Cynthia R. Hynd

What Happens When Students Read Multiple Source Documents in History

Some educators (e.g., Ravitch, 1992) have suggested that students use multiple source documents to study history. Such documents could be primary sources, such as legislative bills or eyewitness accounts; secondary sources, such as editorials; or tertiary sources, such as textbooks. This study examined the processes used when high school students were presented documents about a controversial incident in U.S. history, the Tonkin Gulf Incident and its aftermath. These students were asked to read these either to describe or develop an opinion about the incident or the Senate action on the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. We were interested in (a) whether students could develop a rich, mental model of a historical event, (b) what they would do with the document information, (c) how the task influenced their processing of information, (d) how students integrated information across texts, and (e) whether students engaged in corroborating, sourcing, and contextualizing in evaluating historical materials. We found that the mental models created by these students were more internally consistent after reading at least two documents, but did not become more consistent after that. When compared to knowledgeable readers, they failed to make any growth after a first reading. Examining their notes, we found that students tended to take literal notes, regardless of the final task, suggesting that they were using the initial readings to garner the facts about the incident or the resolution. If students were asked for a description, they tended to stay close to the text. If asked for an opinion, however, they tended to ignore the information in the texts they read, even though they may have taken copious notes. Our observations suggest that high school students may not be able to profit from multiple texts, especially those presenting conflicting opinions, without some specific instruction in integrating information from different texts. ALGUNOS EDUCADORES (por ej. Ravitch, 1992) han sugerido que los estudiantes usan documentos de diversas fuentes para estudiar historia. Estos documentos pueden ser fuentes primarias, como por ejemplo declaraciones del Congreso o relatos de testigos presenciales, fuentes secundarias, como por ejemplo editoriales, o fuentes terciarias, como los libros de texto. Este estudio examino los procesos usados por estudiantes de escuela secundaria al presentarseles documentos acerca de un incidente controvertido de la historia de los Estados Unidos, el incidente del golfo de Tonkin y sus consecuencias. Se solicito a los estudiantes que leyeran estos documentos para describir o desarrollar una opinion acerca del incidente o de la accion del Senado respecto de la Resolucion del golfo de Tonkin. Nos interesaba investigar: (a) si los estudiantes podian desarrollar un modelo mental rico sobre un evento historico, (b) que harian con la informacion de los documentos, (c) como influenciaba la tarea el procesamiento de la informacion, (d) como integraban los estudiantes la informacion de distintos textos y (e) si los estudiantes procedian a corroborar, buscar las fuentes y contextualizar durante la evaluacion de los materiales historicos. Encontramos que los modelos mentales creados por estos estudiantes eran mas consistentes internamente luego de la lectura de al menos dos documentos, pero su consistencia no aumentaba despues de eso. Cuando se los comparo con lectores conocedores del tema, no lograron hacer ningun progreso despues de una primera lectura. Al examinar sus notas, encontramos que los estudiantes tendieron a tomar nota literalmente, sin tener en cuenta la tarea final, lo que sugiere que usaron las lecturas iniciales para reunir el conjunto de los hechos acerca del incidente o la resolucion. Cuando se les pidio una descripcion, tendieron a permanecer muy ligados al texto. Cuando se les pidio una opinion, sin embargo, tendieron a ignorar la informacion de los textos, aun cuando hubieran tomado abundantes notas. Nuestras observaciones sugieren que los estudiantes de escuela secundaria parecen no poder beneficiarse con el uso de multiples textos, especialmente aquellos que presentan opiniones conflictivas, si no se les da instruccion especifica acerca de la integracion de informacion de distintos textos. EINIGE PADAGOGEN (z.B. Ravitch, 1992) schlugen vor, das Schuler/innen unterschiedliche historische Quellen zum Studium der Geschichte lesen sollten. Solche Dokumente konnen Primarquellen sein, z.B. Kongresakte oder Augenzeugenberichte, Sekundarquellen, wie z.B. Zeitungsberichte, oder Tertiarquellen, wie z.B. Lehr- oder Geschichtsbucher. Diese Studie untersuchte die Vorgange, als Highschool-Schuler/inne/n Dokumente uber kontroversielle Ereignisse der amerikanischen Geschichte, z.B. den Vorfall am Tonkin-Golf und dessen Nachwirkungen, vorgelegt wurden. Die Schuler/innen wurden gebeten, diese Dokumente zu lesen und diese zu beschreiben, oder sich eine Meinung uber den Vorfall oder die Masnahmen des Senats in Form der Tonkin-Golf-Resolution zu bilden. Unser Interesse richtete sich darauf, ob a) die Schuler/innen eine reiche, geistige Vorstellung von dem historischen Ereignis entwickeln konnten; b) was sie mit den Informationsquellen machten; c) wie die Aufgabenstellung ihren Wissenserwerb beeinfluste; d) wie die Schuler/innen die Informationen der einzelnen Texte transferierten und e) ob die Schuler/innen sich in der Auswertung des historischen Materials engagierten, indem sie dieses bestatigten, ausfindig machten und Sinnzusammenhange herstellten. Wir fanden heraus, das das Geschichtsbild, das sich die Schuler/innen geschaffen hatten, gefestigter war, wenn mindestens zwei Dokumente gelesen wurden, aber mit mehr nicht besser wurde. Verglichen mit gutinformierten Lesern zeigten sie keinen Wissenzuwachs nach dem ersten Lesen. Bei der Untersuchung ihrer Bemerkungen fanden wir heraus, das Schuler/innen dazu neigten, wortgetreue Bemerkungen zu machen, ohne auf das Lernziel zu achten, was den Schlus nahelegt, das sie die ersten Leseeindrucke verwendeten, um die Fakten uber den Vorfall oder die Resolution im Gedachtnis zu speichern. Wenn die Schuler/innen um eine Beschreibung gefragt wurden, tendierten sie dazu, nahe am Text zu bleiben. Wenn sie um ihre Meinung gefragt wurden, neigten sie jedoch dazu, die im Text gelesenen Informationen zu negieren, auch wenn sie sich umfangreiche Notizen gemacht hatten. Unsere Beobachtungen legen den Schlus nahe, das Higschool-Schuler/innen noch nicht imstande sind, von verschiedenen Informationsquellen zu profitieren, besonders wenn diese einander widersprechende Meinungen ergeben und wenn keine ausdruckliche Anweisung erfolgt, Informationen aus verschiedenen Texten miteinander zu kombinieren.

College Academic Assistance Programs and Practices

Most public institutions offer some form of academic assistance to help their students adjust to the demands of college level learning tasks. Because these academic assistance efforts vary considerably, ranging from an emphasis on functional reading to an emphasis on strategic learning, it is important to describe these programs and their instructional methodologies and to review the pertinent research supporting them. After examining four critical issues confronting all academic assistance programs, the authors examined the goals, assessment procedures, salient features, and program evaluation methods of four prevalent program models: learning to learn courses, supplemental instruction, required programs for underprepared students, and integrated reading/writing courses. They concluded by outlining suggestions for future research and by listing specific questions that college students need to ask about the programs at their institutions.

Effects of Prior Knowledge Activation Modes and Text Structure on Nonscience Majors’ Comprehension of Physics

AbstractOur purpose in this study was to investigate a pragmatic, low-cost way to enhance student learning of complex science concepts without totally revamping texts or methods of instruction. Undergraduate nonscience majors (N = 62) with known naive conceptions about projectile motion were randomly assigned to one of six groups formed from three levels of a prior knowledge activation activity and two levels of text. The results of a multivariate analysis of variance showed that activating competent readers’ naive conceptions about a complex science concept is not as effective a means for dispelling inaccurate information as is the practice of activating their naive conceptions and then explicitly directing them to read and attend to ideas that might differ from their own. This result and the no difference found for refutation text are discussed within the context of earlier work and Kintsch’s (1980) observation that incongruity leads to new learning.

Dyslexia: Neuroanatomical/Neurolinguistic Perspectives.

DYSLEXIA HAS been and continues to be a controversial term describing a severe reading disability that is presumed to be of neurological origin. Researchers in reading base much of their criticism regarding dyslexia on seriously outdated views of the psychological and neurological literature. Much, if not all, of the recent research on dyslexia conducted by neuroscientists is ignored in favor of a simplistic view of this disorder. In response, two areas of concern regarding dyslexia are addressed in this article. First, a review of attempts to adequately define dyslexia is presented with a focus on recent efforts at developing a nosology of dyslexia. Second, the neurological basis of reading and severe reading failure is also discussed with an emphasis on validating evidence provided through brain-mapping procedures and cytoarchitectonic (postmortem) studies. Neurolinguistic investigations that relate deficient subprocesses in reading to neuropsychologically derived models of reading failure may provide further evidence as to important brain-behavior relations. It is argued that the application of the term dyslexia to severe reading failure of neurologic origin is appropriate since an adequate definition of this condition exists and concrete evidence is available attesting to the unique neurolinguistic and neuropsychological nature of the disorder.

Overcoming misconceptions in science: An on‐line study of prior knowledge activation

Abstract Students with misconceptions about the principles of motion either had their misconceptions activated or not. They then read one of two types of text‐text which refuted misconceptions or text without refutation. Testing revealed that, while there was no significant difference relating to the type of text, students who had misconceptions activated did better on short answer and true false tests, but not on an application task. In order to explore how readers overcome misconceptions, a selected group of students was asked to recall their thinking as they reread their text on the computer and/or were interviewed in relation to each of the assigned tasks. On the basis of these data, it was suggested that students who have misconceptions after formal experience may have a more difficult time overcoming them than students who have no formal experience in physics. Further, students who use a variety of strategies for processing the information may have an advantage over students who use fewer strategies.

Studying narrative text: The effects of annotating vs. journal writing on test performance

Abstract While making marginal notations in text is considered an effective test preparation strategy, its effect is rarely studied. Further, few studies have dealt with annotations for narrative text. One purpose of this study was to measure the effects of training students to make annotations vs. training them in a commonly used strategy for narratives, journal writing, as preparation strategies for objective and essay tests on novels. Another was to measure which annotation or journal writing behaviors correlated with higher scores on the criterion measures. It was found that annotation was more effective for objective test items, but not essays. Writing inferential annotations appeared to be correlated with answering inferential questions correctly. These findings are discussed in relation to Anderson and Armbrusters (1984) conclusion that study strategies which relate more directly to the criterion measures will be more effective than study strategies which do not.

Dyslexia: Two Priorities for the 1980s

Within the past decade significant advances have been made in articulating the unique neuropsychological and cognitive processes in dyslexic children. The brain mapping procedures and postmortum studies are especially important in this regard. However, two important issues remain largely unaddressed. First, to date, no recognized nosology for dyslexia or subtypes of dyslexia exist. Second, the functional neurolinguistic system involved in reading and severe reading failure is, as of yet, still not completely understood in regard to subtypes of dyslexia. This article discusses these two areas of priority and proposes a framework for addressing these areas of concern.

Content Analysis of Two Reading Series for Disabled Readers.

Abstract Two basais designed for remedial readers were analyzed for literature content and for their portrayal of reading attitudes as represented in the text. The content was analyzed using a nine genre classification scheme, and attitudes were analyzed based upon whether or not they dealt with reading for pleasure, the utility of reading, the frustrations of readers, or with children or adults needing help with reading. It was found that both series made some attempt to portray attitudes toward reading in their text selections, the most often used topic being the usefulness of reading skill. As to content, it was found that informational selections were used more than other literature types in both series.