The role of knowledge and reading comprehension has seen a recent explosion of attention from researchers, journalists, and policy advocates. Much of this discourse describes knowledge in neutral terms such as knowledge of "the world". That knowledge of the world, however, is woven into the fabric of the gendered world we live in and its…

Most research in psycholinguistics relies on online measures such as reading time to inform and test theories of language comprehension. However, the value of offline measures such as question-answering performance is sometimes overlooked in sentence processing work. Consequently, psycholinguists do not yet understand how the tasks and measures…

Although millions of dollars and weeks of instructional time are spent nationally on testing students, educators often have little information on how to choose appropriate assessments of adolescent reading for informing instruction. This guide is designed to meet that need, by drawing together evidence about nine of the most commonly-used,…

Included here are two appendixes to "Adult Education Literacy Instruction: A Review of the Research." Appendix A, "Adult Studies," contains: (1) Assessment Profiles; (2) Alphabetics; (3) Fluency; (4) Vocabulary; and (5) Comprehension. Appendix B, "Adolescent Studies," contains: (1) Alphabetics; (2) Fluency; (3) Vocabulary; and (4) Comprehension.…

The purpose of this article is to document the legacy and continuing influence of Michael Pressley's work in the field of reading research and instruction. Descriptions are provided to demonstrate how he translated his data from the cognitive sciences into highly effective pedagogy. A second component of this article discusses how Michael…

Focusing on providing an interdisciplinary framework, the papers in this monograph attempt to synthesize knowledge about comprehension from the points of view of cognitive psychology, textlinguistics, artificial intelligence, and sociolinguistics, as well as from the more conventional perspective of language education. Papers include…

Investigation of the influence of using each of three language units of analysis on the assignment of data to the comprehension categories for recall analysis revealed significant correlations between corresponding categories for two of the units of analysis but a different category profile for the third. (SB)

Using a framework to review the research, this article evaluates the effectiveness of adjunct questions and objectives in a prose learning setting. The framework proved useful in identifying processes responsible for the effects of the two adjunct aids, in explaining unusual and/or discrepant results, and generating recommendations for future…

Aimed at improving the methodology used in comprehension research, this paper analyzes the designs and interpretations of intervention training studies and suggests the implications of that analysis for future research. It points out that the typical training approach, deriving data from three sources--comprehension tests administered to older…

In this paper four classes of procedures for measuring the instructional sensitivity of reading comprehension test items are reviewed. True experimental designs are not recommended because some of the most important reading comprehension variables do not lend themselves to experimental manipulation. "Ex post facto" factorial designs are…

Comprehension monitoring was investigated by asking college students to read and recall passages that contained intentionally introduced confusions (inconsistent information, unclear references, and inappropriate logical connectives). Subjects were then told that confusions had been present and were asked to describe them and comment on how they…

This paper highlights measurement issues faced when attempting to assess and interpret results of a school improvement project. Based on the assumption that to measure effectiveness, one must measure a wide variety of school factors, the paper presents a broad perspective on measurement problems and dilemmas in analyzing norm-referenced test data…

This What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) topic report addresses reading interventions for students in grades K-3, including core reading curricula, programs, or products to be used as supplements to other reading instruction, programs that focus on staff development, and literacy software. The WWC review on beginning reading focuses on programs…

The 7th International Conference on Education Data Mining held on July 4th-7th, 2014, at the Institute of Education, London, UK is the leading international forum for high-quality research that mines large data sets in order to answer educational research questions that shed light on the learning process. These data sets may come from the traces…