Explicit Strategy Instruction and Metacognition in Reading Instruction

Explicit Strategy Instruction and Metacognition in Reading Instruction K. Luttenegger (2012). Explicit strategy instruction and metacognition in reading instruction in preservice teachers’ elementary school classrooms. Journal of Reading Education, 37(3), 13 -20.

Agenda Purpose Conceptual Research Framework Questions Methods Data Analysis Findings Significance Exercise

Purpose “Being able to read was much more than simply sounding out the letters and the words on a page. ” Background: As a teacher educator, the author wondered what happens after the class is finished and what the teaching results really are Key Points: Author seeks to connect reading methods coursework to student teaching in elementary classrooms Critical Dialogue: From interest to Research Question? What is the basis for reseachers to develop a qualitative research study?

Conceptual Framework Model of Appropriation of Concepts Appropriation: "The process by which individuals transform their understanding of and responsibility for activities through their own participation" (Rogoff, 1995, p. 150)

Conceptual Framework Appropriation in the context of a teacher education system: The process of learning to use the pedagogical tools available and internalizing the ways of thinking specific to classroom practice (Grossman, Smagorinsky, and Valencia, 1999) Conceptual underpinnings Surface features Label Lack of appropriation Mastery

Explicit Strategy Instruction Six Strategies that support developing readers: (Duke & Pearson, 2002) Prediction/prior knowledge Think aloud Text structure Visual representations Summarization Questions/questioning Four common features of explicit strategy instruction: (Pressley, 2002) Teachers explicitly work on decoding and comprehension strategies Teachers work with students in small groups to teach strategies Teachers and students focus on interpreting text Teachers encourage students to self-monitor as they read

Metacognition: Metacognition is thinking about thinking, or knowing about one's own thinking Metacognitive readers: "The really good, metacognitively sophisticated reader knows that high comprehension requires active reading: predicting, questioning, imaging, clarifying, and summarizing while reading" (Pressley, 2002, p. 305) Metacognitive strategies actively engage the students in the reading process

Research Questions Primary Research Questions: (1) What is the depth of student teachers' appropriation of explicit strategy instruction and metacognition? (2) How did the student teachers' appropriation of these concepts change from coursework into student teaching? Critical Dialogue: What is the best way to measure depth of student appropriation of a concept? What is the best way to measure change in appropriation? Achieving mastery Appropriating conceptual underpinnings Appropriating surface features Appropriating a label Lack of appropriation

Methods Type of Research: Qualitative Case Study Participants: Four student-teachers in a traditional teacher education program in which they took a series of courses followed by 16 weeks of student teaching

Methods Data-collection activities: Observations: Interviews: each student teacher was observed for an average of 8. 5 hours Six interviews with each student teacher Artifacts: an average of 199 pages of artifacts for each student teacher including coureswork notes, handouts, lesson plans, and student teaching work sample unit Cooperating Each teachers were observed and interviewed university supervisor was interviewed Interviewed reading course professors and collected course artifacts Critical Dialogue: What can we hope to gain from the observations in our own projects? Are any of the other data collection activities useful to our projects?

Data Analysis Data-analysis activities: Coding: Developed coding categories and reliability in applying coding to the interview transcriptions, observation records, and artifacts Analysis: Developed tables to help illustrate appropration of specific concepts as part of the analysis of the data: Table 1: Approprication of Explicit Strategy Instruction Table 2: Appropriation of Teaching Students to Become Metacognitive Readers

Findings Three of four student teachers stayed at the same level of appropriation from coursework into student teaching for teaching students to become metacognitive readers The level of appropriation of metacognition deepened for one student Two of four had only appropriated the surface features of explicit strategy instruction

Significance “Knowledge and wisdom was found in books” Key Points: Explicit strategy instruction is required to help students develop metacognitive skills in reading Most teachers don’t know how to use the strategies themselves (Pressley, 2002) The in-class portion of pre-service training and the practical application in the classroom are not aligned A framework for future research in teacher education Critical Dialogue: Could you apply concepts from your coursework to early teaching?

Practical Exercise

Strategies Summarizing is the process of identifying the important information, themes, and ideas within a text and integrating these into a clear and concise statement that communicates the essential meaning of the text. Summarizing provides the impetus to create a context for understanding the specifics of a text When using the questioning strategy, readers monitor and assess their own understanding of the text by asking themselves questions. Questioning involves the identification of information, themes, and ideas that are central and important enough to warrant further consideration. The central themes are used to generate questions that are self-tests for the reader. Questioning provides a context for exploring the text more deeply and assuring the construction of meaning

Summary Key Points: From ‘Interest’ to ‘Research Question’ Using a variety of data collection methods to fully explore an issue Bringing concepts from the coursework into practice