Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension-Monitoring Activities

Abstract

Two instructional studies directed at the comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities of seventh grade poor comprehenders are reported. The four study activities were summarizing (self-review), questioning, clarifying, and predicting. The training method was that of reciprocal teaching, where the tutor and students took turns leading a dialogue centered on pertinent features of the text. In Study 1, a comparison between the reciprocal teaching method and a second intervention modeled on typical classroom practice resulted in greater gains and maintenance over time for the reciprocal procedure. Reciprocal teaching, with an adult model guiding the student to interact with the text in more sophisticated ways, led to a significant improvement in the quality of the summaries and questions. It also led to sizable gains on criterion tests of comprehension, reliable maintenance over time, generalization to classroom comprehension tests, transfer to novel tasks that tapped the trained skills of summarizing, questioning, and clarifying, and improvement in standardized comprehension scores. Many of these results were replicated in Study 2. In contrast to Study 1, which was conducted by an experimenter, Study 2 examined group interventions conducted by volunteer teachers with their existing reading groups. One of the most powerful tools of applied cognitive science is the training study (Chipman, Segal, & Glaser, in press). Guided by emergent theoretical analyses of the processes involved in a particular academic domain, researchers have designed cognitive skills training studies that have resulted in significant improvement in such areas as physics and mathematics problem solving Requests for reprints should be sent to

A randomised controlled trial of a computerised intervention for children with social communication difficulties to support peer collaboration

“…The modelling approach to instruction (Palincsar & Brown, 1984) is based on a social, collaborative approach whereby an 'expert' initially demonstrates a particular skill and the 'novice' learns initially by observation and later by performing the skill themselves with support, encouragement and feedback from the expert. This approach is well-suited for training children with language impairments in the skills needed for collaborative work with peers, being based on a social approach and on observation rather than on an exclusively verbal approach.…”

“…The differences we found were in the use of different kinds of high-quality questions (including requests for clarification) and high-quality directions (the latter was a non-significant trend). Training methods were based on modelling approach as developed by Palincsar and Brown (1984). In the present study, in all three sessions the child played the game with the third author but at a much slower pace than with a peer, with the chance to ask questions and think about their responses.…”

Metacognition reconsidered: Implications for intervention research

“…The inability to manipulate or control one's metacognitive processes is thought, in part, to be responsible for poor performances on academic problem-solving tasks (Brown, Bransford, Ferrara, & Campione, 1983;Brown, Campione, & Day, 1981). Metacognitive training, in the form of teaching general problem-solving principles, has been particularly successful in facilitating the intellectual performance of children with learning problems (Brown & Campione, in press; Campione & Brown, 1978, in press;Belmont & Butterfield, 1977;Palinscar & Brown, 1984;Paris, Newman, & McVey, 1982). Moreover, there is growing interest in applying metacognitive principles in modifying and training clinical "problem" behaviors (cf.…”

“…ie will illustrate by describing two programs which are the most complete; one from our laboratory, designed to foster text comprehension and reading skills (see Brown & Palinscar, 1982, in press;Palinscar & Brown, 1984), and the other is from Scardamalia and Bereiter's laboratory, designed to improve writing skills (see Scardamalia, Bereiter, & Steinbach, 1984).…”

“…Palinscar and Brown (1984) have shown that the reciprocal teaching Metacognition Reconsidered 22 procedure can be used effectively in a group situation to foster the metacognitive skills of children with different skill entry levels,…”