relevant disciplines

should be relatively free of the several types of naivete to which such

studies are prone. Of course, these procedures will not ensure that a

research study will turn out as expected, but they will enhance the

likelihood that whatever occurs can be interpreted. As a result, reading

comprehension instruction research can be conducted which is psycho-

logically, linguistically, sociologically, statistically, and educationally

significant.

A Call for Action

It may seem that the four guidelines we have proposed for conducting

reading comprehension instructional research are unreasonably demanding.

Currently, it seems that instructional research is at once more diffi-

cult and expensive and less politically rewarding for the researcher to

carry out. Many will see the "lie of the land" of this situation and

decide that only the less than intelligent would dare to become involved

in such research. So be it.

However, there may be some researchers who are willing to take

risks, who believe it is time to move into a new period in reading

research and who believe that, in the long run, benefits of rigorous-

quality reading comprehension instructional research will outweigh

immediate costs. It is this latter group that we call to action.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

77

The relatively brief and recent history of investigations into the

psychology and physiology of reading, approximately a century in length,

may be informally characterized as the "reading epoch." This epoch is

ongoing and is primarily distinctive by the sheer amount of investigation

thus far. Alfred North Whitehead (1925/1967) has written:

When you are criticizing the philosophy of an epoch, do not

chiefly direct your attention to those intellectual positions
which its exponents feel it necessary explicitly to defend.
There will be some fundamental assumptions which adherence of
all the variant systems within the epoch unconsciously pre-
suppose. Such assumptions appear so obvious that people do not
know what they are assuming because no other way of putting
things has ever occurred to them. (p. 48)

Are there basic assumptions which "adherence of all the variant systems"

within the reading epoch presuppose? It would seem so. The major

assumption appears to have been that knowledge about readers, texts,

or classrooms, once discovered, would be automatically applicable to

improving reading instruction. The new epoch we are calling upon

demands an examination of such assumptions. Further, our call for action

should not deny the theorist, researcher, or practitioner. Indeed, our

call for action should not deny pursuing research which is less theory-

laden and has its roots in both the pedagogical traditions and intuitions
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

78

of reading education. For example, there are numerous reading instruc-

tional practices and paradigms advocated and followed by teachers for

which we lack any substantial data base or theoretical explanation. We

would be amiss not to encourage reading educators to pursue a rigorous

program of research which will detail in what situations with what

students and in what ways their present practices effect learning and

learning to learn? We would request linguists, psycholinguists,

psychologists, ethnographers, psychometricians, and others to

encourage reading teachers and teacher educators to delineate reasonable

research probes to these ends and challenge them to address the implica-

tions any findings have for both theory development as well as sub-

sequent research and practice. Further, we believe that despite their

apparent simplicity there are many intuitions (sometimes tacit) held

by teachers about classroom comprehension and learning which should be

articulated and probed. For example, implicit within most teaching

situations there appears to be a level-of-activation hypothesis compatible

with the notion of student-engaged time on task. Our point is that teachers

and teacher educators should reflect upon their intuitions and invite

interdisciplinary advice on seeking a data base and its interpretation.

We have a sense that a major stumbling block to progress in research on

reading comprehension instruction has been our unwillingness to subject

intuitions to research probes.

 Teaching Reading Education

79

A FINAL WORD

It has been our intent to address what we initially perceived to be

a formidable task, namely a review of the literature on teaching reading

comprehension in terms of two questions: With whom, in what situations,

and in what ways does teaching improve reading comprehension? How

should research in teaching reading comprehension proceed? We were not

mistaken; the task was most formidable, and to address it satisfactorily,

we were forced to create what may be perceived as an artificial means

of organization and an abstraction of studies which may have more than

slightly influenced the direction of our discussion. We come away from

this effort recognizing that in the process of pursuing the "power to

prescribe," researchers exploring issues related to teaching reading

comprehension have characteristically confined themselves to the use

of a rather limited number of research paradigms, which on the whole

do not lend themselves to a collection of contextualized data; and

in addition, their efforts have tended to minimize the significance

of replication and extension. However, one cannot be anything but

encouraged by the growing tendency for researchers to conjoin the "wis-

dom of the classroom" with their own research-based intuitions in a

cross disciplinary fashion; resulting in possibly their greatest find,

that, indeed, the classroom has much it can teach the researcher about his

own expertise. Certainly the byword of what we predict to be a new era

in instructional research will be cooperation--between classroom and

researcher, between theory and practice.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

80

Reference Notes

1. Tierney, R. J., LaZansky, J., Raphael, T., & Mosenthal, J. Reader,

text and texture: The influence of varying topic familiarity and

personna on the author-reader relationship. Paper presented at the

annual meeting of the National Reading Conference, San Antonio,

Texas, 1979.

2. Luiten, J., Ames, W. S., & Ackerson, G. The advance organizer: A

review of research using Glass' technique of meta-analysis. Paper

presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference,

San Antonio, Texas, 1979.

3. Readence, J. E., & Moore, D. W. A meta-analysis of the effect of

adjunct aids on learning from text. Paper presented at the annual

meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston,

April 1980.

4. Weiner, C. J. The effect of training in questioning and student

question generation on reading achievement. Paper presented at the

annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association,

Toronto, March 1978.

5. Omanson, R. C., Warren, W. H., & Trabasso, T. Goals, themes, inferences

and memory: A developmental study. Paper presented at the annual

meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Toronto,

March 1978.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

81

6. Brown, A. L., Campione, J. C., & Day, J. D. Learning to learn: On

training students to learn from texts. Paper presented at the annual

meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston,

April 1980.

7. Dansereau, D. F., Holley, C. D., & Collins, K. W. Effects of learning

strategy training on text processing. Paper presented at the annual

meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston,

April 1980.

8. Erickson, F. On standards of descriptive validity in studies of

classroom activity (Occasional Paper No. 16). East Lansing, Mich.:

The Institute for Research on Teaching, March 1979.

9. Rosenshine, B. Direct instruction for skill mastery. Unpublished

paper, University of Illinois, 1980.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

82

References

Anderson, R. C., & Biddle, W. B. On asking people questions about what

they are reading. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning

and motivation (Vol. 9). New York: Academic Press, 1975.

Anderson, R. C., & Freebody, P. Vocabulary knowledge (Tech. Rep. No. 136).

Urbana: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading,

August 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 480)

Anderson, R. C., & Kulhavy, R. W. Imagery and prose learning. Journal

of Educational Psychology, 1972, 63, 242-243.

Anderson, R. C., Reynolds, R. E., Schallert, D. L., & Goetz, E. T. Frame-

works for comprehending discourse. American Educational Research

Journal, 1977, 14, 367-381.

Anderson, R. C., Spiro, R. J., & Anderson, M. C. Schemata as scaffolding

for the representation of information in connected discourse. American

Educational Research Journal, 1978, 15, 433-440.

Anderson, T. H. Study skills and learning strategies (Tech. Rep. No. 104).

Urbana: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading,

September 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 161 000)

Andr6, M. E. D. A., & Anderson, T. H. The development and evaluation of

a self-questioning study technique. Reading Research Quarterly,

1978-79, 14, 605-623.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

83

Armbruster, B. B., & Anderson, T. H. The effect of mapping on the free

recall of expository text (Tech. Rep. No. 160). Urbana: University

of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading, February 1980. (ERIC

Document Reproduction Service No. ED 182 735)

Arnold, D. J., & Brooks, P. H. Influence of contextual organizing material

on children's listening comprehension. Journal of Educational

Psychology, 1976, 68, 711-716.

Aulls, M. W. Expository paragraph properties that influence literal

recall. Journal of Reading Behavior, 1975, 7, 391-400.

Ausubel, D. P. The psychology of meaningful verbal learning. New York:

Grune & Stratton, 1963.

Ausubel, D. P. Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New York:

Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968.

Ausubel, D. P. In defense of advance organizers: A reply to the critics.

Review of Educational Research, 1978, 48, 251-257.

Ausubel, D. P., & Fitzgerald, D. The role of discriminability in meaning-

ful verbal learning and retention. Journal of Educational Psychology,

1961, 52, 266-274.

Baker, R. L. The effects of informational organizers on learning and

term relationships in ninth grade social studies. In H. L. Herber

& R. T. Vacca (Eds.), Research in reading in the content areas: The

third report. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University, Reading and

Language Arts Center, 1977.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

84

Barnes, B. R., & Clawson, E. U. Do advance organizers facilitate learning?

Recommendations for further research based on an analysis of 32

studies. Review of Educational Research, 1975, 45, 637-659.

Barringer, C., & Gholson, B. Effects of type and combination of feedback

upon conceptual learning by children: Implications for research

in academic learning. Review of Educational Research, 1979, 49,

459-478.

Barron, R. F. The use of vocabulary as an advance organizer. In H. L.

Herber & P. L. Sanders (Eds.), Research in reading in the content

areas: First year report. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University,

Reading and Language Arts Center, 1969.

Barron, R. F. The use of an iterative research process to improve a

method of vocabulary instruction in tenth grade biology. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University, 1971.

Barron, R. F., & Melnick, R. The effects of discussion upon learning

vocabulary meanings and relationships in tenth grade biology. In

H. L. Herber & R. F. Barron (Eds.), Research in reading in the content

areas: Second year report. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University,

Reading and Language Arts Center, 1973.

Bartlett, B. J. Top-level structure as an organizational strategy for

recall of classroom text. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Arizona

State University, 1978.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

85

Bean, T. W., & Pardi, R. A field test of a guided reading strategy.

Journal of Reading, 1979, 23, 144-147.

Beck, 1. L., McKeown, M. G., McCaslin, E. S., & Burkes, A. M. Instructional

dimensions that may affect reading comprehension: Examples from two

commercial reading programs. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh,

Learning Research and Development Center, 1979.

Becker, W. C. Teaching reading and language to the disadvantaged--What

we have learned from field research. Harvard Educational Review,

1977, 47, 518-543.

Belmont, L., & Birch, H. G. The intellectual profile of retarded readers.

Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1966, 22, 787-816.

Bender, B. G., & Levin, J. R. Pictures, imagery, and retarded children's

prose learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1978, 70, 583-588.

Berget, E. The use of organizational pattern guides, structured overviews

and visual summaries in guiding social studies reading. In H. L.

Herber & R. T. Vacca (Eds.), Research in reading in the content areas:

The third report. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University, Reading

and Language Arts Center, 1977.

Betts, E. A. Foundations of reading instruction. New York: American

Book Company, 1946.

Birnbrauer, J. S., Peterson, C. R., & Solnick, J. V. Design and interpre-

tation of studies of single subjects. American Journal of Mental

Deficiency, 1974, 79, 191-203.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

86

Biskin, D. S., Hoskisson, K., & Modlin, M. Prediction, reflection, and

comprehension. Elementary School Journal, 1976, 77, 131-139.

Black, M. Models and metaphors: Studies in language and philosophy.

Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1962.

Boyd, W. M. Repeating questions in prose learning. Journal of Educational

Psychology, 1973, 64, 31-38.

Bransford, J. D. Human cognition: Learning, understanding and remembering.

Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1979.

Bransford, J. D., & Johnson, M. K. Contextual prerequisites for under-

standing: Some investigations of comprehension and recall. Journal

of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1972, 11, 717-726.

Bransford, J. D., & Johnson, M. K. Considerations of some problems of

comprehension. In W. G. Chase (Ed.), Visual information processing.

New York: Academic Press, 1973.

Bransford, J. D., & McCarrell, N. S. A sketch of a cognitive approach

to comprehension: Some thoughts about understanding what it means

to comprehend. In W. B. Weimer & D. S. Palermo (Eds.), Cognition

and the symbolic processes. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1974.

Bridge, C. A. Strategies for promoting reader-text interactions. In

R. J. Tierney, P. L. Anders, & J. N. Mitchell (Eds.), Understanding

readers' understanding: Bridging theory and practice. Hillsdale,

N.J.: Erlbaum, in press.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

87

Britton, B. K., Westbrook, R. D., & Holdredge, T. Reading and cognitive

capacity usage: Effects of text difficulty. Journal of Experimental

Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 1978, 4, 582-591.

Bronfenbrenner, U. The experimental ecology of education. Educational

Researcher, 1976, 5, 5-15.

Brown, A. L. Knowing when, where and how to remember: A problem of

metacognition (Tech. Rep. No. 47). Urbana; University of Illinois,

Center for the Study of Reading, June 1977, (ERIC Document Repro-

duction Service No. ED 146 562)

Brown, A. L. Learning how to learn from reading. In J. Langer & M. Smith-

Burke (Eds.), Reader meets author: Bridging the gap: A psycholinguistic

and sociolinguistic perspective. Newark, Del,: International Reading

Association, in press. (a)

Brown, A. L. Metacognitive development and reading. In R, J. Spiro,

B. C. Bruce, & W. F. Brewer (Eds.), Theoretical issues in reading compre-

hension. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, in press, (b)

Brown, A. L., & Smiley, S. S. Rating the importance of str'uctural units

of prose passages: A problem of metacognitive development. Child

Development, 1977, 48, 1-8.

Campbell, N. R. Physics, the elements. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1920.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

88

Carney, J. The effects of separate vs. content-integrated reading training

on content mastery and reading ability in social studies. In H. L.

Herber & R. T. Vacca (Eds.), Research in reading in the content

areas: The third report. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University,

Reading and Language Arts Center, 1977.

Carver, R. P. A critical review of mathemagenic behaviors and the effect

of questions upon the retention of prose materials. Journal of

Reading Behavior, 1972, 4, 93-119.

Chall, J. S. A decade of research on reading and learning disabilities.

In S. J. Samuels (Ed.), What research has to say about reading

instruction. Newark, Del.: International Reading Association, 1978.

Chodos, L., Gould, S. M., & Rusch, R. R. Effect of student-generated

prequestions and post-statements on immediate and delayed recall of

fourth grade social studies content: A pilot study. In P. D.

Pearson & J. Hansen (Eds.), Reading: Theory, research, and practice.

Clemson, S.C.: National Reading Conference, 1977.

Christensen, C. M., & Stordahl, K. E. The effect of organizational aids

on comprehension and retention. Journal of Educational Psychology,

1955, 46, 65-74.

Cole, J. N. The effects of non-prose textual characteristics on retention

of major concepts and supporting details with and without specific

instructions in their use. In P. D. Pearson & J. Hansen (Eds.),

Reading: Theory, research, and practice. Clemson, S.C.: National

Reading Conference, 1977.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

89

Collins, R. The comprehension of prose materials by college freshmen

when read silently and when read aloud. The Journal of Educational

Research, 1961, 55, 79-83.

Combs, W. E. Some further effects and implications of sentence-combining

exercises for the secondary language arts curriculum. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1975.

Cunningham, P. M. Investigating a synthesized theory of mediated word

identification. Reading Research Quarterly, 1975-76, 11, 127-143.

Cunningham, P. M. A compare-contrast theory of mediated word identification.

The Reading Teacher, 1979, 32, 774-778.

Dansereau, D. F. Development and evaluation of a learning strategy

training program. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1979, 71, 64-73.

Davidson, J. L. The relationship between teachers' questions and pupils'

responses during a directed reading activity and a directed reading-

thinking activity. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of

Michigan, 1970.

Davis, F. Psychometric research in reading comprehension. In F. Davis

(Ed.), Literature of research in reading with emphasis upon models.

Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1971.

Day, J. D. Teaching summarization skills: A comparison of training

methods. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois,

1980.

Doctorow, M., Wittrock, M. C., & Marks, C. Generative processes in reading

comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1978, 70, 109-118.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

90

Dowell, R. E. The relation between the use of analogies and their effects

on student achievement on teaching a selected concept in high school

biology. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, 1968.

Drugge, N. L. The facilitating effect of selected analogies on understanding

of scientific explanations. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,

University of Alberta, 1977.

Duchastel, P. C., & Merrill, P. F. The effects of behavioral objectives

on learning: A review of empirical studies. Review of Educational

Research, 1973, 43, 53-69.

Duell, 0. K. Effect of types of objective, level of test questions, and

judged importance of tested materials upon posttest performance.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 1974, 66, 225-232.

Dunham, T. C., & Levin, J. R. Imagery instructions and young children's

prose learning: No evidence of "support." Contemporary Educational

Psychology, in press.

Durkin, D. What classroom observations reveal about reading comprehension

instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 1978-79, 14, 481-533.

Dwyer, F. M., Jr. The relative effectiveness of varied visual illustrations

in complementing programmed instruction. The Journal of Experimental

Education, 1967, 36, 34-42.

Dwyer, F. M., Jr. The effectiveness of visual illustrations used to comple-

ment programmed instruction. Journal of Psychology, 1968, 70, 157-162.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

91

Dwyer, F. M., Jr. The effect of varying the amount of realistic detail

in visual illustrations designed to complement programmed instruction.

Programmed Learning and Educational Technology, 1969, 6, 147-153.

Dwyer, F. M. Assessing students' perceptions of the instructional value

of visual illustrations used to complement programmed instruction.

Programmed Learning and Educational Technology, 1971, 8, 73-80.

Dwyer, F. M., Jr. The effect of overt responses in improving visually pro-

grammed science instruction. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,

1972, 9, 47-55.

Earle, R. A. Reading and mathematics: Research in the classroom. In

H. A. Robinson & E. L. Thomas (Eds.), Fusing reading skills and content.

Newark, Del.: International Reading Association, 1969. (a)

Earle, R. A. Use of the structured overview in mathematics classes. In

H. L. Herber & P. L. Sanders (Eds.), Research in reading in the

content areas: First year report. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse

University, Reading and Language Arts Center, 1969. (b)

Earle, R. A. Developing and using study guides. In H. L. Herber & P. L.

Sanders (Eds.), Research in reading in the content areas: First year

report. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University, Reading and Language

Arts Center, 1969. (c)

Earle, R. A. The use of vocabulary as a structured overview in seventh

grade mathematics classes. In H. L. Herber & R. F. Barron (Eds.),

Research in reading in the content areas: Second year report.

Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University, Reading and Language Arts Center,

1973.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

92

Elgart, D. B. Oral reading, silent reading, and listening comprehension:

A comparative study. Journal of Reading Behavior, 1978, 10, 203-207.

Estes, T. H. Use of guide material and small group discussion in reading

ninth grade social studies assignments. Unpublished doctoral

dissertation, Syracuse University, 1970.

Estes, T. H. Guiding reading in social studies. In H. L. Herber & R. F.

Barron (Eds.), Research in reading in the content areas: Second year

report. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University, Reading and Language

Arts Center, 1973.

Estes, T. H., Mills, D. C., & Barron, R. F. Three methods of introducing

students to a reading-learning task in two content subjects. In

H. L. Herber & P. L. Sanders (Eds.), Research in reading in the

content areas: First year report. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse

University, Reading and Language Arts Center, 1969.

Frase, L. T. Learning from prose material: Length of passage, knowledge

of results and position of questions. Journal of Educational Psychology,

1967, 58, 266-272.

Frase, L. T. Effect of question location, pacing, and mode upon retention

of prose material. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1968, 59,

244-249.

Frase, L. T. Prose processing. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of

learning and motivation (Vol. 9). New York: Academic Press, 1975.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

93

Frase, L. T., Patrick, E., & Schumer, H. Effect of question position

and frequency upon learning from text under different levels of

incentive. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1970, 61, 52-56.

Frase, L. T., & Schwartz, B. J. The effect of question production and

answering on prose recall. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1975,

67, 628-635.

Friedman, F. H. The effects of inferential processing induced by inserted

questions on prose recall. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Purdue

University, 1977.

Gagn6, E. D. Long-term retention of information following learning from

prose. Review of Educational Research, 1978, 48, 629-665.

Gagn6, R. M. The analysis of instructional objectives for the design of

instruction. In R. Glaser (Ed.), Teaching machines and programmed

instruction, II: Data and directions. Washington, D.C.: National

Education Association, Department of Audio-Visual Instruction, 1965.

Geva, E. Meta-textual notions of reading comprehension. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto, 1980.

Glass, G. V. Integrating findings: The meta-analysis of research. In

L. S. Schulman (Ed.), Review of research in education (Vol. 5).

Itasca, Ill.: New York: Peacock, 1978.

Goodman, K. S. Bridging the gaps in reading: Respect and communication.

In J. C. Harste & R. F. Carey (Eds.), New perspectives on comprehension.

Bloomington, Ind.: Monographs in Teaching and Learning, 1979.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

94

Gordon, C. J. The effects of instruction in metacomprehension and

inferencing on children's comprehension abilities. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1979.

Graham, S. R. A study of the effects of oral reading on comprehension of

content material in the elementary grades. Unpublished doctoral

thesis, University of North Carolina, 1979.

Great Books Foundation, A manual for co-leaders. Chicago: The Great

Books Foundation, 1967.

Guszak, F. J. Teacher questioning and reading. The Reading Teacher, 1967,

21, 227-234.

Guttmann, J., Levin, J. R., & Pressley, M. Pictures, partial pictures,

and young children's oral prose learning. Journal of Educational

Psychology, 1977, 69, 473-480.

Hansen, J. The effects of two intervention techniques on the inferential

ability of second grade readers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,

University of Minnesota, 1979.

Hartley, J., & Davies, 1I.K. Preinstructional strategies: The role of

pretests, behavioral objectives, overviews and advance organizers.

Review of Educational Research, 1976, 46, 239-265.

Hayes, D. A., & Tierney, R. J. Increasing background knowledge through

analogy: Its effects upon comprehension and learning (Tech. Rep.

No. 186). Urbana: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of

Reading, October 1980.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

95

Herber, H. L. Teaching reading in the content areas. Englewood Cliffs,

N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970.

Herber, H. L. Teaching reading in content areas (2nd ed.). Englewood

Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1978.

Hershberger, W. Self-evaluational responding and typographical cueing:

Techniques for programming self-instructional reading materials.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 1964, 55, 288-296.

Hiller, J. H. Learning from prose text: Effects of readability level,

inserted question difficulty, and individual differences. Journal

of Educational Psychology, 1974, 66, 202-211.

Howie, S. M. A study of the effects of sentence combining on the writing

ability and reading level of ninth grade students. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado, 1979.

Jackson, J. R., & Dizney, H. Intensive vocabulary training. Journal of

Developmental Reading, 1963, 6, 221-229.

Jenkins, J. R. Four points to remember: A tetrahedral model and memory

experiments. In L. S. Cermak & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), Levels and

processing in human memory. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1978.

Jenkins, J. R., & Pany, D. Research on teaching reading comprehension:

Instructional variables. In J. Guthrie (Ed.), Reading comprehension

and education. Newark, Del.: International Reading Association, in

press.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

96

Jenkins, J. R., Pany, D., & Schreck, J. Vocabulary and reading compre-

hension: Instructional effects (Tech. Rep. No. 100). Urbana:

University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading, August 1978.

(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 160 999)

Koenke, K., & Otto, W. Contribution of pictures to children's compre-

hension of the main idea in reading. Psychology in the Schools,

1969, 6, 298-302.

Kratochwill, T. R. Single subject research: Strategies for evaluating

change. New York: Academic Press, 1978.

Kreutzer, M. A., Leonard, C., & Flavell, J. S. An interview study of

children's knowledge about memory. Monographs of the Society for

Research in Child Development, 1975, 40 (1, Serial No. 159).

Kulhavy, R. W. Feedback in written instruction. Review of Educational

Research, 1977, 47, 211-232.

Kulhavy, R. W., & Swenson, I. Imagery instructions and the comprehension

of text. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 1975, 45, 47-51.

Landry, D. L. The effect of organizational aids on reading comprehension.

Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1966.

LaPorte, R. E., & Voss, J. F. Retention of prose materials as a function

of postacquisition testing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1975,

67, 259-266.

Lawton, J. T., & Wanska, S. K. Advance organizers as a teaching strategy:

A reply to Barnes and Clawson. Review of Educational Research, 1977,

_47, 233-244.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

97

Lesgold, A. M., Levin, J. R., Shimron, J., & Guttmann, J. Pictures and

young children's learning from oral prose. Journal of Educational

Psychology, 1975, 67, 636-642.

Lesgold, A. M., McCormick, C., & Golinkoff, R. M. Imagery training and

children's prose learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1975,

67, 663-667.

Levin, J. R. Inducing comprehension in poor readers: A test of a recent

model. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1973, 65, 19-24.

Levin, J. R., Bender, B. G., & Lesgold, A. M. Pictures, repetition, and

young children's oral prose learning. AV Communication Review, 1976,

24, 367-380.

Levin, J. R., Divine-Hawkins, P., Kerst, S. M., & Guttmann, J. Individual

differences in learning from pictures and words: The development and

application of an instrument. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1974,

66, 296-303.
Levin, J. R., & Lesgold, A. M. On pictures in prose. Educational Communi-

cation and Technology, 1978, 26, 233-243.

Levin, J. R., & Pressley, M. Improving children's prose comprehension:

Selected strategies that seem to succeed. In C. M. Santa & B. L.

Hayes (Eds.), Children's prose comprehension: Research and practice.

Newark, Del.: International Reading Association, in press.

Lieberman, J. The effect of direct instruction in vocabulary concepts on

reading achievement. Bloomington, Ind.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading,

1967. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 010 985)

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

98

Manzo, A. V. The request procedure. Journal of Reading, 1969, 13, 123-126.

Manzo, A. V. Reading and questioning: The request procedure. Reading

Improvement, 1970, 7, 80-83.

Manzo, A. V. Guided reading procedure. Journal of Reading, 1975, 18,

287-291.

Manzo, A. V., & Legenza, A. Inquiry training for kindergarten children.

Educational Leadership, 1975, 32, 479-483.

Markman, E. M. Realizing that you don't understand: A preliminary

investigation. Child Development, 1977, 48, 986-992.

Marks, C. B., Doctorow, M. J., & Wittrock, M. C. Word frequency and

reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Research, 1974, 67,

259-262.

Marr, M. B. Children's comprehension of pictorial and textual event

sequences. In M. L. Kamil & A. J. Moe (Eds.), Reading research:

Studies and applications. Clemson, S.C.: National Reading Conference,

1979.
Maxon, G. A. An investigation of the relative effect between questions

and declarative statements as guides to reading comprehension for

seventh grade students. In H. L. Herber & J. D. Riley (Eds.),

Research in reading in the content areas: The fourth report.

Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University, Reading and Language Arts

Center, 1979.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

99

Mayer, R. E. Different problem-solving competencies established in

learning computer programming with and without meaningful models.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 1975, 67, 725-734.

Mayer, R. E. Can advance organizers influence meaningful learning? Review

of Educational Research, 1979, 49) 371-383.

McDermott, R. Kids make sense: An ethnographic account of the interaction

management of success and failure in one first-grade classroom.

Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, 1976.

McGaw, B., & Grotelueschen, A. Direction of the effect of questions in

prose material. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1972, 63, 580-588.

Mellon, J. Transformational sentence combining: A method for enhancing

the development of syntactic fluency in English composition (NCTE

Research Rep. No. 10). Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers

of English, 1969.

Memory, D. Prequestions, prestatements, causal expressions and cause-

effect passages: A comparative study of adjunct aids and instructional

approaches with low average and good readers in sixth grade. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, 1979.

Meyer, B. J. F. The organization of prose and its effects on memory.

Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1975.

Moore, D. W., & Readence, J. E. A meta-analysis of the effect of graphic

organizers on learning from text. In M. L. Kamil & A. J. Moe (Eds.),

Perspectives on reading research and instruction. Washington, D.C.:

National Reading Conference, 1980.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

100

Morse, J. M. Effect of reader-generated questions on learning from prose.

In W. D. Miller & G. H. McNinck (Eds.), Reflections and investigations

on reading. Clemson, S.C.: National Reading Conference, 1976.

Neisser, U. Cognition and reality. San Francisco: Freeman, 1976.

Ney, J. W. The hazards of the course: Sentence-combining in freshman

English. The English Record, 1976, 27, 70-77.

O'Hare, F. Sentence combining: Improving student writing without formal

grammar instruction. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of

English, 1973.

Otto, W., Barrett, J. C., & Koenke, K. Assessment of children's state-

ments of the main idea in reading. In J. A. Figurel (Ed.), Reading

and realism: Proceedings of the International Reading Association,

1969, 13, 692-697.

Pace, A. J. The influence of world knowledge and metacomprehension ability

on children's comprehension of short narrative passages. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, University of Delaware, 1979.

Paivio, A. Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart &

Winston, 1971.

Pany, D., & Jenkins, J. R. Learning word meanings: A comparison of

instructional procedures and effects on measures of reading compre-

hension with learning disabled students. Learning Disabled Quarterly,

1978, 1, 21-32.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

101

Paris, S. G. Integration and inference in children's comprehension and

memory. In F. Restle (Ed.), Cognitive theory (Vol. 1). Hillsdale,

N.J.: Erlbaum, 1975. Pp. 223-246.

Paris, S. G., & Lindauer, B. K. The role of inference in children's

comprehension and memory for sentences. Cognitive Psychology, 1976,

8, 217-227.

Pearson, P. D. The comprehension of text structures. In J. Guthrie (Ed.),

Comprehension and teaching: Research reviews. Newark, Del.:

International Reading Association, in press.

Pearson, P. D., Hansen, J., & Gordon, C. The effect of background knowl-

edge on young children's comprehension of explicit and implicit

information. Journal of Reading Behavior, 1979, 11, 201-209.

Pearson, P. D., & Johnson, D. Teaching reading comprehension. New York:

Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1978.

Peeck, J. Retention of pictorial and verbal content of a text with

illustrations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1974, 66, 880-888.

Petre, R. M. Quantity, quality and variety of pupil responses during an

open-communication structured group directed reading-thinking

activity and a closed-communication structured group directed

reading activity. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of

Delaware, 1970.
 Teaching Reading Comprehension

102

Phelps, S. The effects of integrating sentence-combining activities and

guided reading procedures on the reading and writing performance of

eighth grade students. In H. L. Herber & J. D. Riley (Eds.), Research

in reading in the content areas: The fourth report. Syracuse, N.Y.:

Syracuse University, Reading and Language Arts Center, 1979.

Poulton, C. E., & Brown, C. H. Memory after reading aloud and reading

silently. British Journal of Psychology, 1967, 58, 219-222.

Pressley, G. M. Mental imagery helps eight-year-olds remember what they

read. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1976, 68, 355-359.

Pressley, G. M. Imagery and children's learning: Putting the picture in

developmental perspective. Review of Educational Research, 1977,

47, 585-622.

Pressey, S. L. A. A simple apparatus which gives tests and scores--and

teaches. School and Society, 1926, 23, 373-376.

Raphael, T. E., Winograd, P., & Pearson, P. D. Strategies children use

when answering questions. In M. Kamil & A. J. Moe (Eds.), Perspectives

on reading research and instruction. Washington, D.C.: National

Reading Conference, 1980.

Rasco, R. W., Tennyson, R. D., & Boutwell, R. C. Imagery instructions

and drawings in learning prose. Journal of Educational Psychology,

1975, 67, 188-192.

Reynolds, R. E., & Anderson, R. C. The influence of questions during

reading on the allocation of attention (Tech. Rep. No. 183). Urbana:

University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading, October 1980.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

103

Reynolds, R. E., Standiford, S. N., & Anderson, R. C. Distribution of

reading time when questions are asked about a restricted category

of text information. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1979, 71,

183-190.

Richmond, M. G. The relationship of the uniqueness of prose passages to

the effect of question placement and question relevance on the

acquisition and retention of information. In W. D. Miller & G. H.

McNinch (Eds.), Reflections and investigations on reading. Clemson,

S.C.: National Reading Conference, 1976.

Rickards, J. P. Type of verbatim question interspersed in text: A new

look at the position effect. Journal of Reading Behavior, 1976, 8,

37-45.

Rickards, J. P., & Hatcher, C. W. Interspersed meaningful learning

questions as semantic cues for poor comprehenders. Reading Research

Quarterly, 1977-78, 13, 538-553.

Riding, R. J., & Shore, J. M. A comparison of two methods of improving

prose comprehension in educationally subnormal children. British

Journal of Educational Psychology, 1974, 44, 300-303.

Riley, C. A., & Trabasso, T. Comparatives, logical structures and encoding

in a transitive inference task. Journal of Experimental Child

Psychology, 1974, 17, 187-203.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

104

Riley, J. D. The effect of reading guides upon students' literal, inter-

pretative, and applied level comprehension of word problems. In

H. L. Herber & J. D. Riley (Eds.), Research in reading in the content

areas: The fourth report. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University,

Reading and Language Arts Center, 1979.

Rogers, M. V. Comprehension in oral and silent reading. Journal of

General Psychology, 1937, 17_, 394-397.

Rosenshine, B. Classroom instruction. In N. L. Gage (Ed.), The psychology

of teaching methods. Seventy-fifth yearbook of the National Society for

the Study of Education, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.

Rosenshine, B., & Furst, N. F. Research on teacher performance criteria.

In B. 0. Smith (Ed.), Research in teacher education: A symposium.

Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971.

Rosenshine, B., & Stevens, R. Classroom reading instruction. In P. D.

Pearson (Ed.), Handbook on research in reading. New York: Longman,

in press.

Rothkopf, E. Z. Learning from written instructive materials: An

exploration of the control of inspection behavior by test-like

events. American Educational Research Journal, 1966, 3, 241-249.

Rothkopf, E. Z. Experiments on mathemagenic behavior and the technology

of written instruction. In E. Z. Rothkopf & P. E. Johnson (Eds.),

Verbal learning research and the technology of written instruction.

New York: Teachers College Press, 1971.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

105

Rothkopf, E. Z. Structural text features and the control of processes in

learning from written materials. In R. 0. Freedle & J. B. Carroll

(Eds.), Language comprehension and the acquisition of knowledge.

Washington, D.C.: Winston, 1972. (a)

Rothkopf, E. Z. Variable adjunct question schedules, interpersonal inter-

action, and incidental learning from written material. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 1972, 63, 87-92. (b)

Rothkopf, E. Z., & Bisbicos, E. E. Selective facilitation effects of

interspersed questions on learning from written materials. Journal

of Educational Psychology, 1967, 58, 56-61.

Rothkopf, E. Z., & Bloom, R. D. Effects of interpersonal interaction on

the instructional value of adjunct questions in learning from written

material. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1970, 61, 417-422.

Rowell, E. H. Do elementary students read better orally or silently?

The Reading Teacher, 1976, 30, 367-370.

Royer, J. M., & Cable, G. W. Facilitated learning in connected discourse.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 1975, 67, 116-123.

Royer, J. M., & Cable, G. W. Illustrations, analogies, and facilitative

transfer in prose learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1976,

68, 205-209.

Ruch, M. D., & Levin, J. R. Pictorial organization versus verbal repetition

of children's prose: Evidence for processing differences. AV Com-

munication Review, 1977, 25, 269-280.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

106

Rumelhart, D. E., & Ortony, A. The representation of knowledge in memory.

In R. C. Anderson, R. J. Spiro, & W. E. Montague (Eds.), Schooling

and the acquisition of knowledge. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1977.

Sagaria, S. D., & DiVesta, F. J. Learner expectations induced by adjunct

questions and the retrieval of intentional and incidental informa-

tion. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1978, 70, 280-288.

Samuels, S. J. Effects of pictures on learning to read, comprehension and

attitudes. Review of Educational Research, 1970, 40, 397-407.

Schachter, S. W. An investigation of the effects of vocabulary instruction

and schemata orientation upon reading comprehension. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1978.

Schallert, D. L. The role of illustrations in reading comprehension. In

R. J. Spiro, B. C. Bruce, & W. F. Brewer (Eds.), Theoretical issues

in reading comprehension. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, in press.

Schermerhorn, S. M., Goldschmid, M. L., & Shore, B. M. Learning basic

principles of probability in student dyads: A cross-age comparison.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 1975, 67, 551-557.

Shavelson, R. J., Berliner, D. C., Ravitch, M. M., & Loeding, D. Effects

of position and type of question on learning from prose material:

Interaction of treatments with individual differences. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 1974, 66, 40-48.

Sinclair, J. McH., & Coulthard, R. M. Toward an analysis of discourse.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

107

Sledge, A. C. The advance organizer: A review of research at the

secondary level. In J. L. Vaughan, Jr. & P. J. Gaus (Eds.), Research

on Reading in Secondary Schools, 1978, 2, 41-60.

Smiley, S. S., Oakley, D. D., Worthen, D., Campione, J. C., & Brown, A. L.

Recall of thematically relevant material by adolescent good and poor

readers as a function of written versus oral presentation (Tech. Rep.

No. 23). Urbana: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of

Reading, March 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 136 235)

Snowman, J., & Cunningham, D. J. A comparison of pictorial and written

adjunct aids in learning from text. Journal of Educational Psychology,

1975, 67, 307-311.

Spiro, R. J. Remembering information from text: The "state of schema"

approach. In R. C. Anderson, R. J. Spiro, & W. E. Montague (Eds.),

Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum,

1977.

Stauffer, R. G. Directing reading maturity as a cognitive process. New

York: Harper & Row, 1969.

Steffensen, M. S., Joag-Dev, C., & Anderson, R. C. A cross-cultural

perspective on reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly,

1979, 15, 10-29.

Steingart, S. K., & Glock, M. D. Imagery and the recall of connected

discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, 1979, 15, 66-83.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

108

Straw, S. B. An investigation of the effects of sentence-combining and

sentence-reduction instruction on measures of syntactic fluency,

reading comprehension and listening comprehension of fourth-grade

students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota,

1979.

Swaby, B. The effects of advance organizers and vocabulary introduction

on the reading comprehension of sixth grade students. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1977.

Thomas, J. L. The influence of pictorial illustrations with written text

and previous achievement on the reading comprehension of fourth

grade science students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,

1978, 15, 401-405.

Tierney, R. J., Bridge, C. A., & Cera, M. J. The discourse processing

operations of children. Reading Research Quarterly, 1978-79, 14,

539-573.

Tirre, W. C., Manelis, L., & Leicht, K. L. The effects of imaginal and

verbal strategies on prose comprehension by adults. Journal of

Reading Behavior, 1979, 11, 99-106.

Trabasso, T. Can we integrate research and instruction on reading compre-

hension. In C. Santa & B. Hayes (Eds.), Children's prose comprehension.

Newark, Del.: International Reading Association, in press.

Tuinman, J. J. An instructional perspective on basic research in reading.

In M. L. Kamil & A. J. Moe (Eds.), Reading research: Studies and

applications. Clemson, S.C.: National Reading Conference, 1979.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

109

Tuinman, J. J., & Brady, M. E. How does vocabulary account for variance

on reading comprehension tests? A preliminary instructional analysis.

In P. L. Nacke (Ed.), Interaction: Research and practice for college-

adult reading. Clemson, S.C.: National Reading Conference, 1974.

Vacca, R. T. An investigation of a functional reading strategy in seventh

grade social studies. In H. L. Herber & R. T. Vacca (Eds.), Research

in reading in the content areas: The third report. Syracuse, N.Y.:

Syracuse University, Reading and Language Arts Center, 1977.

Walker, N. M. The effect of graphic organizers on the learning of social

studies content and attitude toward reading. In H. L. Herber & J. D.

Riley (Eds.), Research in reading in the content areas: Fourth report.

Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University, Reading and Language Arts

Center, 1979.

Watts, G. H. The "arousal" effect of adjunct questions on recall from

prose materials. Australian Journal of Psychology, 1973, 25, 81-87.

Watts, G. H., & Anderson, R. C. Effects of three types of inserted

questions on learning from prose. Journal of Educational Psychology,

1971, 62, 387-394.

Whitehead, A. N. Science and the modern world. New York: Free Press,

1967. (Originally published, 1925.)

Wittrock, M. C., Marks, C., & Doctorow, M. Reading as a generating process.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 1975, 67, 484-489.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

110

Yost, M., Avila, L., & Vexler, E. B. Effect on learning of postinstructional

responses to questions of differing degrees of complexity. Journal

of Educational Psychology, 1977, 69, 399-408.

 Teaching Reading Comprehension

111

Footnote

I
Metacomprehension deals with a person's knowledge of oneself--that

is, knowledge of one's characteristics, knowledge of the characteristics

of tasks, and knowledge of potentially employable strategies to cope

with these tasks. As Brown (in press) has suggested, metacomprehension

includes the nature as well as the role of subconscious and deliberate

monitoring of understanding, task demands, strategies, and the inter-

actions among them. With respect to reading, it relates to a reader's

awareness of reading, reading strategies, task demands, and his or her

own understanding. This would include monitoring (prior to, during,

and after reading) one's efficiency as a reader.

 CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF READING

READING EDUCATION REPORTS

No. 1: Durkin, D. Comprehension Instruction-Where are You?, October 1977. (ERIC Document Repro-
duction Service No. ED 146 566, 14p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 2: Asher, S. R. Sex Differences in Reading Achievement, October 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduc-
tion Service No. ED 146 567, 30p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 3: Adams, M. J., Anderson, R.C., & Durkin, D. Beginning Reading: Theory and Practice, November
1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 151 722, 15p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 4: Jenkins, J. R., & Pany, D. Teaching Reading Comprehension in the Middle Grades, January 1978.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 151 756, 36p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 5: Bruce, B. What Makes a Good Story?, June 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 158 222, 16p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 6: Anderson, T. H. Another Look at the Self-Questioning Study Technique, September 1978. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 163 441, 19p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 7: Pearson, P. D., & Kamil, M. L. Basic Processes and Instructional Practices in Teaching Reading,
December 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 165 118, 29p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 8: Collins, A., & Haviland, S. E. Children's Reading Problems, June 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduc-
tion Service No. ED 172 188, 19p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 9: Schallert, D. L, & Kleiman, G. M. Some Reasons Why Teachers are Easier to Understand than
Textbooks, June 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 172 189, 17p., PC-$1.82, MF-
$.83)
No. 10: Baker, L. Do I Understand or Do I not Understand: That is the Question, July 1979. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 174 948, 27p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 11: Anderson, R.C., & Freebody, P. Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading, August 1979. (ERIC Docu-
ment Reproduction Service No. ED 177 470, 52p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 12: Joag-dev, C., & Steffensen, M. S. Studies of the Bicultural Reader: Implications for Teachers and
Librarians, January 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 181 430, 28p., PC-$3.32, MF-
$.83)
No. 13: Adams, M., & Bruce, B. Background Knowledge and Reading Comprehension, January 1980.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 181 431, 48p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 14: Rubin, A. Making Stories, Making Sense (includes a response by T. Raphael and J. LaZansky),
January 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 181 432, 42p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 15: Tierney, R. J., & LaZansky, J. The Rights and Responsibilitiesof Readers and Writers: A Contrac-
tual Agreement (includes responses by R. N. Kantor and B. B. Armbruster), January 1980. (ERIC Docu-
ment Reproduction Service No. ED 181 447, 32p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 16: Anderson, T. H., Armbruster, B. B., & Kantor, R. N. How Clearly Written are Children's Textbooks?
Or, Of Bladderworts and Alfa (includes a response by M. Kane, Senior Editor, Ginn and Company),
August 1980.
No. 17: Tierney, R. J., Mosenthal, J., & Kantor, R. N. Some Classroom Applications of Text Analysis:
Toward Improving Text Selection and Use, August 1980.
No. 18: Steinberg, C., & Bruce, B. Higher-Level Features in Children's Stories: Rhetorical Structure and
Conflict, October 1980.
No. 19: Durkin, D. What is the Value of the New Interest in Reading Comprehension?, November 1980.
 CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF READING

TECHNICAL REPORTS

No. 1: Halff, H. M. Graphical Evaluation of Hierarchical Clustering Schemes, October 1975. (ERIC Docu-
ment Reproduction Service No. ED 134 926, 11p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 2: Spiro, R.J. Inferential Reconstruction in Memory for Connected Discourse, October 1975. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 136 187, 81p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 3: Goetz, E. T. Sentences in Lists and in Connected Discourse, November 1975. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 134 927, 75p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 4: Alessi, S. M., Anderson, T. H., & Biddle, W. B. Hardware and Software Considerations in Computer
Based Course Management, November 1975. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 928,
21p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 5: Schallert, D. L. Improving Memory for Prose: The Relationship between Depth of Processing and
Context, November 1975. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 929, 37p., PC-$3.32, MF-
$.83)
No. 6: Anderson, R.C., Goetz, E. T., Pichert, J. W., & Halff, H. M. Two Faces of the Conceptual Peg
Hypothesis, January 1976. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 930, 29p., PC-$3.32,
MF-$.83)
No. 7: Ortony, A. Names, Descriptions, and Pragmatics, February 1976. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 134 931, 25p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 8: Mason, J. M. Questioning the Notion of Independent Processing Stages in Reading, February
1976. (Journal of Educational Psychology, 1977, 69, 288-297)
No. 9: Siegel, M. A. Teacher Behaviors and Curriculum Packages: Implications for Research and
Teacher Education, April 1976. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 932, 42p., PC-
$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 10: Anderson, R. C., Pichert, J. W., Goetz, E. T., Schallert, D. L., Stevens, K. C., & Trollip, S. R. Instantia-
tion of General Terms, March 1976. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 933, 30p., PC-
$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 11: Armbruster, B. B. Learning Principles from Prose: A Cognitive Approach Based on Schema
Theory, July 1976. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 934, 48p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 12: Anderson, R.C., Reynolds, R.E., Schallert, D. L., & Goetz, E. T. Frameworks for Comprehending
Discourse, July 1976. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 935, 33p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 13: Rubin, A. D., Bruce, B. C., & Brown, J. S. A Process-Oriented Language for Describing Aspects of
Reading Comprehension, November 1976. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 136 188,
41p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 14: Pichert, J. W., & Anderson, R.C. Taking Different Perspectives on a Story, November 1976.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 936, 30p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 15: Schwartz, R.M. Strategic Processes in Beginning Reading, November 1976. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 134 937, 19p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 16: Jenkins, J. R., & Pany, D. Curriculum Biases in Reading Achievement Tests, November 1976.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 938, 24p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 17: Asher, S. R., Hymel, S., & Wigfield, A. Children's Comprehension of High- and Low-Interest
Material and a Comparison of Two Cloze Scoring Methods, November 1976. (ERIC Document Repro-
duction Service No. ED 134 939, 32p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 18: Brown, A. L., Smiley, S. S., Day, J. D., Townsend, M. A. R., & Lawton, S. C. Intrusion of a Thematic
Idea in Children's Comprehension and Retention of Stories, December 1976. (ERIC Document Repro-
duction Service No. ED 136 189, 39p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 19: Kleiman, G. M. The Prelinguistic Cognitive Basis of Children's Communicative Intentions, Febru-
ary 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 940, 51p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 20: Kleiman, G.M. The Effect of Previous Context on Reading Individual Words, February 1977.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 941, 76p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 21: Kane, J. H., & Anderson, R. C. Depth of Processing and Interference Effects in the Learning and
Remembering of Sentences, February 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 134 942,
29p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 22: Brown, A. L, & Campione, J. C. Memory Strategies in Learning: Training Children to Study Stra-
tegically, March 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 136 234, 54p., PC-$4.82, MF-
$.83)
No. 23: Smiley, S. S., Oakley, D. D., Worthen, D., Campione, J. C., & Brown, A.L Recall of Thematically
Relevant Material by Adolescent Good and Poor Readers as a Function of Written Versus Oral
Presentation, March 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 136 235, 23p., PC-$1.82,
MF$-.83)
No. 24: Anderson, R.C., Spiro, R.J., & Anderson, M.C. Schemata as Scaffolding for the Representation
of Information in Connected Discourse, March 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 136 236, 18p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 25: Pany, D., & Jenkins, J. R. Learning Word Meanings: A Comparison of Instructional Procedures
and Effects on Measures of Reading Comprehension with Learning Disabled Students, March 1977.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 136 237, 34p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 26: Armbruster, B. B., Stevens, R.J., & Rosenshine, B. Analyzing Content Coverage and Emphasis: A
Study of Three Curricula and Two Tests, March 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 136 238, 22p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 27: Ortony, A., Reynolds, R.E., & Arter, J. A. Metaphor: Theoretical and Empirical Research, March
1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 137 752, 63p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 28: Ortony, A. Remembering and Understanding Jabberwocky and Small-Talk, March 1977. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 137 753, 36p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 29: Schallert, D.L., Kleiman, G. M., & Rubin, A.D. Analyses of Differences between Written and Oral
Language, April 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 144 038, 33p., PC-$3.32, MF-
$.83)
No. 30: Goetz, E.T., & Osborn, J. Procedures for Sampling Texts and Tasks in Kindergarten through
Eighth Grade, April 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 146 565, 80p., PC-$6.32, MF-
$.83)
No. 31: Nash-Webber, B. Anaphora: A Cross-Disciplinary Survey, April 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduc-
tion Service No. ED 144 039, 43p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 32: Adams, M. J., & Collins, A. A Schema-Theoretic View of Reading Comprehension, April 1977.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 142 971, 49p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 33: Huggins, A.W. F. Syntactic Aspects of Reading Comprehension, April 1977. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 142 972, 68p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 34: Bruce, B. C. Plans and Social Actions, April 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 149 328, 45p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 35: Rubin, A. D. A Theoretical Taxonomy of the Differences between Oral and Written Language,
January 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 150 550, 61p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 36: Nash-Webber, B., & Reiter, R. Anaphora and Logical Form: On Formal Meaning Representation
for Natural Language, April 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 142 973, 42p., PC-
$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 37: Adams, M. J. Failures to Comprehend and Levels of Processing in Reading, April 1977. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 145 410, 51p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 38: Woods, W. A. Multiple Theory Formation in High-Level Perception, April 1977. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 144 020, 58p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 40: Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Larkin, K. M. Inference in Text Understanding, December 1977. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 150 547, 48p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 41: Anderson, R. C., & Pichert, J.W. Recall of Previously Unrecallable Information Following a Shift
in Perspective, April 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 142 974, 37p., PC-$3.32,
MF-$.83)
No. 42: Mason, J., Osborn, J., & Rosenshine, B. A Consideration of Skill Hierarchy Approaches to the
Teaching of Reading, December 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 150 549, 176p.,
PC-$12.32, MF.$.83)
No. 43: Collins, A., Brown, A. L, Morgan, J. L, & Brewer, W. F. The Analysis of Reading Tasks and Texts,
April 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 145 404, 96p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 44: McClure, E. Aspects of Code-Switching in the Discourse of Bilingual Mexican-American Children,
April 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 142 975, 38p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 45: Schwartz, R. M. Relation of Context Utilization and Orthographic Automaticity in Word Identifi-
cation, May 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 137 762, 27p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 46: Anderson, R.C., Stevens, K. C., Shifrin, Z., & Osborn, J. Instantiation of Word Meanings in Chil-
dren, May 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 142 976, 22p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 47: Brown, A. L. Knowing When, Where, and How to Remember: A Problem of Metacognition, June
1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 146 562, 152p., PC-$10.82, MF-$.83)
No. 48: Brown, A. L.,
& DeLoache, J. S. Skills, Plans, and Self-Regulation, July 1977. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 144 040, 66p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 49: Goetz, E. T. Inferences in the Comprehension of and Memory for Text, July 1977. (ERIC Docu-
ment Reproduction Service No. ED 150 548, 97p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 50: Anderson, R.C. Schema-Directed Processes in Language Comprehension, July 1977. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 142 977, 33p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 51: Brown, A. L Theories of Memory and the Problems of Development: Activity, Growth, and
Knowledge, July 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 144 041, 59p., PC-$4.82, MF-
$.83)
No. 52: Morgan, J. L. Two Types of Convention in Indirect Speech Acts, July 1977. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 145 405, 40p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 53: Brown, A. L., Smiley, S. S., & Lawton, S. C. The Effects of Experience on the Selection of Suitable
Retrieval Cues for Studying from Prose Passages, July 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No. ED 144 042, 30p,, PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 54: Fleisher, L.S., & Jenkins, J. R. Effects of Contextualized and Decontextualized Practice Condi-
tions on Word Recognition, July 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 144 043, 37p.,
PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 55: Jenkins, J. R., & Larson, K. Evaluating Error Correction Procedures for Oral Reading, June 1978.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 158 224, 34p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 56: Anderson, T. H., Standiford, S. N., & Alessi, S. M. Computer Assisted Problem Solving in an Intro-
ductory Statistics Course, August 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 146 563, 26p.,
PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 57: Barnitz, J. Interrelationship of Orthography and Phonological Structure in Learning to Read,
August 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 150 546, 62p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 58: Mason, J. M. The Role of Strategy in Reading in the Mentally Retarded, September 1977. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 145 406, 28p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 59: Mason, J. M. Reading Readiness: A Definition and Skills Hierarchy from Preschoolers' Develop-
ing Conceptions of Print, September 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 145 403,
57p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 60: Spiro, R.J., & Esposito, J. J. Superficial Processing of Explicit Inferences in Text, December
1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 150 545, 27p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 65: Brewer, W. F. Memory for the Pragmatic Implications of Sentences, October 1977. (ERIC Docu-
ment Reproduction Service No. ED 146 564, 27p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
& Smiley, S. S. The Development of Strategies for Study Prose Passages, October
No. 66: Brown, A.L.,
1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 145 371, 59p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 68: Stein, N. L., & Nezworski, T. The Effects of Organization and Instructional Set on Story Memory,
January 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 149 327, 41p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 69: Stein, N. L. How Children Understand Stories: A Developmental Analysis, March 1978. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 153 205, 68p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 76: Thieman, T. J., & Brown, A. L. The Effects of Semantic and Formal Similarity on Recognition
Memory for Sentences in Children, November 1977. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 150 551, 26p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 77: Nash-Webber, B. L Inferences in an Approach to Discourse Anaphora, January 1978. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 150 552, 30p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 78: Gentner, D. On Relational Meaning: The Acquisition of Verb Meaning, December 1977. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 149 325, 46p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 79: Royer, J. M. Theories of Learning Transfer, January 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No. ED 149 326, 55p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 80: Arter, J. A., & Jenkins, J. R. Differential Diagnosis-Prescriptive Teaching: A Critical Appraisal,
January 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 150 578, 104p., PC-$7.82, MF-$.83)
No. 81: Shoben, E. J. Choosing a Model of Sentence Picture Comparisons: A Reply to Catlin and Jones,
February 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 150 577, 30p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 82: Steffensen, M. S. Bereiter and Engelmann Reconsidered: The Evidence from Children Acquiring
Black English Vernacular, March 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 153 204, 31p.,
PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 83: Reynolds, R.E., Standiford, S. N., & Anderson, R.C. Distribution of Reading Time When Questions
are Asked about a Restricted Category of Text Information, April 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduc-
tion Service No. ED 153 206, 34p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 84: Baker, L. Processing Temporal Relationships in Simple Stories: Effects of Input Sequence, April
1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 157 016, 54p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 85: Mason, J. M., Knisely, E., & Kendall, J. Effects of Polysemous Words on Sentence Comprehen-
sion, May 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 157 015, 34p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 86: Anderson, T. H., Wardrop, J. L., Hively W., Muller, K. E., Anderson, R. I., Hastings, C. N., &
Fredericksen, J. Development and Trial of a Model for Developing Domain Referenced Tests of
Reading Comprehension, May 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 157 036, 69p.,
PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 87: Andre, M. E. D. A., & Anderson, T. H. The Development and Evaluation of a Self-Questioning
Study Technique, June 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 157 037, 37p., PC-$3.32,
MF-$.83)
No. 88: Bruce, B. C., & Newman, D. Interacting Plans, June 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No. ED 157 038, lOOp., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 89: Bruce, B. C., Collins, A., Rubin, A. D., & Gentner, D. A Cognitive Science Approach to Writing, June
1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 157 039, 57p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 90: Asher, S. R. Referential Communication, June 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 159 597, 71p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 91: Royer, J. M., & Cunningham, D. J. On the Theory and Measurement of Reading Comprehension,
June 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 157 040, 63p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 92: Mason, J. M., Kendall, J. R. Facilitating Reading Comprehension Through Text Structure Manipu-
lation, June 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 157 041, 36p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 93: Ortony, A., Schallert, D. L., Reynolds, R.E., & Antos, S. J. Interpreting Metaphors and Idioms:
Some Effects of Context on Comprehension, July 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 157 042, 41p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 94: Brown, A. L.,Campione, J. C., & Barclay, C. R. Training Self-Checking Routines for Estimating
Test Readiness: Generalization from List Learning to Prose Recall, July 1978. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 158 226, 41p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 95: Reichman, R. Conversational Coherency, July 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 159 658, 86p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 96: Wigfield, A., & Asher, S. R. Age Differences in Children's Referential Communication Perfor-
mance: An Investigation of Task Effects, July 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 159 659, 31p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 97: Steffensen, M. S., Jogdeo, C., & Anderson, R.C. A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Reading
Comprehension, July 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 159 660, 41p., PC-$3.32,
MF-$.83)
No. 98: Green, G. M. Discourse Functions of Inversion Construction, July 1978. (ERIC Document Repro-
duction Service No. ED 160 998, 42p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 99: Asher, S. R. Influence of Topic Interest on Black Children and White Children's Reading
Comprehension, July 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 159 661, 35p., PC-$3.32,
MF-$.83)
No. 100: Jenkins, J. R., Pany, D., & Schreck, J. Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension: Instructional
Effects, August 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 160 999, 50p., PC-$3.32, MF-
$.83)
No. 101: Shoben, E.J.,Rips, L J.,& Smith, E.E. Issues in Semantic Memory: A Response to Glass and
Holyoak, August 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 159 662, 85p., PC-$6.32, MF-
$.83)
No. 102: Baker, L, & Stein, N. L The Development of Prose Comprehension Skills, September 1978.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 159 663, 69p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 103: Fleisher, L S., Jenkins, J. R., & Pany, D. Effects on Poor Readers' Comprehension of Training in
Rapid Decoding, September 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 159 664, 39p., PC-
$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 104: Anderson, T. H. Study Skills and Learning Strategies, September 1978. (ERIC Document Repro-
duction Service No. ED 161 000, 41p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 105: Ortony, A. Beyond Literal Similarity, October 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 166 635, 58p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 106: Durkin, D. What Classroom Observations Reveal about Reading Comprehension Instruction,
October 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 162 259, 94p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 107: Adams, M. J. Models of Word Recognition, October 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Ser-
vice No. ED 163 431, 93p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 108: Reder, L. M. Comprehension and Retention of Prose: A Literature Review, November 1978.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 165 114, 116p., PC-$7.82, MF-$.83)
No. 109: Wardrop, J. L., Anderson, T. H., Hively, W., Anderson, R. I., Hastings, C. N., & Muller, K. E. A Frame-
work for Analyzing Reading Test Characteristics, December 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 165 117, 65p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 110: Tirre, W. C., Manelis, L., & Leicht, K. L. The Effects of Imaginal and Verbal Strategies on Prose
Comprehension in Adults, December 1978. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 165 116,
27p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 111: Spiro, R. J., & Tirre, W. C. Individual Differences in Schema Utilization During Discourse Pro-
cessing, January 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 166 651, 29p., PC-$3.32, MF-
$.83)
No. 112: Ortony, A. Some Psycholinguistic Aspects of Metaphor, January 1979. (ERIC Document Repro-
duction Service No. ED 165 115, 38p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 113: Antos, S. J. Processing Facilitation in a Lexical Decision Task, January 1979. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 165 129, 84p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 114: Gentner D. Semantic Integration at the Level of Verb Meaning, February 1979. (ERIC Docu-
ment Reproduction Service No. ED 165 130, 39p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 115: Gearhart, M., & Hall, W.S. Internal State Words: Cultural and Situational Variation in Vocabu-
lary Usage, February 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 165 131, 66p., PC-$4.82,
MF-$.83)
No. 116: Pearson, P. D., Hansen, J., & Gordon, C. The Effect of Background Knowledge on Young
Children's Comprehension of Explicit and Implicit Information, March 1979. (ERIC Document Repro-
duction Service No. ED 169 521, 26p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 117: Barnitz, J. G. Reading Comprehension of Pronoun-Referent Structures by Children in Grades
Two, Four, and Six, March 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 170 731, 51p., PC-
$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 118: Nicholson, T., Pearson, P. D., & Dykstra, R. Effects of Embedded Anomalies and Oral Reading
Errors on Children's Understanding of Stories, March 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No. ED 169 524, 43p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 119: Anderson, R.C., Pichert, J. W., & Shirey, L. L. Effects of the Reader's Schema at Different Points
in Time, April 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 169 523, 36p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 120: Canney, G., & Winograd, P. Schemata for Reading and Reading Comprehension Performance,
April 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 169 520, 99p.. PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 121: Hall, W.S., & Guthrie, L. F. On the Dialect Question and Reading, May 1979. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 169 522, 32p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 122: McClure, E., Mason, J., & Barnitz, J. Story Structure and Age Effects on Children's Ability to
Sequence Stories, May 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 170 732, 75p., PC-$4.82,
MF-$,83)
No. 123: Kleiman, G. M., Winograd, P. N., & Humphrey. M. M. Prosody and Children's Parsing of Sen-
tences, May 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 170 733, 28p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 124: Spiro, R. J. Etiology of Reading Comprehension Style, May 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 170 734. 21p., PC-$1.82, MF-$.83)
No. 125: Hall, W. S., & Tirre. W. C. The Communicative Environment of Young Children: Social Class,
Ethnic, and Situational Differences, May 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 170 788, 30p., PC-$3.32. MF-$.83)
No. 126: Mason, J., & McCormick, C. Testing the Development of Reading and Linguistic Awareness,
May 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 170 735. 50p.. PC-$3.32. MF-$.83)
No. 127: Brown, A. L., & Campione, J. C. Permissible Inferences from the Outcome of Training Studies in
Cognitive Development Research, May 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 170 736,
34p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 128: Brown, A. L, & French, L A. The Zone of Potential Development: Implications for Intelligence
Testing in the Year 2000, May 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 170 737, 46p.,
PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 129: Nezworski, T., Stein, N. L., & Trabasso, T. Story Structure Versus Content Effects on Children's
Recall and Evaluative Inferences, June 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 172 187,
49p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 130: Bruce, B. Analysis of Interacting Plans as a Guide to the Understanding of Story Structure,
June 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 174 951, 43p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 131: Pearson, P. D., Raphael, T., TePaske, N., & Hyser, C. The Function of Metaphor in Children's
Recall of Expository Passages, July 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 174 950,
41p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 132: Green, G. M. Organization, Goals, and Comprehensibility in Narratives: Newswriting, a Case
Study, July 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 174 949, 66p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 133: Kleiman, G. M. The Scope of Facilitation of Word Recognition from Single Word and Sentence
Frame Contexts, July 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 174 947, 61p., PC-$4.82,
MF-$.83)
No. 134: McConkie, G. W., Hogaboam, T. W., Wolverton, G. S., Zola, D., & Lucas, P. A. Toward the Use of
Eye Movements in the Study of Language Processing, August 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 174 968, 48p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 135: Schwartz, R. M. Levels of Processing: The Strategic Demands of Reading Comprehension,
August 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 471, 45p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 136: Anderson, R.C., & Freebody, P. Vocabulary Knowledge, August 1979. (ERIC Document Repro-
duction Service No. ED 177 480, 71p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 137: Royer, J. M., Hastings, C. N., & Hook, C. A Sentence Verification Technique for Measuring Read-
ing Comprehension, August 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 176 234, 34p., PC-
$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 138: Spiro, R.J. Prior Knowledge and Story Processing: Integration, Selection, and Variation,
August 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 176 235, 41p., PC-3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 139: Asher, S. R., & Wigfield, A. Influence of Comparison Training on Children's Referential Commun-
ication, August 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 493, 42p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 140: Alessi, S. M., Anderson, T. H., & Goetz, E. T. An Investigation of Lookbacks During Studying, Sep-
tember 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 494, 40p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 141: Cohen, P. R., & Perrault, C. R. Elements of a Plan-Based Theory of Speech Acts, September
1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 497, 76p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 142: Grueneich, R., & Trabasso, T. The Story as Social Environment: Children's Comprehension and
Evaluation of Intentions and Consequences, September 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service
No. ED 177 496, 56p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 143: Hermon, G. On the Discourse Structure of Direct Quotation, September 1979. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 177 495, 46p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 144: Goetz, E. T., Anderson, R.C., & Schallert, D. L. The Representation of Sentences in Memory, Sep-
tember 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 527, 71p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 145: Baker, L. Comprehension Monitoring: Identifying and Coping with Text Confusions, September
1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 525, 62p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 146: Hall, W. S., & Nagy, W. E. Theoretical Issues in the Investigation of Words of Internal Report,
October 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 526, 108p., PC-$7.82, MF-$.83)
No. 147: Stein, N. L, & Goldman, S. Children's Knowledge about Social Situations: From Causes to
Consequences, October 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 177 524, 54p., PC-$4.82,
MF-$.83)
No. 148: Hall, W. S., & Guthrie, L F. Cultural and Situational Variation in Language Function and Use:
Methods and Procedures for Research, October 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 179 944, 49p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 149: Pichert, J. W. Sensitivity to What is Important in Prose, November 1979. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 179 946, 64p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 150: Dunn, B. R., Mathews, S. R., II, & Bieger, G. Individual Differences in the Recall of Lower-Level
Textual Information, December 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 181 448, 37p.,
PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 151: Gentner, D. Verb Semantic Structures in Memory for Sentences: Evidence for Componential
Representation, December 1979. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 181 424, 75p., PC-
$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 152: Tierney, R. J., & Mosenthal, J. Discourse Comprehension and Production: Analyzing Text
Structure and Cohesion, January 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 179 945, 84p.,
PC-$6.32, MF.$.83)
No. 153: Winograd, P., & Johnston, P. Comprehension Monitoring and the Error Detection Paradigm,
January 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 181 425, 57p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 154: Ortony, A. Understanding Metaphors, January 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 181 426, 52p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 155: Anderson, T. H., & Armbruster, B. B. Studying, January 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 181 427, 48p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 156: Brown, A.L, & Campione, J. C. Inducing Flexible Thinking: The Problem of Access, January
1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 181 428, 44p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 157: Trabasso, T. On the Making of Inferences During Reading and Their Assessment, January
1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 181 429, 38p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 158: McClure, E., & Steffensen, M. S. A Study of the Use of Conjunctions across Grades and Ethnic
Groups, January 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 182 688, 43p., PC-$3.32, MF-
$.83)
No. 159: Iran-Nejad, A. The Schema: A Structural or a Functional Pattern, February 1980. (ERIC Docu-
ment Reproduction Service No. ED 181 449, 46p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 160: Armbruster, B. B., & Anderson, T. H. The Effect of Mapping on the Free Recall of Expository
Text, February 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 182 735, 49p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 161: Hall, W. S., & Dore, J. Lexical Sharing in Mother-Child Interaction, March 1980. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 184 066, 39p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 162: Davison, A., Kantor, R.N., Hannah, J., Hermon, G., Lutz, R., Salzillo, R. Limitations of Readability
Formulas in Guiding Adaptations of Texts, March 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 184 090, 157p., PC-$10.82, MF-$.83)
No. 163: Linn, R. L., Levine, M. V., Hastings, C. N., & Wardrop, J. L An Investigation of Item Bias in a Test
of Reading Comprehension, March 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 184 091,
97p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 164: Seidenberg, M. S., Tanenhaus, M. K., & Leiman, J. M. The Time Course of Lexical Ambiguity
Resolution in Context, March 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 184 092, 58p., PC-
$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 165: Brown, A.L Learning and Development: The Problems of Compatibility, Access, and Induc-
tion, March 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 184 093, 76p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 166: Hansen, J., & Pearson, P. D. The Effects of Inference Training and Practice on Young
Children's Comprehension, April 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 186 839, 53p.,
PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 167: Straker, D.Y. Situational Variables in Language Use, April 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 185 619, 49p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 168: Green, G. M., Kantor, R. N., Morgan, J. L., Stein, N. L, Hermon, G., Salzillo, R., Sellner, M. B.,
Bruce, B. C., Gentner, D., & Webber, B. L Problems and Techniques of Text Analysis, April 1980.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 185 513, 173p., PC-$10.82, MF-$.83)
No. 169: Green, G. M., Kantor, R. N., Morgan, J. L, Stein, N. L, Hermon, G., Salzillo, R., & Sellner, M. B.
Analysis of Babar Loses His Crown, April 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 185 514, 89p., PC-$6.32, MF-$.83)
No. 170: Green, G. M., Kantor, R. N., Morgan, J. L, Stein, N. L, Hermon, G., Salzillo, R., & Sellner, M. B.
Analysis of "The Wonderful Desert," April 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 185 515, 47p., PC-$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 171: Zehler, A. M., & Brewer, W. F. Acquisition of the Article System in English, May 1980. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 186 907, 51p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 172: Reynolds, R. E., & Ortony, A. Some Issues in the Measurement of Children's Comprehension of
Metaphorical Language, May 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 185 542, 42p., PC-
$3.32, MF-$.83)
No. 173: Davison, A. Linguisticsand the Measurement of Syntactic Complexity: The Case of Raising,
May 1980. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 186 848, 60p., PC-$4.82, MF-$.83)
No. 174: Tirre, W. C., Freebody, P., & Kaufman, K. Achievement Outcomes of Two Reading Programs:
An Instance of Aptitude-Treatment Interaction, June 1980.
No. 175: Asher, S. R., & Wigfield, A. Training Referential Communication Skills, July 1980.
No. 176: Tanenhaus, M. K., & Seidenberg, M. S. Discourse Context and Sentence Perception, July 1980.
No. 177: Hall, W. S., Linn, R. L., & Nagy, W. E. Spoken Words, August 1980.
No. 178: Tanenhaus, M. K., Flanigan, H., & Seidenberg, M.S. Orthographic and Phonological Activation in
Auditory and Visual Word Recognition,August 1980.
No. 179: Green, G. M. Linguistics and the Pragmatics of Language Use: What You Know When You
Know a Language ... and What Else You Know, August 1980.
No. 180: Steffensen, M. S., & Guthrie, L.F. Effect of Situation on the Verbalization of Black Inner-City
Children, September 1980.
No. 181: Green, G. M., & Laff, M. 0. Five-Year-Olds' Recognition of Authorship by Literary Style, Sep-
tember 1980.
No. 182: Collins, A., & Smith, E. E. Teaching the Process of Reading Comprehension, September 1980.
No. 183: Reynolds, R.E., & Anderson, R.C. Influence of Questions on the Allocation of Attention during
Reading, October 1980.
No. 184: Iran-Nejad, A., Ortony, A., & Rittenhouse, R.K. The Comprehension of Metaphorical Uses of
English by Deaf Children, October 1980.
No. 185: Smith, E. E. Organization of Factual Knowledge, October 1980.
No. 186: Hayes, D.A., & Tierney, R.J. Increasing Backgrbund Knowledge through Analogy: Its Effects
upon Comprehension and Learning, October 1980.
No. 187: Tierney, R.J., & Cunningham, J. W. Research on Teaching Reading Comprehension, November
1980.