Reading Research Quarterly

This study examined the contextual factors that influence what students deem interesting and important by examining what teachers signal as interesting and important in their classroom discussions and assessments. Participants in this investigation were three high school science teachers and their students. We created portraits of these high school science teachers and their students as a way to describe the instructional value system that seemed to be operating in their classrooms. These value systems were evidenced by teacher interviews, text ratings, text recall performances, classroom discussions, and assessment questions. Results revealed that the valuing system within these three classrooms varied in noticeable ways. Students were differentially successful at ascertaining the instructional value system within their respective classrooms, as indicated by their discussion patterns and test questions. This variation among students seemed partially attributable to their teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge. At several instances when either form of knowledge was limited or not well utilized, the students were more at a loss in deciding what was instructionally important or in applying that understanding. We also found that the teachers' and students' determination of important content did not correspond well with the structurally important elements of the text (i.e., main ideas). Other similarities and differences between the value system of the teachers and their students' questions are discussed, along with implications for research and practice.

ESTE ESTUDIO examinó los factores contextuales que influencian lo que los estudiantes consideran interesante e importante, estudiando lo que los docentes señalan como importante en sus disucsiones y evaluaciones en el aula. Los participantes de este estudio fueron tres docentes de ciencia de escuela media y sus alumnos. Creamos retratos de estos docentes y sus alumnos como una forma de describir el sistema de valores didácticos que parecía operar en sus clases. Estos sistemas de valores quedaron en evidencia en entrevistas con los docentes, evaluación de textos, desempeño en relato de textos, discusiones en clase y preguntas de evaluación. Los resultados revelaron que el sistema de valores en estas tres clases variaba notablemente. El éxito de los estudiantes para descubrir el sistema de valores didácticos dentro de sus respectivas clases no fue uniforme, como lo indican los patrones de discusión y preguntas. Esta variación entre estudiantes parece parcialmente atribuíble a los conocimientos pedagógicos y concimientos sobre contenidos de los docentes. En varias instancias, cuando alguna de las dos formas de conocimiento era limitada o mal utilizada, los estudiantes se hallaban más desconcertados para decidir qué era didácticamente importante o para aplicar esa percepción. También encontramos que la determinación de los docentes y los alumnos acerca de los contenidos importantes no correspondía bien con los elementos estructuralmente importantes del texto (por ej., ideas principales). Se discuten otras similitudes y diferencias entre el sistema de valores de los docentes y las preguntas de sus alumnos, conjuntamente con implicancias para la investigación y la práctica.

DIESE STUDIE untersuchte die sinnstiftenden Faktoren, die beeinflussen, was Schüler interessant und wichtig finden, indem sie prüfen, was Lehrer als interessant und wichtig ihnen signalisieren, und zwar in ihren Unterrichtsgesprächen und bei der Leistungsbeurteilung. An dieser Untersuchung nahmen drei High‐School‐Lehrer der naturwissenschaftlichen Fächer und deren Schüler teil. Wir erstellten Porträts dieser High‐School‐Lehrer und ihrer Schüler als methodischen Weg, um die Schwerpunkte der Unterrichtsarbeit zu beschreiben, wie sie schienen in diesen Klassen gehandhabt zu werden. Diese Zielorientierungen in der Unterrichtsarbeit kristallisierten sich heraus aus den Interviews mit den Lehrern, den Texteinstufungen, den Beurteilungen von Textzusammenfassungen, den Unterrichtsgesprächen und Prüfungsfragen. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, daß das Bewertungssystem innerhalb dieser drei Klassen sich in bemerkenswerter Weise voneinander unterschied. Die Schüler waren auf unterschiedliche Weise erfolgreich, wenn sie herauszufinden suchten, was die Schwerpunkte der Unterrichtsarbeit in ihren Klassen ausmachte und wie sie diese den Mustern der Unterrichtsgespräche und den Testfragen entnehmen konnten. Die unterschiedliche Bewertung durch die Schüler schien teilweise abhängig zu sein vom Fachwissen und der pädagogischen Fähigkeit ihrer Lehrer. Wiederholt, wenn entweder der Wissensstoff eingeschränkt war oder nicht gut genützt werden konnte, waren die Schüler überfordert in der Entscheidung, was nun lernmäßig wichtig oder wie das Gelernte anzuwenden wäre. Wir fanden auch heraus, daß die Ansicht von Lehrern wie Schülern in der Frage, was nun die wesentliche Kernaussage wäre, meist nicht übereinstimmte mit den strukturell wichtigen Elementen eines Textes (wie z.B. den Hauptgedanken). Weitere Ähnlichkeiten mit und Unterschiede im Wertesystem von Lehrern und den sich daraus ergebenden Schülerfragen werden diskutiert, ebenso die damit verbundenen Vorgaben im Bereich von Forschung und Lehre.

CETTE ÉTUDE a examiné les facteurs contextuels qui influent sur ce que les élèves jugent intéressant et important, en examinant ce que les enseignants signalent comme intéressant et important dans leurs discussions pédagogiques et dans leurs évaluations. Trois professeurs de sciences de lycée et leurs élèves ont participé à cette recherche. Nous avons réalisé des portraits de ces trois professeurs de sciences de lycée et de leurs élèves de façon à décrire le système de valeur pédagogique qui semblait opérer dans leurs classes. Ces systèmes de valeur ont été mis en évidence par des entretiens avec les maîtres, des notations de textes, les performances en rappel de textes, des discussions en classe, et des questions sur l'évaluation. Les résultats ont révélé que le système de valeur varie sensiblement d'une classe à l'autre. Les élèves sont parvenus à discerner le système de valeur pédagogique de leur classe de manière variable, si l'on en juge par leurs patrons de réponses et les questions des tests. Ces variations entre élèves semblent en partie liées au contenu enseigné et aux compétences pédagogiques des professeurs. À plusiers reprises, quand une connaissance était limitée ou qu'elle était mal utilisée, les élèves sont apparus davantage désorientés pour décider de ce qui est important du point de vue des connaissances ou pour en faire usage. On a trouvé également que le contenu que les enseignants et les élèves jugent important ne correspond pas bien avec les éléments structurellement importants du texte (c'est‐à‐dire les idées principales). On a discuté égalements d'autres similitudes et d'autres différences entre le système de valeur des enseignants et les questions des élèves, ainsi que des implications de ceci pour la recherche et pour la pratique.

This article explains the creation and validation of the Narrative Comprehension of Picture Books task (NC task), an assessment of young children's comprehension of wordless picture books. Study 1 explored developmental changes among 158 K‐2 children in narrative comprehension and the correlations among children's performance on the NC task and other measures of early reading. There was significant improvement with increasing age on NC task measures. Significant concurrent validity was found between the NC task and oral reading comprehension for readers and between the NC task and several prereading skills for prereaders. Study 2 tested the generalizability of the NC task by giving a sub‐sample of students (n = 91) two additional picture books using the NC task procedures. Intertask correlations showed that children were consistent on each of the NC task dependent variables across the three books. The same developmental trends by grade and reading ability were evident on all three versions of the task. Study 3 confirmed the generalizability of the NC task across children, books, and testers, and it revealed sensitivity to longitudinal growth in children's comprehension skills. There was little evidence of practice effects influencing NC scores. Study 3 also revealed significant concurrent and predictive validity between NC measures and other assessments of early reading skills such as the Gates McGinitie Reading Test and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The NC task is a valid quantitative measure of young children's comprehension that is sensitive to developmental changes and adaptable to various books. We discuss how narrative comprehension is fundamental to beginning reading and how the NC task may be used for classroom instruction and assessment.

Morphological awareness, or the knowledge and awareness of morphemes and morphological structures in a language, has been shown to be important to reading. The authors investigated multiple pathways by which compounding morphological awareness is related to reading comprehension: indirect pathways via vocabulary, word reading, and listening comprehension, as well as a direct relation. This question was addressed using data from 325 Chinese (Mandarin)‐speaking second graders. The authors tested alternative structural equation models that compared variations of direct and indirect relations. Results revealed that the two predictors according to the simple view of reading, word reading and listening comprehension, explained 80% of the variance in reading comprehension. Importantly, compounding morphological awareness was directly related to reading comprehension, as well as indirectly via vocabulary, word reading, and listening comprehension. Together, they explained 87% of the total variance in reading comprehension. Moreover, the total effect of compounding morphological awareness on reading comprehension, after accounting for the direct effect (0.18) and indirect effects (0.32) via multiple pathways, was substantial (0.49 standardized regression weight). These results add to growing evidence on the important role of morphological awareness in reading comprehension and highlight the multiple ways that morphological awareness makes a contribution to reading comprehension in Chinese.

The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of Chinese‐specific morphological awareness on vocabulary acquisition among young Chinese‐speaking students. The participants were 288 Chinese‐speaking second graders from three different cities in China. Multiple regression analysis and mediation analysis were used to uncover the mediated and unmediated effects of morphological awareness on reading vocabulary knowledge. Results showed that both morphological awareness and lexical inference ability significantly contributed to reading vocabulary knowledge after each factor was controlled for. The ability to extract sublexical morphological information (in the form of derivational awareness and compound awareness) significantly predicted the students' reading vocabulary. More importantly, the study revealed that morphological awareness made a significant indirect contribution to reading vocabulary via lexical inference ability. Findings suggest that morphological awareness enhances young Chinese students' reading vocabulary acquisition by the partial mediation of their lexical inference ability.