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Previous research has shown that adolescent readers differ in their ‘online’ processing of literary texts. Differences were found in the extent to which these readers performed certain (meta)cognitive and affective activities while reading literary texts. However, readers might also differ in flexibility; that is, in the extent to which they vary their activities during reading. In this study we examined whether good and poor adolescent readers differ in flexibility. Nineteen Dutch students (ten known as good, nine known as poor literature readers) each read five stories while thinking aloud. Think aloud transcripts were analysed for the reading activities students performed. We used a multilevel model to estimate the mean changes in occurrence of activities during reading, as well as the variances between readers and stories. Results indicated that good readers were more flexible: they tended to change their reading activities both within and between stories, whereas poor readers showed more static patterns of response.

Abstract: The claim that writing facilitates students’ learning, although widely accepted, has little support from empirical research. A possible explanation for the lack of empirical evidence is that writing-to-learn research has disregarded that students use different writing strategies. The purpose of the present experimental study is to test whether it is effective to adapt writing-to-learn tasks to different writing strategies when teaching literature. A course “Learning to write argumentative texts about literature” was developed in two different versions: one adapted to a planning writing strategy, the other to a revising writing strategy. Participants were 113 tenth-grade high school students in the Netherlands. Our hypothesis is an adaptation hypothesis: we expect that the more a student will use a planning writing strategy, the more the student will profit from the lessons in the planning condition, and that the more a student uses a revising writing strategy, the more beneficial the revising condition will be. However, results show that for improving literary interpretation skill, a course adapted to the planning writing strategy is more effective for almost all students.

Abstract: In this article we report on the effects of an experimental programme to train reading strategies. Students had to work in pairs on the execution of reading tasks following a consciousness-raising method, consisting of an orientation phase in which they explore the reading tasks and select a reading strategy, a practice/application phase in which actual performance takes place and a verbalisation phase, in which the steps that lead to a correct solution must be formulated explicitly. The programme was directed to four reading strategies: looking for key fragments, paying attention to structure marking elements (hinge words), making up questions (questioning) and mapping the most important information from a text (semantic mapping). On the basis of this programme 15-year old Dutch students from the third year of regular secondary education (N=12) have been trained in applying these reading strategies when reading in their first language (Dutch). The results have been compared with those of a control group (N=119). We will show that the training programme has an effect on the mastery of the four strategic reading activities and leads to a substantial improvement of the reading comprehension in the first language (Dutch). Transfer effects to reading in a foreign language (English) could not be ascertained.

Abstract: On repeated occasions, observational learning has proved itself to be an effective instruction method. Experimental studies have shown to be effective for complex tasks such as reading and writing for both teachers and students as models. The problem when interpreting the results of such research is that, in observation tasks, several mental activities play a simultaneous role. In this study we therefore set out to identify the effective elements of observation tasks. We focused on two elements of the observation tasks, both aimed at stimulating monitoring activities: evaluation of the model’s performance and elaboration on this evaluation. We have also distinguished between elaboration on the observed products (the models’ written answers), and elaboration on the observed processes (the models’ verbalisations of their mental activities). The data were subjected to a LISREL analysis. First of all, it was observed that subjects who performed “evaluation” and “productelaboration” better, and “process-elaboration” more often in one lesson, also performed these activities better or more often in the subsequent lesson. Next, we observed an effect of aptitude on the learning activities: pre skill scores influence “evaluation” and “product-elaboration”. The most important finding is that “evaluation” and “product-elaboration” contribute positively to argumentative writing skills. It is discussed that these findings confirm the importance of the monitoring, evaluative and reflective activities when learning complex tasks as writing.

In this study 590 third-grade students took one of four reading comprehension tests with either multiple- choice items or open-ended items. Each also took 32 tests indicating 16 semantic Structure-of-Intellect (si) abilities. Four conditions or groups were distinguished on the basis of the reading comprehension tests. The four 33 x 33 correlation matrices were analyzed si multaneously with a four-group LISREL model. The 16 intellectual abilities explained approximately 62% of the variance in true reading comprehension scores. None of the SI abilities proved to be differentially re lated to item type. Therefore, it was concluded that item type for reading comprehension is congeneric with respect to the SI abilities measured. Index terms: construct validity, item format, free response, reading comprehension, Structure-of-Intellect model.

The data from a national language assessment in secondary education in The Netherlands were reanalyzed to examine the correlational structure of language skills. On the basis of an hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis, it was concluded that skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing can be differentiated, although their interrelationships were rather high. Further, the measurement of language skills was strongly influenced by task effects. Finally, the data suggested that the across-task generalizability of performance-based assessments is much lower than it is for tests with fixed responses.