Puiwa Lei

Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial Examining Intelligent Tutoring of Structure Strategy for Fifth-Grade Readers.

Abstract This article reports on a large scale randomized controlled trial to study the efficacy of a web-based intelligent tutoring system for the structure strategy designed to improve content area reading comprehension. The research was conducted with 128 fifth-grade classrooms within 12 school districts in rural and suburban settings. Classrooms within each school were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. The intervention group used the intelligent web-based tutoring system for the structure strategy (ITSS) for 30 to 45 min each week as a partial substitute for the language arts curriculum for the entire school year. The structure strategy teaches students how to read and comprehend expository texts by identifying the text structure and creating strategic mental representations of the text. The web-based tutoring system delivered the structure strategy training with modeling, practice tasks, assessment, and feedback. The control classrooms used the schools language arts curriculum for the full language-arts time. Results show that the ITSS delivered structure strategy training improved reading comprehension measured by a standardized test and researcher designed measures.

High-fidelity implementation of web-based intelligent tutoring system improves fourth and fifth graders content area reading comprehension

Technologies and their effectiveness are impacted by how well they are implemented. A large scale randomized controlled trial was conducted to study the efficacy of a web-based intelligent tutoring system to deliver the structure strategy to improve content area reading comprehension. We present our theory of change focusing on the theoretical framework: structure strategy, delivery approach of web-based intelligent tutoring systems, and contextual conditions for successful adoption of the tool with fidelity. Results from the optimal implementation schools show statistically significantly better performance by ITSS classrooms compared to their control counterparts with moderate to large effect sizes. Conditions for implementing technology-based interventions with fidelity in schools are discussed.

Web-based text structure strategy instruction improves seventh graders’ content area reading comprehension.

Reading comprehension in the content areas is a challenge for many middle grade students. Text structure-based instruction has yielded positive outcomes in reading comprehension at all grade levels in small and large studies. The text structure strategy delivered via the web, called Intelligent Tutoring System for the Text Structure Strategy (ITSS), has proven successful in large-scale studies at 4th and 5th grades and a smaller study at 7th grade. Text structure-based instruction focuses on selection and encoding of strategic memory. This strategic memory proves to be an effective springboard for many comprehension-based activities such as summarizing, inferring, elaborating, and applying. This was the first large-scale randomized controlled efficacy study on the web-based delivery of the text structure strategy to 7th-grade students. 108 classrooms from rural and suburban schools were randomly assigned to ITSS or control and pretests and posttests were administered at the beginning and end of the school year. Multilevel data analyses were conducted on standardized and researcher designed measures of reading comprehension. Results showed that ITSS classrooms outperformed the control classrooms on all measures with the highest effects reported for number of ideas included in the main idea. Results have practical implications for classroom practices.

Evidence of an Intelligent Tutoring System as a Mindtool to Promote Strategic Memory of Expository Texts and Comprehension with Children in Grades 4 and 5.

Reading and comprehending content area texts require learners to effectively select and encode with hierarchically strategic memory structures in order to combine new information with prior knowledge. Unfortunately, evidence from state and national tests shows that children fail to successfully navigate the reading comprehension challenges they face. Schools have struggled to find approaches that can help children succeed in this important task. Typical instruction in classrooms across the country has focused on procedural application of strategies or content-focused approaches that encourage rich discussions. Both approaches have achieved success but have limitations-related transparency and specificity of scaffolds and guidance for the teacher and learner in today’s diverse and complex classroom settings. The text structure strategy combines content and strategy to provide pragmatic, transparent, and scaffolded instruction addressing these challenges. A web-based intelligent tutoring system for the text structure strategy, named ITSS, was designed and developed to provide consistent and high-quality instruction to learners in Grades 4 and 5 about how to read, select main ideas, encode strategic memory structures, make inferences, and monitor comprehension during reading. In this article, we synthesize results from two recent large-scale randomized controlled studies to showcase how the ITSS supports selection and encoding of students’ strategic memory structures and how prior knowledge affects the memory structures. We provide greater depth of information about such processing than examined and reported in extant literature about overall increases in reading comprehension resulting from students using ITSS.

Improving Content Area Reading Comprehension with 4-6th Grade Spanish ELLs Using Web-Based Structure Strategy Instruction.

Reading in the content areas of science, social studies, and current events is a difficult task that is even more elusive to Spanish-speaking English language learners. There is a huge increase in children transitioning from their L1 (e.g., Spanish) to L2 (e.g., English) in classrooms across the USA. These ELs face challenges due to a lack of fluency in decoding, vocabulary, and word, sentence, and discourse level complexities in English learning. Structure strategy instruction on the Web for English Language Learners (SWELL) is a web-based tutoring system that supports ELs in reading comprehension by teaching them about five text structures. In addition, SWELL provides two adaptations for ELs—Spanish Scaffolding (where students were presented materials in both Spanish and English) and English Hybrid (where students were given the option of seeking assistance in Spanish by hovering over words, clicking on sentences, or viewing a full page in Spanish). In this chapter, we report on the design and pilot studies conducted within five classrooms at grades 4, 5, and 6. Our results show improvements in reading comprehension measured by researcher designed measures.