Promoting Active Reading Strategies to Improve Students' Understanding of Science

这个项目解决的问题涉及到高中生对困难的科学课本的理解和学习能力。本项目的第一个目的是调查高中生和教师对元认知阅读策略的了解，以更好地确定策略干预的必要性，以及教师对学生进行元认知阅读策略培训的能力。第二个目的是比较三种阅读干预的效果，从而找出更有效的方法来提高学生的理解技能。第三个目的是确定阅读干预的益处是否取决于学生的技能、知识或文化环境。第四个目的是开发一种计算机化的训练计划，它能自适应地将学生分配到适当的训练方案中，并交互地提供阅读训练。因此，该项目将IERI倡议的两个重点领域联系起来，即阅读技能获得和学生对日益复杂的科学概念的理解。在这些领域内，该项目将解决以下问题：阅读教学实践，教师学习的作用和对学生学习的表现，对有阅读或学业失败风险的学生的最佳干预，开发更好的知识和技能评估技术，以及利用技术改进评估和学习。

The problem addressed by this project regards high-school students' understanding of and ability to learn from difficult science texts. The first purpose of this project is to examine high school students' and teachers' knowledge about metacognitive reading strategies to better ascertain the need for strategy interventions, as well as teachers' ability to provide such training to students. The second purpose is to compare the effectiveness of three reading interventions and to thereby identify more effective methods for improving students' comprehension skills. The third purpose is to determine whether the benefits of reading interventions depend on students' skills, knowledge, or cultural environment. The fourth purpose is to develop a computerized training program that adaptively assigns a student to an appropriate training regime, and interactively provides reading training. Hence, this project bridges the two focus areas of the IERI initiative concerning reading skill acquisition and students' understanding of increasingly complex scientific ideas. Within these areas, this project will address issues regarding instructional practices in reading, the role of teacher learning and performance on student learning, optimal interventions for students at-risk of reading or academic failure, the development of better assessment techniques of knowledge and skill, and the use of technology to improve assessment and learning.