Variables and Strategies in School Learning
Item 3. Variables that Influence School Learning
3.1. Variables
3.1.1. Text Features
1. Textual Structure: All texts possess an internal organization that can be revealed through thorough analysis, although the specific relationships that shape this organization vary between text types. The reader’s role is akin to that of a linguist, needing to decipher the text’s structure and how each statement relates to its predecessors. This discovery hinges on the rhetorical structure, semantic relations within the text, the reader’s processing limitations, and their prior knowledge.
2. Number of New Terms: This index is contingent upon the subject’s prior knowledge. A text’s difficulty isn’t inherent but rather relative to the reader. Challenges in comprehension can stem from the volume of new information and the complexity of the relationships between concepts. Therefore, any information should be considered on a spectrum from “few items with poor relations” to “many elements with rich relations.”
3.1.2. School Context
1. Relations with the Teacher: This highlights the significance of modeling in learning comprehension strategies. The teacher, as the primary model, can demonstrate various strategies to students. Furthermore, a long-standing tradition suggests that teacher expectations regarding student capabilities can influence their performance.
2. Social Contacts Between Peers: Another crucial aspect of the school context is the nature of relationships between the teacher and students, and amongst the students themselves. Research emphasizes the importance of two educational models: tutored learning and reciprocal teaching.
In all cases, the teacher plays a vital role in various instructional actions: planning activities appropriate to the student’s level, motivating, initiating, maintaining, and directing the student’s enthusiasm and perseverance towards goals, providing explicit information (including theoretical and modeled content), and mediating student learning by asking questions and gradually transferring responsibility. However, learning success also depends on the student’s ability to engage in classroom social interactions.
3.1.3. Family Environment
1. Activities: A strong correlation exists between reading activities at home and reading comprehension levels. Data indicates that opportunities to practice reading at home positively transfer to similar activities in the classroom.
2. Strategies: Differences exist in the strategies parents employ to support comprehension. Parents of students with higher reading comprehension exhibit specific behaviors: emphasizing content and meaning, encouraging reading for pleasure, highlighting the importance of context, addressing misunderstandings, and viewing mistakes as learning opportunities. These actions enhance motivation and learning from texts.
3. Attitudes: Parental attitudes towards homework correlate with their children’s academic success. Promoting intrinsic motivation often leads to intrinsically motivated children and, consequently, higher academic achievement.
4. Interactions: Similar patterns emerge in parent-child interactions. Parents of students with reading difficulties tend to use fewer strategies when supervising their children’s work. Parents of students without reading difficulties are more adept at creating a motivating environment and dedicate more time to teaching, even when their children perform well. Positive and supportive parent-child relationships foster greater learning compared to neglectful or hostile relationships.
3.1.4. Sociocultural Environment
1. Status: Socioeconomic status, as assessed by parental education, occupation, or the type of school attended, influences learning. Students with parents of higher socioeconomic status generally have a broader vocabulary, better reading comprehension, and achieve better academic results.
2. Exposure to Reading: Prior exposure to reading significantly impacts comprehension skills.
3.2. Subjective Variables
3.2.1. Prior Knowledge
We can distinguish various types of knowledge:
1. General Knowledge: This refers to the physical and social world in which the reader lives and primarily affects the understanding of narratives.
2. Specific Knowledge: This pertains to the subject matter of a text and plays a similar role in expository texts as general knowledge does in narratives. Readers use existing information to form a framework for understanding new concepts and predicting events within the text. When expectations are met, comprehension is facilitated; when expectations are not met, the reader must modify or abandon their existing framework, making comprehension more challenging.
3. Knowledge of Text Structure: This is particularly relevant for narrative and expository texts. Understanding the organizational structure of a text aids comprehension and allows readers to compensate for poorly written texts.
4. Metacognitive Knowledge: This encompasses several categories related to the reader’s self-awareness, understanding of tasks, and knowledge of strategies. Knowledge of self involves individual perceptions of their learning and thinking abilities. Knowledge about tasks involves analyzing the cognitive activities required and their difficulty. Strategic knowledge relates to understanding which actions facilitate learning.
3.2.2. Learning Strategies
The term “strategy” originally referred to military procedures. In general, it denotes a set of organized procedures aimed at achieving a goal.
1. Concept: Learning strategies are defined in various ways: operations and procedures used to acquire, retain, and recall knowledge; sequences of processes involved in learning situations; or procedures that enhance text processing.
2. Types: Numerous classifications of strategies exist. One common categorization divides them into cognitive, metacognitive, and orectic strategies. Cognitive strategies relate to information acquisition and utilization. Orectic strategies encompass emotional and motivational aspects. Metacognitive strategies involve reflective activity and the overall management of the learning process.
3. Metacognitive Strategies: The study of metacognitive strategies has gained prominence due to their importance in reading comprehension and text learning. Metacognition can be defined as “cognition about cognition.” It involves two main components:
a. Evaluation: This process informs the meta-level about the object of cognition, often relying on subjective self-reports.
b. Control: This involves the meta-level influencing the object level, potentially initiating, continuing, or terminating an action.
3.2.3. Motivation
Multiple models attempt to explain the role of motivation in reading comprehension.
1. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: Intrinsically motivated behaviors are driven by inherent satisfaction, while extrinsically motivated behaviors are driven by external rewards or punishments. Key differentiating variables include the initiation and termination of reading, time invested, attention control, mental effort, goal selection, strategy selection, and the conceptualization of the task.
2. Goal Orientation: This differentiates students based on their general goals. Task-oriented students focus on mastering the subject matter. Performance-oriented students aim to demonstrate their abilities. Work-avoidant students seek to avoid tasks.
3. Value of School Success: The importance placed on academic achievement influences motivation. Factors include the perceived importance of completing tasks, enjoyment derived from activities, perceived utility for future goals, and the perceived cost of engaging in the task.
4. Academic Self-Concept: This refers to the individual’s perception of their own ability to perform academic tasks. It is influenced by past successes and failures, reinforcements received, and self-assessments of progress towards academic goals.
3.2.4. Working Memory
Working memory plays a crucial role in language comprehension and production, including reading. It is essential for generating, storing, and integrating information from the text. As reading progresses, information enters and exits working memory. When task demands are high, processing slows down, and information may be lost. The capacity of working memory influences comprehension speed and accuracy.
3.3. Activity Variables
Understanding the demands and difficulty of a reading task is crucial for effective comprehension. This depends on factors such as the text type and the reader’s objectives.
3.3.1. Types of Text and Comprehension
Narrative and expository texts are commonly studied in the context of text structure. Several key differences exist between these text types:
1. Expository texts are generally considered factual, while narratives can be fictional.
2. Narratives typically have a clear spatiotemporal context, while expository texts often have a generic context.
3. Narrative and expository texts employ different writing styles.
4. Narratives follow a chronological order, while expository texts follow a logical order.
5. The primary function of narratives is to entertain, while the primary function of expository texts is to inform.
6. Narrative and expository texts utilize different rhetorical devices and connectives.
7. Expository texts often require more inferences to be made for comprehension.
8. Expository texts typically convey more new information than narratives.
9. Narratives are often written in first or third person, while expository texts generally lack a specific personal reference.
10. Narrative comprehension typically develops before expository comprehension.
3.3.2. Differentiation Between Different Goals
Understanding the purpose of reading is crucial for effective comprehension. Different goals require different approaches.
1. Reading in Academic Contexts: This typically involves assigned material and assessments. It is often slow, demanding, and less emotionally engaging.
2. Free Reading: This involves self-selected material and is often not evaluated. It is typically faster, less demanding, and more emotionally engaging.
3.3.3. Match Between Goals and Resources
Readers must adjust their strategies based on the demands of the task and their available resources. This requires awareness of several factors:
1. Meta-knowledge about one’s abilities and current knowledge state.
2. The demands and difficulty of the task.
3. The necessary skills and abilities.
4. The relative importance of different text elements.
5. Strategic knowledge to adapt effort accordingly.
6. Metacognitive experiences, such as recognizing comprehension difficulties or knowledge gaps.
Item 4. Learning Strategy Training
4.1. Program Types
1. Blind Training: This involves teaching strategies without explaining their rationale or context. It may be ineffective for some students.
2. Reasoned Training: This involves explaining the rationale behind strategies and providing feedback on performance.
3. Self-Regulated Training: This incorporates explicit training in metacognitive strategies, such as goal setting, planning, self-monitoring, and self-reflection.
4.2. Terms of Effectiveness of a Program
Effective strategy training should lead to sustained improvements in performance and generalization to new situations.
1. Improved Performance: Training should result in both quantitative and qualitative improvements in task performance.
2. Durability: Improvements should persist over time.
3. Generalization: Improvements should transfer to new situations and tasks.
4. Changes in the Learning Process: Training should demonstrably alter the learning process.
5. Classroom Applicability: Training should be adaptable for classroom implementation by teachers.