Effects of question-generation training on reading comprehension.

Contributions of Student Questioning and Prior Knowledge to Construction of Knowledge from Reading Information Text

“…In fact, when sixth graders learned to differentiate between literal and inferential questions in relation to expository passages, they were better at answering and asking questions than students who engaged only in question practice or who did not ask any questions (Davey & McBride, 1986). Similarly, sixth graders who were taught to formulate questions on the main ideas of expository paragraphs (Dreher & Gambrell, 1985) performed better in answering main idea questions for new paragraphs than students who interacted with text through different activities.…”

“…According to some authors (e.g., Davey & McBride, 1986;Singer & Dolan, 1982), it is possible that the generation of questions improves reading comprehension as a result of active text processing (Wittrock, 1981). When asking questions, students are involved in multiple processes requiring deeper interaction with text.…”

“…In the past, this has been done by describing types of questions. The majority of previous studies have proposed binary levels of question types, such as literal and inferential (e.g., Cohen, 1983;Davey & McBride, 1986;Ezell et al, 1992), definitional versus clarification (MacGregor, 1988), main idea questions versus detail questions (Dreher & Gambrell, 1985;Palincsar & Brown, 1984), and so on. A few studies have described question hierarchies, which categorize questions along a continuum of types or levels.…”

“…Occasionally, researchers have discussed possible explanations for the impact of question generation on reading comprehension. For example, with regard to expository texts, it has been assumed that higher order inferential questions induce more thorough processing of text and enhance attention to the macrostructure of text (Davey & McBride, 1986), whereas for narrative texts, story-based questions were believed to aid in the organization of story events (Singer & Dolan, 1982). However, evidence has not been presented to address these possibilities.…”

Question-Driven Explanatory Reasoning About Devices that Malfunction

“…However, there are reasons to be optimistic about the prospects of developing learning environments that improve question asking and learning. There is ample empirical evidence that students can be trained to ask good questions and that such training leads to significant gains in learning and literacy (Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, & Kucan, 1997;Davey & McBride, 1986;King, 1989King, , 1992King, , 1994Palincsar & Brown, 1984;Singer & Donlan, 1982). We believe that a sophisticated understanding of question asking should strengthen this link between question asking and learning.…”