Comprehension Technology: Direct Strategic Instruction and Teacher Competency - Literature review Example

Review of Rеsеаrсh into Соmрrеhеnsiоn Tесhnоlоgy An Essay Submitted By: NAME: INSTITUTION: COURSE: INSTRUCTOR: DATE: © 2014 INTRODUCTION It is the intention of any learning institution to enable school-going children to learn how to read and comprehend what they’ve learned clearly. This intention has no doubt experienced numerous challenges in that some of the children have shown marked difficulties in achieving this objective. The education sector on one hand has identified technology-based approaches to help children overcome these difficulties. The current essay reviews literature on research conducted on the current technologies, strategies, methodologies, and techniques that help students with a disability improve their comprehension skills. The essay specifically criticises available research on all interventions initiated to improve reading comprehension in children struggling with their comprehension skills. A REVIEW OF RESEARCH DONE ON COMPREHENSION TECHNOLOGY Numerous approaches have been put in place to intervene for children with reading comprehension difficulties. Butler et al. (2010) argue that these approaches are either the traditional strategies of classroom delivery or the modern-day technology-assisted approaches. A number of researches have also made numerous reports on the application of these two categories of interventions. This essay identifies a number of such research findings and offers a critique in each case. Direct Strategic Instruction Direct strategic instruction has been mentioned as one of the commonly employed technique of intervening for students with difficulties in basic reading and comprehension skills. In the views of Butler et al. (2010), teachers have been urged to train their readers to become strategic as opposed to generalised comprehension instructors. In this aspect, teachers need to be straightforward and overt in their instructions. According to Gee (2008), this technique is the ‘balanced and direct strategic instruction’ which brings the students on board to be responsible for their own learning process because it involves the ideals of “self-inquiry, self-monitoring, and personal intuition” on the part of the students. Several study findings have produced numerous reports in support of this technique for significantly helping improve reading and comprehension skills for students facing difficulties. Studies by Hashey and Connors (2003) for instance indicate that the application of direct strategic instruction was beneficial in improving the students’ skills in reading comprehension. This was particularly so when the approaches were both ‘balanced and strategic’ even though they had the setback of being very laborious (Silver-Pacuilla et al, 2004). Similar studies conducted by Thompson et al. (2004) found out that applying ‘a guided reading approach’ resulted in significantly higher achievements in “word decoding”. The same was applicable when ‘structured strategy instruction’ was used as reported by Lange et al (2004). Teacher Competency Teacher manipulation of the classroom environment has been found to be significantly instrumental in achieving acceptable results in struggling learners. To do this effectively requires that the teachers are adequately prepared in their practice. Thompson et al. (2004) single out the use of ‘sequencing and segmentation’ to increase word recognition and hence comprehension skills. In this strategy, the teacher is free to “break down the activity for the learner, gradually reduces cues so as to enable the student match the difficulty level of the task (Hashey and Connors, 2003). In so doing, Gee (2008) claims that the teacher is able to perfect his effectiveness in delivering comprehension instruction. Study findings on this teaching strategy of varying teacher behaviour have consistent results. Hashey and Connors (2003) for example report that teachers who are able to use ‘higher-order thinking skills’ greatly promote reading comprehension in their struggling learners those who don’t. Similarly, teachers who prefer being rote in their teaching as opposed to those who emphasise on using strategic approaches post very dismal results in their comprehension classes. This observation is strongly supported by studies conducted by Gee (2008) which report that “strategic approaches to comprehension processes rather than mechanical ones positively correlate to first-graders’ writing and reading growth”. Multiple Strategy Instruction Teacher practice is closely related to the application of multiple strategy instruction because the teacher is assumed to have numerous skills to manipulate classroom content delivery. Since it is in the public domain that use of strategic instruction results in enhanced reading comprehension in students with learning difficulties, it follows that the use of multiple strategies will result in a greater enhanced reading comprehension. Studies by Hashey and Connors (2003) confirm this by noting that instruction delivered through multiple strategies normally makes readers more strategic and increases their reading comprehension skills. In other related studies by Floyd and Judge (2012), it was indicated that the infusion of motivation and/or incentives into traditional instruction strategies was a precursor for an enhanced classroom management. Such strategies like ‘giving students choices, hands-on activities and interesting tasks’ were found to greatly motivate learners to receive instruction as observed by Thompson et al. (2004). In view of this, reports by Silver-Pacuilla et al. (2004) underscore the importance of giving learners a high number of stimulating tasks during their reading comprehension instruction. Consequently, their rates of comprehension were greatly increased. Another multiple strategy instruction approach was found resident in the combination of ‘explicit strategy instruction and whole-class activities’ involving ‘mixed age-groups’ tutoring versus ‘same-age’ tutors (Lange et al, 2004). Based on this premise, it was discovered that students subjected to ‘explicit strategy instruction under mixed age-groups had better comprehension than those receiving traditional instructions under same-age peer-tutors’ (Gee, 2008). This therefore underlines the importance of mixing instruction strategies. Classroom Discussion Classroom discussion though very traditional in approach has been employed to assist struggling students to improve their comprehension skills. According to Silver-Pacuilla et al. (2004), this approach has been adjusted by the teacher to suit the learners’ needs and situations accordingly. One suitable adjustment to this approach as suggested by Hashey and Connors (2003) may include the teacher using certain ‘methods, questions and probes’ that may keep the learner alight with the classroom discussion. Unfortunately, it is not clearly indicated to what extent classroom discussion improves student comprehension. This lack of clear information on how much classroom discussion affects comprehension in students with learning difficulties has exposed the approach to much criticism as reported by Thompson et al. (2004). Despite the fact that there are scanty records on research work done in this area, the author of the present essay was aggressive enough to access some reliable study findings to warrant classroom discussion to be used as an instruction strategy in reading compression. In one study conducted by Lange et al (2004), it was found that well thought-out and carefully conducted classroom discussions led to positive and energised learner involvement in the presented lessons. Considered against other study findings by Floyd and Judge (2012) and Gee (2008), this was found in support of the fact when students were left to brainstorm largely promoted their learning abilities. In line with argument, Hashey and Connors (2003) also found that “restating other’s ideas, listening to their contributions, questioning their knowledge as well as being highly inquisitive” had a positive correlation to reading comprehension. The only short-coming of this approach is found resident in the fact that research has been unable to report on the availability of any reliable tool that can formally measure the quality of classroom discussion. But all in all, classroom discussion is found instrumental in improving comprehension in struggling learners as noted by the accessed study findings (Silver-Pacuilla et al, 2004). Suggestions to teachers on how they can improve the effectiveness of classroom discussion in teaching reading comprehension seem to be highly resourceful. Thompson et al. (2004) for instance advice that teachers should emphasise on strategies that keep learners ‘glued’ to the discussion moves in class from start to end. Capturing the attention of the learners by allowing them autonomy is a great incentive for their total involvement in classroom discussions for effective reading comprehension to ensue. Lange et al (2004) conclude by stating that: “classroom discussion by itself is only a means and not an end, and requires student engagement for it to become a valuable comprehension tool”. Instruction in Text Structure Many studies have suggested that is more effective to teach a concept in ‘parts’ rather than doing it as a ‘whole’ at once (Lange et al, 2004). This strategy in comprehension has come to be known as “text structure” instruction and is very effective in young readers intend on by-passing reading difficulties. According to studies performed by Hashey and Connors (2003), it was demonstrated that inexperienced readers became better when they were taught a text structured in small parts which constantly read and re-read over time. This was opposed to when the text was taught as a whole. The learners were found to have significantly improved their listening and talking skills after the exposure than before they went through the instruction session. Similarly, Gee (2008) realised that the structure of a text, learner’s familiarity to text content, and his/her reading comprehension ability were key contributors to his/her performance. Tests performed on different groups of learners treated differently to determine their recall and identification of clue words, it was discovered that students who received text structure instruction had better scores on all items (Silver-Pacuilla et al, 2004). This strongly underlined the importance of instruction using text structure. Technology-Assisted Instruction Technology has brought with it numerous cons and pros especially in the education sector. Numerous researches have reported some of the newly developed computer programs that have found their usefulness in improving the reading comprehension levels of struggling mature learners. As it is noticeable, technology-assisted instruction strategies are clearly divorced from the foregoing as they offer a motivational aspect to instruction deficient in traditional strategies as noted by Floyd and Judge (2012). In view of this, struggling students in their higher grades find it more comforting and very motivating to sit in front of a computer to attend a reading comprehension session than sitting through a traditional instruction. The foregoing argument is strongly supported by studies conducted by Thompson et al. (2004) to evaluate the effects of applying computer programmes to teach students reading comprehension in their beginners’ stage. The study compared two class set-ups where one group was subjected to technology-assisted instruction on reading comprehension (Gee, 2008) while the other received similar classroom instruction without technology. The results obtained indicated that students subjected to technology-assisted instruction scored significantly highly than their counterparts learning without any technology (Floyd and Judge, 2012). It is clear from this illustration that there is a lot of hope in enhanced learning with the advent of technology. The only fear is whether this will result in over-indulgence as the case may be. CONCLUSION Through research, numerous technologies, strategies, methods and techniques have all been identified to be very important in assisting learners with learning difficulties to improve their reading comprehension. Throughout this essay, it has been demonstrated that research finds “direct strategic instruction, teacher competency, multiple strategy instruction, classroom discussion, instruction in text structure, and technology-assisted instruction” among others to be very important in improving reading comprehension in struggling learners. Although these technologies seem to be very attractive, they have received their fair share of criticism from all as demonstrated throughout this essay. REFERENCES Butler, S., Urrutia, K., Buenger, A., & Hunt, M. (2010). A Review of the Current Research on Comprehension Instruction. National Reading Technical Assistance Center, RMC Research Corporation. Floyd, K. K & Judge, S. L. (2012). The Efficacy of Assistive Technology for Postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities. Volume 8, Number 1 Gee, J. P. (2008). Technology and Comprehension Instruction. New Directions, vol. V, no. 21, pp 309-377 Hashey, J. M., & Connors, D. J. (2003). Learn From Our Journey: Reciprocal Teaching Action Research. The Reading Teacher, vol. 57, no.3, pp. 224-232 Lange, A., McPhillips, M., Mulhern, G. & Wylie, J. (2004), Assistive software tools for secondary level students with literacy difficulties. Queen’s University, Belfast, UK. Silver-Pacuilla, H., Ruedel, K., & Mistrett, S. (2004). A Review of Technology-Based Approaches for Reading Instruction: Tools for Researchers and Vendors. The National Center for Technology Innovation Thompson, J. R., Bakken, J. P., & Peterson-Karlan, G. (2004). Using Technology to Improve the Literacy Skills of Students with Disabilities. Learning Point Associates Read More