Reading comprehension and metacognition: The importance of inferential skills

Abstract We explored relations between reading comprehension performance and self-reported components of metacognition in middle-school children. Students’ self-reported metacognitive strategies in planning and evaluation accounted for significant variance in reading comprehension performance on questions involving inferences. In Study 2, middle school students read a science text then made predictions about how they would perform on a comprehension test. Students’ metacomprehension accuracy was related to their performance at different levels of understanding. Students’ text-based question performance accounted for significant variance in metacomprehension accuracy for text-based questions, and inference-based question performance accounted for significant variance in metacomprehension accuracy for inference-based questions. Results from the two studies suggest that metacognitive and metacomprehension knowledge is aligned with the level of information given in text, and is related to deeper understanding of texts, particularly for inferential information. We discuss the implications of these findings and how future research on absolute metacomprehension accuracy should consider different levels of understanding.

[1]  W. Hays.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 1983 .

[2]  W. Kintsch.  The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: a construction-integration model. , 1988, Psychological review.

[3]  Lin-Miao L. Agler,et al.  Students’ Metacomprehension Knowledge: Components that Predict Comprehension Performance , 2015 .

[4]  J. Dunlosky,et al.  Metacomprehension , 2007 .

[5]  Thomas D. Griffin,et al.  Individual differences, rereading, and self-explanation: Concurrent processing and cue validity as constraints on metacomprehension accuracy , 2008, Memory & cognition.

[6]  John Dunlosky,et al.  Why Does Rereading Improve Metacomprehension Accuracy? Evaluating the Levels-of-Disruption Hypothesis for the Rereading Effect , 2005 .

[7]  Gregory Schraw.  Promoting general metacognitive awareness , 1998 .

[8]  M. Boekaerts,et al.  Using Multiple Calibration Indices in Order to Capture the Complex Picture of What Affects Students' Accuracy of Feeling of Confidence. , 2010 .

[9]  Danielle S McNamara,et al.  iSTART: Interactive strategy training for active reading and thinking , 2004, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[10]  Ginette Gabriela Castro Yáñez,et al.  Competencia léxica, comprensión lectora y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de enseñanza media , 2014 .

[11]  K. Thiede.  The importance of monitoring and self-regulation during multitrial learning , 1999, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[12]  Maria T. Potenza,et al.  Constraints on the Calibration of Performance , 1993 .

[13]  A. Efklides.  Metacognition Defining : Its Facets and Levels of Functioning in Relation to Self-Regulation and Co-regulation , 2008 .

[14]  C. A. Weaver,et al.  Constraining factors in calibration of comprehension , 1990 .

[15]  Keith W. Thiede,et al.  Summarizing can improve metacomprehension accuracy , 2003 .

[16]  Arthur M. Glenberg,et al.  Calibration of comprehension. , 1985 .

[17]  Douglas J. Hacker,et al.  11. Metacomprehension of science text: investigating the levels of disruption hypothesis , 2002 .

[18]  Antonio P. Gutierrez,et al.  Effects of Strategy Training and Incentives on Students’ Performance, Confidence, and Calibration , 2015 .

[19]  Douglas J. Hacker,et al.  A Comparison of the Effects of Practice Tests and Traditional Review on Performance and Calibration , 2001 .

[20]  M. Peronard,et al.  La metacognición como herramienta didáctica , 2005 .

[21]  Linda Bol,et al.  Explaining calibration accuracy in classroom contexts: the effects of incentives, reflection, and explanatory style , 2008 .

[22]  Jane Oakhill,et al.  Inference making ability and its relation to comprehension failure in young children , 1999 .

[23]  D. McNamara.  Self-Explanation and Reading Strategy Training (SERT) Improves Low-Knowledge Students’ Science Course Performance , 2017 .

[24]  Danielle S. McNAMARA and Joseph P. Magliano,et al.  Self-Explanation and Metacognition: The Dynamics of Reading , 2009 .

[25]  Douglas J. Hacker,et al.  Handbook of Metacognition in Education , 2009 .

[26]  Philip H. Winne,et al.  Students’ calibration of knowledge and learning processes: Implications for designing powerful software learning environments , 2004 .

[27]  Gregory Schraw,et al.  Metacognitive theories , 1995 .

[28]  J. Dunlosky,et al.  Metacomprehension A Brief History and How to Improve Its Accuracy , 2007 .

[29]  Thomas Sanocki,et al.  Enhancing Calibration of Comprehension , 1987 .

[30]  Douglas J. Hacker,et al.  The Influence of Overt Practice, Achievement Level, and Explanatory Style on Calibration Accuracy and Performance , 2005 .

[31]  Aníbal Puente,et al.  Measuring metacognitive strategies using the reading awareness scale ESCOLA , 2009 .

[32]  John C. Nesbit,et al.  Supporting Self-Regulated Learning with Cognitive Tools , 2009 .

[33]  J. Flavell.  Metacognition and Cognitive Monitoring: A New Area of Cognitive-Developmental Inquiry. , 1979 .

[34]  Jennifer Wiley,et al.  Test expectancy affects metacomprehension accuracy. , 2011, The British journal of educational psychology.

[35]  Carolyn Plumb,et al.  Text revision: Detection and correction of errors. , 1994 .

[36]  Virginia Jiménez Rodríguez,et al.  Medición de estrategias metacognitivas mediante la Escala de Conciencia Lectora: ESCOLA , 2017 .

[37]  M. Barnes,et al.  Comprehension skill, inference-making ability, and their relation to knowledge , 2001, Memory & cognition.

[38]  D. McNamara.  SERT: Self-Explanation Reading Training , 2004 .

[39]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using multivariate statistics, 5th ed. , 2007 .

[40]  Annemarie S. Palincsar,et al.  Enhancing Instructional Time Through Attention to Metacognition , 1987, Journal of learning disabilities.

[41]  Erica L. Snow,et al.  iSTART-2: A reading comprehension and strategy instruction tutor , 2016 .

[42]  T. O. Nelson,et al.  Why investigate metacognition , 1994 .

[43]  S. Paris,et al.  Children's Metacognition About Reading: issues in Definition, Measurement, and Instruction , 1987 .

[44]  Antonio P. Gutierrez,et al.  Exploring the Meta-Comprehension Abilities of Students with Intellectual Disabilities. , 2018 .

[45]  B. Zimmerman.  Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective. , 2000 .

[46]  M. Boekaerts,et al.  Self-Regulation in the Classroom: A Perspective on Assessment and Intervention , 2005 .

[47]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Comprehension: A Paradigm for Cognition , 1998 .

[48]  C. A. Weaver,et al.  Judgments of Learning at Delays: Shifts in Response Patterns or Increased Metamemory Accuracy? , 1997 .

[49]  José Otero.  12. Noticing and fixing difficulties while understanding science texts , 2002 .

[50]  Gregory Schraw,et al.  The Effect of Metacognitive Knowledge on Local and Global Monitoring , 1994 .

[51]  Robert G. Crowder.  Psicología de la lectura , 1985 .

[52]  Gregory Schraw,et al.  The Effect of Knowledge and Strategy Training on Monitoring Accuracy , 2002 .

[53]  Jennifer Wiley,et al.  Metacognitive Monitoring During and After Reading , 2009 .

[54]  Jennifer Wiley,et al.  Foundational Studies 1-1-2005 Understanding the Delayed-Keyword Effect on Metacomprehension Accuracy , 2013 .

[55]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 1983 .

[56]  T. O. Nelson,et al.  Delayed judgments of learning cause both a decrease in absolute accuracy (calibration) and an increase in relative accuracy (resolution) , 2006, Memory & cognition.

[57]  T. O. Nelson.  Metamemory: A Theoretical Framework and New Findings , 1990 .

[58]  Gregory Schraw,et al.  Assessing metacognitive awareness , 1994 .

[59]  W. Kintsch,et al.  Are Good Texts Always Better? Interactions of Text Coherence, Background Knowledge, and Levels of Understanding in Learning From Text , 1996 .