Effects of Prior Knowledge Activation through Small-Group Discussion on the Processing of Science Text.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which problem analysis facilitated the subsequent processing of expository text, both for novices and a comparison group. A text on osmosis consisted of six-pages and was used as reading material. The ninth-grade students were considered novices because they were unfamiliar with the biological content used in the experiment. The tenth-grade student who had studied the content were considered as a comparison group. The subjects (88 students from a Dutch secondary school: 46 ninth-grade and 42 tenth-grade students) were randomly assigned to either the experimental or the control group. The text was studied less than 20 minutes and liscussed less than 10 minutes in the experimental group. A different picture was found from the data by the grade 10 and grade 9 students on free recall. For the grade 9 students producing explanations for a blood cell problem facilitated the processing and retrieval of the problem-relevant text. This indicated the facilitative effect of activation of prior knowledge influenced the integration of new knowledge into existing structures. An analysis of the verbatim protocols showed that the grade 9 students dealt with the blood cell problem by segmentation. No statistically significant differences were found related to the grade 10 data. A table showing naive conceptions of the processes underlying the blood cell was presented. (YP) .***** ********** * ********** ********** ****** **** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * Activation of Prior Kno*ledi Effects of Prior Knowledge Activation through Small-Group Discussion on the Processing of Science Text Henk G. Schmidt! and Vimla L. Patel2 !University of Limburg, Maastricht, the Netherlands and 2McGill University, Montreal, Canada U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION d/ CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it O Minor changes have been price to improve reproduction quality Points of new or opinions stated in this docu ment do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY