IES Grant
Title: | Reading to learn: Investigating general and domain specific supports in a technology-rich environment with diverse readers learning from informational text | ||
Center: | NCER | Year: | 2002 |
Principal Investigator: | Dalton, Bridget | Awardee: | Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) |
Program: | Literacy [Program Details] | ||
Award Period: | 3 years | Award Amount: | $1,499,281 |
Type: | Development and Innovation | Award Number: | R305G020041 |
Description: | Co-Principal Investigator(s): Palincsar, Annemarie Purpose: STRUCTURED ABSTRACT THE FOLLOWING CONTENT DESCRIBES THE PROJECT AT THE TIME OF FUNDING Research Design and Methods: In this set of studies, the research team will compare the cognitive activity and learning of both struggling and average fourth-grade readers as they read and learn from digital narrative, science text, and multi-media science websites. Science texts share a set of unique features that may be less familiar to young readers than the defining features of narrative texts. Thus, science texts explain a phenomenon by describing and modeling that phenomenon, presenting data using figures, tables, and graphs, and expecting students to generate novel inferences about the phenomenon based on information presented in the text. The results of the research effort will detail what sorts of comprehension supports are most effective at improving comprehension of science texts and in developing scientific knowledge and reasoning. In addition, the researchers will specify which supports are most effective for which students. In summary, then, this research—on descriptive and two experimental studies—will be conducted with urban fourth-grade students using a computer-based learning environment with features such as text-to-speech decoding with synchronized highlighting of text and an embedded system of scaffolded cognitive prompts, hints, and modeling. This research will document the degree to which these embedded computer supports improve struggling readers' ability to acquire information from science texts. In addition, the research will provide basic information about how the comprehension of science texts occurs across a range of readers and the degree to which these computer supports aid readers of all skill levels. Building on the empirical evidence validating the use of computer supports, this research will be able to inform teachers as they instruct students in the process of reading science texts, textbook writers as they organize science textbooks, and web designers as they create multi-media websites. PRODUCTS ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here. Select Publications: Book chapters |
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