Supporting middle school students use nonlinear science texts in an inquiry classroom

The goal of this study was to investigate whether supporting sixth grade students to monitor and regulate their navigation behavior while reading from nonlinear science texts would lead to better navigation and learning. Metanavigation support in the form of prompts was provided to groups of students who used a system called CoMPASS to complete a design challenge. The metanavigation prompts aimed at encouraging students to understand the affordances of the navigational aids in CoMPASS and use them to guide their navigation. The results suggested that providing metanavigation support enabled the groups to make coherent transitions among the text units. Findings also revealed that reading comprehension, presence of metanavigation support and prior domain knowledge significantly predicted students' individual understanding of science principles and the relationships among them.

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