This study examined how vocabulary knowledge, the familiarity of concepts, and analytic reasoning affect sixth-grade students' ability to learn word meanings from the context of natural passages in a basal reading textbook. The results indicated that students with higher levels of general vocabulary knowledge learned relatively more, even though they had less room for improvement. Low students were at a disadvantage not only because they initially knew fewer words but also because they understood words less well. Also among low vocabulary students, words representing familiar concepts were more likely to be learned than those representing unfamiliar concepts. The study suggested that general and passage specific vocabulary knowledge are important variables influencing learning from context. General analytic reasoning was not a significant factor.Word count studies have consistently found that a large number of words occur in school materials and that the vast majority of these words
Shefelbine and Hollingsworth studied the instructional decisions of 14 under graduate elementary education stu dents during a reading practicum. Deci sion making was evaluated across seven areas of reading: diagnosis, planning, lesson balance, text placement, type of reading practice, word recognition in struction, and developing background knowledge. The authors specifically sought (a) to identify what kinds of deci sions are potentially troublesome for be ginning teachers and (b) to explain why these difficulties might occur. The re sults indicated that decisions about diag nosis, planning, lesson balance, and word recognition instruction were dif ficult for the higher performing teachers. Lower performing teachers, on the other hand, were more likely to have trouble across all seven areas. Possible explana tions for these patterns included the con tent and complexity of each decision area, teachers' overall knowledge of reading content, and concerns about management and instructional routines. Implications for teacher education are discussed.
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