MODELS OF READING COMPREHENSION FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS Sonja Pečjak, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia Svjetlana Kolić Vehovec, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Rijeka, Croatia Neža Ajdišek, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia Barbara Rončević, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Rijeka, Croatia Anja Podlesek, Department of psychology, Faculty of arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

8/3/2015Template copyright THE AIM OF THE STUDY how different factors affect reading comprehension of younger and older primary school students to establish differences between these two age groups in the pattern of functioning of factors of reading comprehension

8/3/2015Template copyright READING LITERACY Reading comprehension as an indicator of reading literacy. Reading skills and abilites represent an effective means for acceptance, organization, and usage of information in different areas. Reading skills and abilities are an important cross-curriculum competence in educational context.

8/3/2015Template copyright FACTORS OF READING COMPREHENSION COGNITIVEMETACOGNITIVEMOTIVATIONALEMOTIONAL

(META) COGNITIVE FACTORS COGNITIVE Decoding speedVocabulary METACOGNITIVE Summarizing Metacognitive awareness

8/3/2015Template copyright MOTIVATIONAL & EMOTIONAL FACTORS MOTIVATIONAL Reading interestFlow EMOTIONAL Emotions during reading/ attitudes

METHOD

8/3/2015Template copyright PARTICIPANTS th grade students 105 boys 100 girls th grade students 120 boys 145 girls statistically significant differences in reading comprehension between younger and older students (t (df = 383,88) = -5,384; p = 0,000)

8/3/2015Template copyright INSTURMENTS Reading comprehension exploratory text for 5 th grade students (from PIRLS 2001 study) exploratory text for 9 th grade students (from PISA 2003 study) 12 questions (6 multiple choice questions and 6 questions which demanded a written answer ) total of 17 points

8/3/2015Template copyright (META)COGNITIVE FACTORS COGNITIVE –One Minute Reading Test –Vocabulary test (Hershl's Test of Reading (Level 3 – Elementary Form) METACOGNITIVE –Summarizing: summarizing main ideas from three texts –Metacognitive knowledge Questionnaire (main purpose of reading and display knowledge of different reading and learning strategies)

8/3/2015Template copyright MOTIVATIONAL and EMOTIONAL FACTORS MOTIVATIONAL Reading Motivation Questionnaire for Young Students (Peklaj and Bucik, 2003): –interest in reading –lack of self- efficiency/incompetency –self-efficiency in oral reading Reading Motivation Questionnaire for Older Students (Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997) –extrinsic motivation –interest in reading –flow in reading –lack of self- efficiency/incompetency EMOTIONAL Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (McKenna and Kear, 1990) –a recreational reading score –an academic reading score –total score = emotional dimension in reading situations = emotions during reading

8/3/2015Template copyright PROCEDURE In a classroom setting, participants completed reading tasks and questionnaires during three school hours at two different times. Written consent was obtained from parents for all participating students prior to the students’ participation in the study. Path analysis was performed using LISREL. Covariances between the variables were entered into a model, and the MLM was used for estimating the parameters. We allowed for the correlation between the exogeneous variables and for the correlated errors in the endogeneous variables.

RESULTS

8/3/2015Template copyright GENERAL MODEL OF READING COMPREHENSION Motivational and emotional factors ( Meta)cognitive factors

8/3/2015Template copyright A MODEL OF READING COMPREHENSION FOR 5 th GRADE STUDENTS (RMSEA=0,066; 90 % interval of thrust for RMSEA = 0,015–0,11; AGFI = 0,91; NNFI = 0,95)

8/3/2015Template copyright MODEL OF READING COMPREHENSION FOR 9 th GRADE STUDENTS (RMSEA=0,044, 90 % interval of thrust for RMSEA = 0,00–0,083; AGFI = 0,95; NNFI = 0,98)

5th GRADE vs. 9th GRADE Included factors explained 37% of variance of reading comprehension. A direct effect of two (meta)cognitive factors on reading comprehension: –vocabulary (0,51), –summarizing (0,22). Metacognitive awareness was not an independent predictor of reading comprehension (was related to vocabulary and summarizing). Motivational factors were not directly related to reading comprehension, but to (meta)cognitive factors. Medium to high intercorrelations between motivational and emotional factors. Included factors explained 17% of variance of reading comprehension. A direct effect of two (meta)cognitive factors on reading comprehension: –vocabulary (0,31), –metacognitive awareness (0,15). Among motivational factors incompetency was an independent predictor of reading comprehension (-0,14). Flow and emotions during reading were related to (meta)cognitive factors – the relations are probably reciprocal. Reading interest was not correlated with (meta)cognitive factors. Medium to high intercorrelations between motivational and emotional factors.

8/3/2015Template copyright CONCLUSIONS AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS the proposed model better explained reading comprehension with younger than with older students (37% vs. 17% of variance in reading comprehension) motivational and emotional factors are strongly interconnected greater predictive power for cognitive and metacognitive factors than for motivational- emotional factors vocabulary had the strongest predictive power incompetency was established as the only motivational factor which was directly connected to reading comprehension of older students entity of motivational-emotional factors enlargement of students’ vocabulary the importance of different reading learning strategies to achieve better reading comprehension model the use of these strategies and create such learning situations, in which usage of these strategies would be meaningful inclusion of other factors (e.g. intelligence) or more specific valid measures (e.g. situational interest)