Building word knowledge, learning strategies, and metacognition with the Word-Knowledge e-Book

Abstract

Many children fail to comprehend what they read because they do not monitor their understanding, which requires making accurate judgements of what they know and then employing repair strategies when comprehension fails. Relying on research from learning science and cognitive and developmental psychology, we developed the Word Knowledge e-Book (WKe-Book) to improve children’s calibration of their word knowledge, strategy use, and word knowledge overall; skills which are associated with reading comprehension. The WKe-Book, which is read on a tablet computer, is a choose-your-own adventure book where choices require choosing between two rare words (e.g., cogitate vs. procrastinate). Depending on the word chosen, the story follows a different plot. There are also embedded comprehension questions where students receive immediate feedback with consequences for incorrect answers, such as being sent back to reread a few pages. In a randomized controlled trial, we tested whether students (N = 603 in 25 third through fifth grade classrooms in Arizona in the US) reading the WKe-Book would demonstrate improved word knowledge, strategy use, and word knowledge calibration. Classrooms were randomly assigned to read the WKe-Book immediately (treatment) or later (delayed-treatment control), and within classrooms, students were randomly assigned to either participate in a 15-minute weekly book club (book club treatment) or to read the WKe-Book independently with no book club (no book club control). Results revealed a significant treatment effect of the WKe-Book on students’ word knowledge, word knowledge calibration, and strategy use, which predicted student performance on standardized reading comprehension and vocabulary measures. The effects were greater for students who participated in weekly book clubs compared to students in the no book club control. These findings suggest that the affordances offered by technology, which are unavailable in paper-based books, can support students’ development of metacognition, including word knowledge calibration, strategy use, and word learning skills.

The relations between children's comprehension monitoring and their reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge: an eye-movement study

“…This suggests that stronger vocabulary knowledge may be associated with greater ability to regulate comprehension when confronted with either a word-level or sentence-level error. This could be due to students with stronger vocabulary knowledge having a better sense of what they do not know and attempting to regulate their comprehension (i.e., word knowledge calibration; Connor et al, 2019). This is similar to the findings of a previous study with older adults.…”

“…Moreover, this will allow researchers and educators to develop educational interventions that target aspects of reading comprehension with which a student may be struggling. For example, after examining and considering the important role of vocabulary knowledge, comprehension monitoring, and utilizing different repair strategies, we have developed an E-Book aiming to improve these skills in elementary school students (Connor et al, 2019). Therefore, developing personalized instructional interventions, with the use of technology or in the classroom, can be informed through assessing students' individual differences and abilities and eye-tracking methodology is a promising technology.…”

Digital Learning Environments in Higher Education: A Literature Review of the Role of Individual vs. Social Settings for Measuring Learning Outcomes

“…Second, digital learning environments promise to make learning and teaching more effective, for example, by increasing learners' motivation [14,21], adapting to students' prior knowledge [16], or providing the possibility for mobile and ubiquitous learning [22,23].However, the findings of existing studies on the impact of digital media on learning are ambiguous [24][25][26][27]. In general, influencing factors, such as teachers [28,29], prior knowledge [30,31], or the novelty of the particular digital setting [32] seem to have greater effects on learning outcomes than the use of digital media per se. One reason for marginal findings on the effects of digital media in these studies might be that they are highly heterogeneous with regard to measurements and the learning settings that they applied.…”

“…However, the findings of existing studies on the impact of digital media on learning are ambiguous [24][25][26][27]. In general, influencing factors, such as teachers [28,29], prior knowledge [30,31], or the novelty of the particular digital setting [32] seem to have greater effects on learning outcomes than the use of digital media per se. One reason for marginal findings on the effects of digital media in these studies might be that they are highly heterogeneous with regard to measurements and the learning settings that they applied.…”

La Tablet en la escuela: Revisión bibliográfica en Scopus

“…El uso de estos dispositivos mejoró la composición de las palabras y el proceso de lectoescritura, favoreciendo la escritura a mano. Connor et al, (2019) Implicaciones metodológicas en el aula: enfoque interdisciplinar y nuevas metodologías.…”