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Postsecondary Content-Area Reading-Writing Intervention: Development and Determination of Potential Efficacy

Year: 2006
Name of Institution:
Teachers College, Columbia University
Goal: Development and Innovation
Principal Investigator:
Perin, Dolores
Award Amount: $1,168,758
Award Period: 3 years
Award Number: R305G060106

Description:

Purpose: The researchers in this study intended to develop and test the Content Comprehension Strategy Intervention, an approach that provides guided practice and transfer instruction in several reading and writing skills while contextualizing instruction in science content. In the early 2000s, it was thought that poor outcomes of community college developmental education may stem from inappropriate instructional approaches, including lack of direct instruction in reading and writing skills, lack of instructor preparation to teach to low-skilled students, lack of instructional time, and limited connection of remedial reading and writing instruction. This project aimed to address these problems by developing, testing, revising, and retesting the Content Comprehension intervention.

Project Activities: The researchers proposed to develop the Content Comprehension Strategy Intervention, a curricular supplement that provided guided practice in reading comprehension and writing skills using text from science textbooks of the type that students will encounter in later course work. The Content Comprehension Strategy Intervention was to focus on summarization and clarification of information and generation of questions about science text, provide preparation for tests that students must pass to exit remediation, and teach students how to transfer these skills.

Structured Abstract

THE FOLLOWING CONTENT DESCRIBES THE PROJECT AT THE TIME OF FUNDING

Setting: The data will be collected in developmental education (remedial) programs in three community colleges in New York, Florida, and Texas.

Sample: Participants are 1200 students enrolled in 48 upper-level developmental education courses at 3 different community colleges. Participants are low socioeconomic status adults mainly of African American and Latino background, aged approximately 18- to 35-years old. Many aspire to science-intensive degrees in nursing, allied health, and technology, but are hindered by low academic skills.

Intervention: The intervention to be developed is the Content Comprehension Strategy, a curricular supplement that provides guided practice in reading comprehension and writing skills using text from science textbooks of the type that students will encounter in later course work. The Content Comprehension Strategy focuses on summarization and clarification of information and generation of questions about science text, provides preparation for tests that students must pass to exit remediation, and teaches for transfer.

Research Design and Methods: This project will employ an experimental design with groups randomly assigned to conditions, and pre-tests and post-tests. The potential of contextualization is determined by comparison with the use of generic (non-science) text of similar text structure, readability, and text density to the science text. Classrooms will be nested in instructional treatment (treatment and no-treatment control), and students in the treatment condition will be nested within instructional conditions.

Control Condition: A no-treatment control group will receive standard remedial education classes offered by the community colleges.

Key Measures: Measures include the Nelson-Denny Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Tests and a battery of project-developed pre- and post-tests to measure written summarization skills for science, science knowledge, science interest, science vocabulary knowledge, the ability to generate science questions, and near and far transfer of the various skills. Community college institutional data will be used to assess and track outcomes on passing the standardized test needed to exit remediation, as well as retention, course grades, grade point average, and graduation. This development project is intended only to obtain evidence of the potential efficacy of the intervention; initial analyses will be at the level of the student.

Products and Publications

ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.