Generation of descriptive text headings

The effectiveness of having students generate their own headings for scientific text is assessed. Results reveal that generating headings enhance performance on a number of recall measures compared to either author-provided headings or no headings. Educational implications are discussed.     

Designing electronic text: The role of print-based research

This is the 14th ERIC/ECTJ Annual Review Paper, preparation of which was supported by the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Clearinghouse on Information Resources, Syracuse University. The material in this article was prepared pursuant to a contract with the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Education. Contractors undertaking such projects under govemment sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their judgement in professional and technical matters. Points of view or opinions do not necessarily represent the official view or opinion of the NIE.—Ed.     

Effect of prior domain knowledge and headings on processing of informative text

College students with either high or low prior domain knowledge (PK) read a text chapter presented in short pages on a computer monitor. Half of the participants read with headings present and half with headings absent. The computer recorded time spent reading and rereading each short page. Learning was assessed through a structured recall task. In general, headings seem to improve recall of high importance information, and headings were more effective for high PK learners. Analysis of time data showed that participants with headings spent more time per word reading the pages with headings than participants that did not have headings. Prior knowledge had no effect on attention to either high importance information or important supporting detail. Low prior knowledge readers decreased the amount of time spent reading each word as they progressed through the passage and neither the presence nor absence of headings influenced this effect.     

Effects of text illustrations: A review of research

Can illustrations aid learning of text material? These authors review the results of 55 experiments comparing learning from illustrated text with learning from text alone. They go on to look at research in closely related fields (involving, for example, nonrepresentational pictures, graphic organizers, learner-produced drawings) and conclude by offering guidelines for practice.     

Learning from physics text: A synthesis of recent research

Learning from physics text is described as a complex interaction of learner, text, and context variables. As a multidimensional procedure, text processing in the domain of physics relies on readers' knowledge and interest, and on readers' ability to monitor or regulate their processing. Certain textual features intended to assist readers in understanding and remembering physics content may actually work to the detriment of those very processes. Inclusion of seductive details and the incorporation of analogies may misdirect readers' attention or may increase processing demands, particularly in those cases when readers' physics knowledge is low. The questioning behaviors of teachers also impact on the task of comprehending physics texts. Finally, within the context of the classroom, the information that teachers dispense or the materials they employ can significantly influence the process of learning from physics text.     

A strategy for instructional television research

Conclusion In this article an empirical approach to instructional television research has been defined. This approach does not seek to replace theoretical studies but seeks rather to establish, within those institutions using instructional television, a body of knowledge based on empirical generalizations. Many authors have suggested the importance of defining objectives in assessing instruction, but their ideas filter only very slowly through educational systems. Part of this resistance may be traced to the complete revision of assessment instruments required by instruction by objectives, or standards. However, by asking the question, What happens during instruction? it may be possible to devise instructionally useful measures. Similarly, this question presents teaching, research, and production staff with a problem they may be eager to define and solve.     

文本互补的叙事策略——论《狂人日记》与《长明灯》的叙事策略关系

鲁迅在<狂人日记>与<长明灯>中都通过塑造一位精神病患者的形象,宣扬启蒙与反封建的主题,加之<长明灯>的创作在时间上晚于<狂人日记>,许多接受者、批评家也因此而对<长明灯>的创作颇多非议.从叙事学角度,通过比较两部小说的叙事策略,揭示出它们的文本创作具有互补性,从而便于更加深入地理解它们的文本价值.     

The Survey–A research strategy rediscovered

Survey research is a significant way of generating knowledge of what is. Surveys require clear and specific objectives as the basis of equally clear data gathering procedures. The meaning of results from a survey will be enhanced if an analysis plan is generated prior to data collection; then interpretations of the results will more likely be a reflection of pattern in the data and a basis for knowing more about the essential “what is” of the world being surveyed.     

Constructing interpretive inferences about literary text: The role of domain-specific knowledge

Student readers struggle to construct the interpretive inferences necessary for successful literary comprehension. Expert think-alouds were conducted to identify the kinds of domain-specific knowledge that were drawn upon when reading the short story The Elephant. These data were used to construct three reading instructions provided to student (novice) literary readers. These instructions informed the student about two types of literary conventions (Rules of Notice, Rules of Signification, Combined). Analysis of the students’ essays indicated having both types of domain-specific knowledge yielded the most interpretive inferences. Attention to language mediated the effect suggesting a means for domain-specific knowledge to be used to leverage student engagement in literary interpretation.     

Waiting on text: interpretation in educational research

Against the widespread insistence that educational research should be ‘scientific’, I attempt to change the terms of the debate. Instead of asking whether research is robust and rigorous, and whether it ‘works’—all terms derived from the ‘scientific’ view—I argue that we should ask whether we can have confidence in research. This way of putting it enables us to place the idea of interpretation back at the centre of our understanding of education, and to see that when we have confidence in interpretation, it is because good interpretation has quite different qualities from scientific knowledge. At the centre of interpretation lies the idea of text and of responsiveness to text. Good interpretation requires good listening or ‘attentiveness’. It does not pretend to represent the world accurately and conclusively, as ‘scientific’ research does: it opens up space for conversation, and brings a world into being.     

The professional reader and the text: insights from L2 research

This paper provides an overview of recent research related to the reading process, where this is of particular relevance to Reading for Professional Purposes (RPP), a term which refers to any reading activity carried out for purposes connected with work or study (academic or professional) whether in the first language (L1) or in a foreign language (L2). Key elements of the professional reading process are highlighted, with specific reference to the role of background knowledge and schema theory and to the controversial issue of whether reading in a first and a second language is a linguistic or a reading problem. Findings from a variety of relevant research areas are considered, including the process of inferencing, the concepts of coherence and cohesion, the structure of professional texts, reading strategies used by scientists when reading professional literature, the role of culture in professional text structuring and the concept of reader-responsible vs. writer-responsible languages. The review concludes by examining some limitations inherent in applying theories and models of reading to RPP.     

The role of interest and text structure in professional reading

Students can be regarded as professional readers: they have to attend to, comprehend and remember the most important information in instructional texts, often about topics they are not readily interested in. Optimising such instructional texts has been the subject of much reading research. This research has shown robust effects for the influence of text structure: information highlighted by a strongly organising structure is retained better than seemingly less important information. Hidi and Baird (1986) suggest that such effects of structure are artefacts, because of the dullness of texts used in such experiments. They argue that readers mainly use interest instead of structure as their guide for attention and learning. In this article three related experiments using Dutch instructional texts are reported. Both interest and text structure were manipulated as within-item factors, and on-line as well as off-line methods were used to measure effects on the reading process and product. The outcomes show no support for the hypothesis of Hidi and Baird: students learn better from texts that are well structured, regardless of the interest of the text or its topic.     

汉语文学文本的语词组构策略

文学是语言的艺术,语词的艺术化组合是实现文学文本审美性的必由之路。汉语文学文本的语词组构形式丰富多样,作家进行语词组构的主要策略是：运用表象义丰富的词,复苏语言与感知觉表象的潜在联系;利用词义聚合的不同特性,造成有意味的文学话语;创造语词能指与所指之间的“偏离效应”,使一般化语词生发出独特的表意功能;通过“碎片化”的语词组合,拓展文本内在的艺术张力;营造各种特定的语境,使语词获得具体、特殊的涵义。     

The role of dynamic spatial ability in geoscience text comprehension

The current experiment investigated the effects of a dynamic spatial ability on comprehension of a geoscience text on plate tectonics and the causes of volcanic activity. 162 undergraduates (54% female) from a large public university who had little prior knowledge of this science content area were asked to learn about plate tectonics. Measures of spatial ability and working memory capacity were used to predict comprehension from a text that contained either no images, static images, or animated versions of the static images. Only the dynamic spatial ability measure interacted with the type of illustrations contained in the text, and was shown to be especially relevant for comprehension when readers did not receive animations. These results demonstrate a novel influence of individual differences in dynamic spatial ability on comprehension of text describing dynamic spatial phenomena.     

Instructional implications of text processing research

Basic theoretical approaches in the history of text comprehension research have been reviewed and compared to their instructional implications: readability research, comprehensibility research, traditional psycholinguistics, traditional elementaristic models of text processing, and new holistic models of text processing. Contrary to a sceptical view, which denies the practical instructional relevance of text comprehension research, recommendations for instructional design can be shown to be closely related to specific theoretical perspectives. Especially in the last years important advances in research have taken place which have considerably changed our picture of text comprehension. The more refined understanding of text processing implies more differentiated and specific recommendations for instructional design, which go far beyond everyday knowledge about text comprehension. This is illustrated on the basis of new holistic theoretical approaches combined with the notion of procedural semantics. The instructional value of the new theories on text processing is seen in their heuristic function. They provide new perspectives on instructional problems and suggest new ways of thinking. Thus, they are a basis for attaining a more comprehensive and differentiated analysis and, thus, for better founded instructional decisions.     

A reexamination of the role of attention in learning from text

This paper reviews some of the recent models of selective attention and concludes that these models simplify and restrict the role of attention in reading and learning. It is maintained that the most critical problem of the models is that they do not acknowledge the important function of attention in the early stages of the reading process when meaning and importance ratings are first established. It is further suggested that reading and secondary task reaction times which have been used to measure attention, are inadequate as they cannot distinguish between different attention phases. A new model of how attention affects text comprehension is proposed. Finally, it is argued that to examine the complex effects of attention on reading and learning, novel research questions should be asked, and new ways to evaluate attention must be considered. More specifically, research on attention by cognitive and educational psychologists should utilize neuroscientific brain research methods, such as event-related potentials, and should integrate findings across research domains.     

Learner-generated drawing as a strategy for learning from content area text

Learner-generated drawing is a strategy that can improve learning from expository text. In this paper, a model of drawing construction is proposed and the experimental design tests hypotheses derived from this model. Fourth and sixth grade participants used drawing under three experimental conditions with two conditions including varying degrees of support. On a problem solving posttest, both supported drawing groups scored higher than the non-drawing Control group. Although the grade by condition interaction was not significant, there was a strong trend in this direction. When sixth grade participants were considered independently, participants in the most supported drawing condition also obtained higher problem solving scores than those who drew without support. There were no significant condition effects for fourth grade nor were there any significant effects on a multiple-choice recognition posttest. Results were consistent with hypotheses and are discussed in light of the proposed theoretical framework.     

The role of importance and interest in the processing of text

In this review, text-based research on importance and interest is analyzed with several objectives in mind. First, the constructs of importance and interest are unidimensionally considered to show that various forms of each can operate within any text-learning environment. Second, research specifically addressing the interplay between these two factors is explored in relation to the goal of learning from text. The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the research on importance and interest from a methodological standpoint and to delineate key findings that emerge from this body of research. Finally, based on the review of the literature, implications for future research and instructional practice are presented.