Interactive highlighting for just-in-time formative assessment during whole-class instruction: effects on vocabulary learning and reading comprehension

ABSTRACT

This article examines the effectiveness of a software that supports formative assessment in real-time of learners' vocabulary knowledge through an interactive highlighting method. Students in a classroom are given a passage on their computer screen and asked to highlight the words they do not understand. This information is summarized on the instructors screen by highlighting in red the words most highlighted, in orange the second most highlighted, and in yellow the third most highlighted, with a superscript showing the number of students who selected each word. The instructor projects this summary on a screen for the whole class and use it to guide activities on how to comprehend the passage. In Experiment 1, college students who learned with interactive highlighting in a single-session study scored higher on a vocabulary test (d = 1.14) but not on a comprehension test as compared to a control group that studied the same passage without interactive highlighting. In Experiment 2, high school students who learned with interactive highlighting across a 10-week program scored higher on a standardized reading comprehension test as compared to a control group that studied without interactive highlighting (d = 1.60 in school 1, d = 1.17 in school 2).

KEYWORDS:

• Formative assessment
• highlighting
• just-in-time information
• vocabulary
• reading comprehension
• comprehension monitoring

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Héctor R. Ponce is a Professor at the University of Santiago of Chile and scientific director of the Visual Technology Laboratory (VirtuaLab) at the same university. His research has concentrated on research and development of software components that implement visual and spatial learning strategies, particularly to support reading comprehension and writing.

Richard E. Mayer is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests are in applying the science of learning to education, with a focus on multimedia learning. He served as President of Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association and Vice President of Division C (Learning and Instruction) of the American Educational Research Association. He is the winner of the Thorndike Award for career achievement in educational psychology and the Distinguished Contribution of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training Award, and is ranked #1 as the most productive educational psychologist in the world in Contemporary Educational Psychology. He serves on the editorial boards of 12 journals mainly in educational psychology. He is the author of more than 400 publications including 25 books, such as Applying the Science of Learning, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction (with R. Clark), Multimedia Learning, Learning and Instruction, and the Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (editor).

Verónica A. Figueroa is a senior researcher at the Visual Technology Laboratory (VirtuaLab) of the University of Santiago of Chile. She has conducted research on learning with computer technology, particularly its effects on the cognitive processes involved in reading.

Mario J. López is a Professor at the University of Santiago of Chile and director of the Visual Technology Laboratory (VirtuaLab) at the same university. His research has concentrated on research and development of software components that implement visual and spatial learning strategies. He has directed several projects on educational technology funded by the Chilean Council for Science and Technology.

ORCID

Héctor R. Ponce http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7984-3945

Notes

1 SIMCE (“Sistema de Medición de la Calidad de la Educación” or System to Measure Quality of Education) is a compulsory test taken by all Chilean students that measures achievement in reading, math, science, English and physical education.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología) of Chile [grant number FONDEF CA13i10165 and FONDECYT 1151092].