Christine J. Gordon

The Effect of Background Knowledge on Young Children's Comprehension of Explicit and Implicit Information:

To investigate the applicability of schema-theoretic notions to young childrens comprehension of textually explicit and inferrable information, slightly above-average second grade readers with strong and weak schemata for knowledge about spiders read a passage about spiders and answered wh-questions tapping both explicitly stated information and knowledge that necessarily had to be inferred from the text. Main effects were found for strength of prior knowledge (p < .01), and question type (p < .01). Simple effects tests indicated a significant prior knowledge effect on the inferrable knowledge (p < .025) but not on explicitly stated information. A follow-up study was conducted to verify the fact that the question type effect was not due to the chance allocation of inherently easier questions to one of the two question types. We found a reliable decrease in question difficulty attributable to cueing prepositional relations explicitly in the text (p < .01). These data were interpreted as supporting and extending the arguments emerging from various “schema theories”.

Contexts for expository text structure use

Abstract Using both qualitative and quantitative measures the study examined (a) the contexts for use of knowledge about expository text structure and (b) the ways in which students used text structure knowledge. In this facet of a larger study, the classroom of 28 sixth grade students participated in explicit text structure instruction over a nine‐week time period. Retro‐spective interpretative probes in a structured interview followed written recall and composition tasks. Findings from the interviews suggest that following the instructional phase (but not prior to instruction) students used their knowledge of text structure in a variety of contexts during reading (for example, when teacher directed, if the topic was familiar, if the expository texts were interesting, etc.), during writing (in social studies and science, when writing reports, etc), during everyday life (when making a grocery list, when reading a recipe, when visiting a museum, in oral communication, etc.). The interview data also suggest...

Changes in readers’ and writers’ metacognitive knowledge: Some observations

Abstract This article reports observations made to explore students’ changing awareness of the characteristics of text, self as reader and writer, and monitoring strategies during the reading and writing of narrative and expository text. Information was obtained from sixth‐grade students at the beginning of the year, at year end and triangulated, where possible, with data from a larger study which focused on improving students’ knowledge and use of text structure as an aid to comprehension and writing. Within the limitations of such exploratory observations as this one, several trends can still be noted. These include: an increased awareness of text structure, particularly indications of elaborated schemata for narrative and expository text structure; knowledge about the importance of affect in personal decisions made on strategy use; the gradual awareness of oneself as an employer of a variety of sensemaking strategies during reading and writing; and a slight shift to greater use of a number of self‐moni...

Restructuring content schemata: An intervention study

Abstract The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which content schemata could be restructured through reading activities. One hundred and seventy‐eight fifth‐grade children were screened on two types of prior‐knowledge tests to identify children who held misconceptions on a topic. The 23 children identified were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups. Immediately following the instructional phase, the children were asked to complete as posttests the same measures administered as pretests with one additional question to tap sources of restructuring. Using the constant comparative method, the patterns or categories were allowed to emerge from the data. Results on both measures showed that patterns of responses changed in both treatment groups. The change (restructuring) was more marked in the group whose treatment consisted of reading as well as semantic mapping/discussion than in the group that only read. Two categories of sources for restructuring became evident in the responses:...

A View on the Current Situation in Russian Education.

This paper reflects the current state in Russian education which has a strong correlation with the socio-economic crisis. The responsibilities for education are held partially by the state and partly by other social institutions and as a whole, all of them form the system of education. There is a rather wide set of laws, decree statements, and rules about education in Russia, but they currently are far removed from practical realization. The situation with financing educators, schools, and universities is very critical at present in Russia. The idea of differentiation and democratization in School Reform has had both positive and negative effects. To rescue the Russian system of education from a crisis, a strong state policy in education and a strong system of implementation are required.