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Resumen
Este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación que tenía como objetivo comprobar la eficacia de un procedimiento de intervención en el aula, en el área de la comprensión de textos expositivos para distintos niveles educativos de la EGB. Los sujetos (5° y 8° de EGB) fueron distribuidos en dos grupos: el Grupo A, que trabajó con el procedimiento diseñado por nosotros; y el Grupo B, que lo hizo siguiendo las líneas de enseñanza recíproca de Palincsar y Brown, 1984. Se utilizeó un diseño factorial de 2×2 con medidas pretest-postest del tipo cuasiexperimental. Como variable dependiente hemos considerado los resultados en las distintas pruebas aplicadas en pre y postratamiento. Los resultados mostraron que los sujetos instruidos con nuestro procedimiento son superiores en aquellas habilidades que caracterizan a los expertos. Se aprecian también algunas diferencias evolutivas.
Abstract
The article reports the results of a research study aimed at verifying the effectiveness of a classroom intervention procedure involving comprehension of expository texts at different educational levels. 5th and 8th grade students were distributed in two groups: group A, who followed the procedure designed by us; and group B, who followed Palincsar and Brown's (1984) reciprocal teaching procedure. A pretest-posttest, quasiexperimental, 2×2 factor design was used to analyse the data. Pre-and post-treatment results on various tests were the dependent variable. Results showed that subjects in group A, who were instructed following our procedure, obtained higher scores in those skills which charaterize experts. Some developmental differences were also observed.
Extended Summary
The importance of reading at school is unquestionable. During the first few years, the goal is “to learn to read”, then reading stops being itself the goal and becomes a way of acquiring knowledge, of assimilating new materials, so that the goal is now “to read to learn”. And it is this transition which the school does not always carry out satisfactorily. We think that specific instruction is necessary for the student to gradually learn from reading. With this aim in mind, the present research work was designed study the efectiveness of a working procedure for the classroom involving comprehension of expository text in 5th and 8th grade students.
According to Kintsch and van Dijk's (1978; and van Dijk and Kintsch's, 1983) theoretical model, there are different levels of representation (microstructural, macrostructural, and superstructural levels) which although independent, there is an interaction between them. Following these representation levels, comprehension is understood as a problem to be solved (Newell and Simon, 1972), or as a task or coherent set of sequenced activities. There is thus the goal, the subgoals, the tasks needed to carry the out, textual variables, the evaluation procedure and teaching procedure.
The intervention procedure was based on a skills acquisition model based on contributions from authors such as Vygotsky (1979), Brown (1980), and Resnich (1984), where teaching comprehension is not approached as an isolated activity but is inmersed in the curriculum. The stress is placed on the process itself rather than on the result. In summary, the intervention procedure includes assessment strategies, teaching strategies, and control strategies. It was carried out within the classroom context, with large group, using school material and in school hours. It was adapted to the specific situation and different learning rythms were respected.
Three hyphotheses were formulated: 1) the study's intervention teaching procedure will produce significant improvements in text comprehension skills. 2) Subjects who received instruction following the study procedure will obtain higher scores in those skills which characterize experts than subjects instructed according to the reciprocal teaching method (Palincsar and Brown, 1984). 3) Older subjects will be more competent in text comprehension skills than younger subjects.
Fifty-eight students: 32 from 5th grade and 26 from 8th grade participated in the study. Each age group was divided into two subgroups: group A who followed the study procedure (Specific Procedure); and group B, who followed Palincsar and Brown's (1984) reciprocal teaching method (Unspecific Methodology). A pretest-posttest, quasiexperimental, 2×2 factor desing was used to analyse the data. Therefore there are two factors, each with two levels: teaching procedure (SP/UM) and agegroups (5th/8th grade). The dependent variables were students' scores on different pre- and post-treatment tests: Cloze test, Inferences and Recall of ideas on details for the microstructural level. Recall of important ideas, Recall secondary ideas, and summary macrorules: Deletion, Generalization and Integration or Construction for the macrostructural level. The number of Categories used in recall at the superstructural level. Finally, Selfconcept test, and Registration Sheet for control or metacomprehension.
Overall results confirm the study hyphotheses. That is, students who receive instruction under the study procedure obtained higher scores in skills which characterize experts. This superiority is mantained when they are compared with students who worked under the reciprocal teaching method (Palincsar and Brown, 1984). The success of the programme are undoubtedly due to the use of Conceptual Mapping techniques to create an overall outline of the text, the Program Model to establish macrorules of the summary, and the Registration Sheet as an instrument of self-assessment. Developmental differences in the acquisition of certain skills were also found.
We can therefore conclude that the procedure designed by the present authors has proved very effective for developing students' comprehension skills for expository texts. Its efectiveness is in some cases determined by the group's age.