The effects of knowledge activation training on rural middle-school students’ expository text comprehension: A mixed-methods study.

Hattan, Courtney; Alexander, Patricia A.

doi:10.1037/edu0000623

Cited by 10 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Probing questions can guide students to recognize analogies (similarities), anomalies (discrepancies), antinomies (exclusivities), and antitheses (opposites) between what students already know and textual information. As a knowledge activation technique, relational reasoning questions can guide students before, during, and after reading to gauge how their prior topic, domain, or personal knowledge does or does not fit with the textual content (Hattan & Alexander, in press).…”

Section: Activating Integrating and Revising Knowledge Throughout The Reading Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the Role of Knowledge in the Literacy Classroom

Hattan

Lupo

2020

Reading Research Quarterly

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Knowledge plays an inarguably critical role in reading comprehension. When considering the science of reading, it is important to engage with varying theoretical frameworks and empirical research that inform our collective understanding regarding the intersection of knowledge and literacy in K–12 classrooms. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to consider sociocultural and cognitivist perspectives on the role that knowledge plays throughout the reading process and to examine whose knowledge matters. Then, the authors address three tensions related to the role of knowledge in K–12 literacy instruction and offer research‐based perspectives on how educators, researchers, school leaders, parents, and community leaders can rethink knowledge to support students in learning from texts. First, the authors reframe the knowledge gap and suggest ways that teachers can privilege students’ knowledge as assets during literacy instruction. Second, the authors address the importance of supporting students in activating, integrating, and revising their knowledge during text processing and suggest evidence‐based instructional techniques that support students’ learning from texts. Finally, the authors contend that content knowledge is not the only type of knowledge that matters in reading and suggest how teachers can support readers in using other types of knowledge that are crucial to comprehension.

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Section: Activating Integrating and Revising Knowledge Throughout The Reading Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the Role of Knowledge in the Literacy Classroom

Hattan

Lupo

2020

Reading Research Quarterly

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“…Two studies compared strategic or procedural supports to knowledge mobilization. Wetzels et al (2011b) found benefits for both perspective taking and mobilization, while Hattan & Alexander (2021) only found benefits for relational reasoning.…”

Section: Procedural or Strategic Supports During Text Processingmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Within the reviewed literature, individual differences, such as grade level or amount of prior knowledge, influenced the effectiveness of knowledge activation techniques. For example, younger students seemed to benefit from more structured knowledge activation prompts, as opposed to open-ended scaffolds (e.g., Gurlitt & Renkl, 2008;Hattan & Alexander, 2021).…”

Section: Students' Individual Differences Influenced the Effectivenes...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Leveraging What Students Know to Make Sense of Texts: What the Research Says About Prior Knowledge Activation

Hattan

Alexander

Lupo

2023

Review of Educational Research

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This systematic literature review examined the research on prior knowledge and its activation to ascertain how these terms are defined, what specific techniques have been empirically investigated, and the conditions under which prior knowledge activation facilitated students’ comprehension. Fifty-four articles met the inclusion criteria and revealed that the terms prior knowledge and prior knowledge activation were often vaguely defined. Further, 30 unique techniques for activating readers’ prior knowledge representing eight different categories were identified. Those categories were open-ended prompts, procedural or strategic supports during reading, visual representations, analogical reasoning, text alteration, augmented activation, extratextual activities, and spontaneous activation. Techniques meant to facilitate knowledge activation prior to reading were most common, although the prompting of students’ existing knowledge was beneficial during and after reading as well. Variability in the effectiveness of activation techniques was related, in part, to the amount, accuracy, and specificity of students’ knowledge. Based on the key findings identified in this review, recommendations for future inquiry are forwarded, including suggested definitions of prior knowledge and prior knowledge activation.

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“…However, prior knowledge needs to be activated to affect learning (Brod, 2021; Hattan & Alexander, 2021). One of the best-known examples of the effect of prior knowledge activation before exposure to text is Bransford and Johnson’s (1972) classic study.…”

Section: Reading To Learn From Multiple Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting integration and learning from multiple complementary texts.

McCrudden¹,

Kulikowich²,

Lyu³

et al. 2022

Journal of Educational Psychology

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In this experiment we investigated whether the presentation of domain principles within one text facilitates reading to learn from multiple exemplar texts that feature the importance of the principles. There were five texts about natural selection: a principles text, which described principles of natural selection, and four exemplar-based texts about specific animals. These exemplar texts illustrated natural selection in different species but did not explicitly reference natural selection. Undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three groups: principles-text-first (n = 27), principles-text-last (n = 27), or no principles text (n = 27). Participants completed different topic knowledge tests before and after reading. During reading, we used a think-aloud protocol to assess cognitive processing. The principles text promoted learning and readers’ attempts to integrate ideas between texts, but only when the principles text appeared before the exemplar texts. The three conditions did not differ in their use of intertext bridges between the exemplar texts, nor did they differ in their use of knowledge-based bridges (elaborations). However, the principles-text-first group generated more bridges between the principles text and the exemplar texts than the principles-text-last group. This suggests that a principles text can be an advance organizer that supports the integration of text ideas and learning from multiple complementary texts when students read a principles text first.

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The effects of knowledge activation training on rural middle-school students’ expository text comprehension: A mixed-methods study.

Cited by 10 publications

References 60 publications

Rethinking the Role of Knowledge in the Literacy Classroom

Rethinking the Role of Knowledge in the Literacy Classroom

Leveraging What Students Know to Make Sense of Texts: What the Research Says About Prior Knowledge Activation

Promoting integration and learning from multiple complementary texts.

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