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This study presents a comparison between how six teachers and their 17-year-old students talked about texts in civics and nursing science during regular lessons and during two lessons where structured text talk in smaller groups was used. The majority of students were poor readers and attended vocational programmes. The text talks were videotaped. During the regular lessons, most of the teachers asked purely factual questions where the students just had to retrieve information from the text to be able to answer them. The students made few inferences and reflections. After the regular lessons, the teachers were invited to participate in seminars led by the investigator. In these seminars, a special model of structured text talk was practiced before videotaping a second and a third time. The results demonstrate that during the structured text talks the teachers' question types had undergone a change. The number of purely factual questions had decreased. Instead there was an increase in the number of inferences and half-open questions. The students read more actively during the structured text talks. They clearly made an effort to explore ideas in the text and made numerous inferences and reflections.

In educational systems without comprehensive systems for regulating textbooks, teachers can exert considerable influence on the use of textbooks. However, existing research has not yet identified the mechanisms of this use. Accordingly, the aim of this article is to examine and explain teachers’ strategic use of textbooks. I administered a questionnaire to 313 Swedish teachers of years four to twelve (for pupils of ten to eighteen years of age). The results demonstrate a pathway between reading practices and strategic textbook use, mediated by textbook satisfaction. Pupils’ reading needs had a negative impact on strategic textbook use. Finally, teachers’ experience had a positive impact on reading practices but no effect on strategic textbook use.

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate if Reciprocal Teaching (RT) could scaffold the active reading of adults with intellectual disabilities. A study was performed with a group of five intellectually disabled participants, aged 28Á42 years. The participants were able to decode words but they read very slowly and in an uncritical way. The participants were exposed to a programme for reading strategies instruction, Reciprocal Teaching. This programme is influenced by the concept of scaffolding, which is an application of Vygotsky's theory of the importance of interplay between support and challenge for development. In RT the text is read paragraph by paragraph. During the reading four reading comprehension strategies are practised: generating questions, summarizing, clarifying word meanings or confusing text, and predicting what might occur in the next paragraph. To start with, the participants (a) did not like the idea of text talks (b) did not like stopping to discuss after each paragraph (c) had a tendency to drift away from the text. However, after a few text talks they became familiar with the idea of text talks and the four strategies. The participants appreciated the text talks and said that they wanted to continue with them.

This article reports the results of a twelve-week intervention study in which 30 students in the third grade in a socially disadvantaged neighbourhood received training in a reciprocal teaching reading programme twice a week. Previously, (a) no study of the effects of reciprocal teaching had been conducted in a Swedish context under the conditions of larger groups in grade 3 or (b) in a socially disadvantaged neighbourhood. In the present study, the students were instructed in 'text talk' in large groups, with 15 participants in each group. Each session lasted 15 to 20 minutes. Some text talks were video recorded. The video recordings were analysed qualitatively. The students' reading comprehension was tested before the intervention, immediately after completing the intervention, and three months after completing the intervention. The results presented suggest that the students' reading comprehension significantly increased. In the conclusion, the study indicates that reciprocal teaching had a positive effect on students in grade 3 in a Swedish context; however, uncontrolled intervening variables cannot be ruled out.

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Svenska elevers läsförståelse har försämrats avsevärt. Sverige ligger nu under OECD genomsnittet. Samtidigt visar studier att elevers läsförståelse kan ökas om de får strukturerad undervisning . I denna interventionsstudie deltar 64 elever från årskurs 3. Syftet med studien var att utvärdera två modeller för läsförståelse, Reciprocal Teaching och Questioning the Author (QtA). Eleverna har fått träna fyra gånger per vecka under åtta veckor. Sammanlagt blev det 32 samtal. Hälften av eleverna har fått träna efter en strategiorienterad undervisningsmetodik, Reciprocal Teaching (RT), medan den andra hälften har fått träna efter en innehållsorienterad undervisningsmetodik, Questioning the Author (QtA). Alla elever deltog i alla 32 samtalen där de fick läsa berättande texter. Eleverna testades före och efter interventionen. Resultaten visade på en signifikant ökning i läsförståelse vare sig eleverna hade tränat efter strategiorienterad undervisning eller innehållsorienterad undervisning. Även elevernas läshastighet av sammanhängande text ökade i båda betingelserna, men den ökade mest för de elever som fått träna efter QtA . Key words: strategiinriktad undervisningsmetodik, innehållsinriktad