Browsing by Author "Bruce, Merle"
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Item Clever Kids: A Metacognitive and Reciprocal Teaching Program to Improve Both Word Identification and Comprehension for Upper Primary Readers Experiencing Difficulty(2004-01-01) Robinson, Gregory; Bruce, MerleThis study assessed the effectiveness of a metacognitive and reciprocal teaching approach for improving the word identification and reading comprehension skills of upper primary readers experiencing difficulty in a regular classroom situation. To improve word identification skills, subjects in the main training condition were given metacognitive training in the analysis and monitoring of word identification strategies. Reciprocal teaching procedure, incorporating the above word identification strategies, were used for comprehension training.
Subjects in the main training condition received the combined metacognitive word identification and reciprocal teaching program (n=25). Subjects in two other conditions received either traditional classroom word identification and comprehension activities (n=27) or reciprocal teaching comprehension combined with traditional methods for identifying unfamiliar words (n=22). Measures of improvements in word identification, metacognitiive awareness of word identification strategies, and comprehension were taken on several occasions during the study, which took place over an 8 month period in a school year.
Results indicated that a combination of metacognitive word identification strategies and reciprocal teaching for comprehension was clearly more effective than traditional classroom word identification and comprehension activities or reciprocal teaching for comprehension with traditional methods of word identification. Results also indicated that a classroom-based model of implementation appears to be more successful when teachers (not researchers) have responsibility for its implementation. The implications of these findings for classroom practice are discussed, along with the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.
Item Reciprocal Teaching and Transenvironmental Programming: A Program to Facilitate the Reading Comprehension of Students with Learning Disabilites(1990-01-01) Bruce, MerleThis study examined the extent to which teaching procedures combined with transenvironmental programming would facilitate comprehension of text and promote transfer of learning by a group of upper primary poor readers.
A multiple-baseline single subject research design with replications across three different instructional conditions was used. The three conditions were: (1) reciprocal teaching in small groups in the resource room; (2) transfer of learning to the reading class in the home room; and (3) transfer of learning to the social studies class in the home room. Each condition involved baseline, experimental and maintenance phases.
Analysis of the data revealed that reciprocal teaching was effective in promoting students' comprehension of text. In general, transenvironmental programmings, during which students were instructed to employ the newly learned comprehension strategies in their reading and social studies classes, was also successful. However, it was found that successful transfer depended on a number of other factors including mastery of the strategies, cognitive ability of the subject, and cooperation of the regular class teacher.
The implications of these findings for classroom practices are discussed, along with the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.
Item Reciprocal Teaching and Transenvironmental Programming: A Program to Facilitate the Reading Comprehension of Students with Reading Difficulties(1991-09-01) Chan, Lorna K. S.; Bruce, MerleThis article reports on experimental evaluation of the effectiveness of combining two metacognitive instructional approaches to enhance the reading comprehension skills of upper-primary poor readers. The program involves the use of reciprocal teaching procedures in the resource room and transenvironmental programming techniques by which students were instructed to employ the newly learned comprehension strategies in their homeroom reading and social studies classes. The results support previous research into the facilitative effects of reciprocal teaching on reading comprehension and of transenvironmental programming on transfer of learning across settings. Of greater importance is the finding that it is the combination of the two instructional approaches that has provided a very effective means of facilitating poor readers' unprompted use of relevant strategies for enhancing text processing.