Strategy Development Support

Atkinson, R. K., & Renkl, A. (2007). Interactive example-based learning environments: Using interactive elements to encourage effective processing of worked examples. Educational Psychology Review, 19(3), 375-386.

This review describes parts of our research program on example-based learning that relates to recent efforts to incorporate interactive elements into learning environments designed to support learning from worked-out examples. Since most learners spontaneously study or process examples in a very passive or superficial manner, this review focuses on how a variety of specific interactive elements in example-based leaning environments are capable of encouraging learners to actively process the examples. The review begins with an overview of the literature on worked examples and the associated self-explanation, which is important given that the quality of self-explanation is a major factor in determining whether learners benefit from studying examples. The review notes that example-based learning environments tend to be effective but often promote passive processing. It then highlights the strengths and limitations of three types interactivity introduced to example-based learning environments. The review concludes with a discussion of the role that these interactive elements play in these learning environments.

Blankenship, T. L., Ayres, K. M., & Langone, J. (2005). Effects of computer-based cognitive mapping on reading comprehension for students with emotional behavior disorders. Journal of Special Education Technology, 20(2), 15-23.

Three students with behavior disorders who exhibited difficulty with reading in content area courses learned to use a computer program to create cognitive maps. Using a modified multiple-probe design across behaviors or stimulus sets, replicated across students, allowed for the evaluation of student performance on written and oral quizzes. All students improved reading comprehension of content material with this intervention.

Dalton, B., & Proctor, C. P. (2007). Reading as thinking: Integrating strategy instruction in a universally designed digital literacy environment. In D. S. M^cNamara (Ed.), Reading comprehension strategies: Theories, interventions, and technologies (pp. 421-439). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc Inc.

In this chapter, we present an overview of our work developing universal literacy environments (ULEs). Reflecting universal design for learning principles (Rose & Meyer, 2002), a ULE is a digital reading environment that provides the learner with a variety of embedded features that are designed to support individual learning needs while being sensitive to the interactive nature of the reading process. Focused on comprehension building, ULEs allow print-challenged students to access the same texts as their typically achieving peers through text read-aloud software. Students who struggle with making meaning are supported in an apprentice model of reading strategy instruction in which scaffolds decrease as students’ understanding and self-regulation improve. It is our belief that we learn the most from engaging students in the margins of the achievement distribution, and we therefore have pursued projects that target struggling readers, including students who are learning English as a second language, students who are deaf and hard of hearing, and children with significant cognitive disabilities.

Dalton, B., & Strangman, N. (2006). Improving struggling readers’ comprehension through scaffolded hypertexts and other computer-based literacy programs. In M. C. M^cKenna, L.D. Labbo, R.D. Kieffer and D. Reinking (Ed.), International handbook of literacy and technology volume II (pp. 75-92). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive and international representation of state-of-the art research, theory, and practice related to principal areas in which significant developments are occurring in the study of literacy and technology. It offers a glimpse of the commonalities faced by literacy educators around the world, together with specific challenges raised by unique circumstances.

Dalton, B., Herbert, M., & Deysher, S. (2003). Scaffolding students' response to digital literature with embedded strategy supports: The role of audio-recording vs. writing student response options. Paper presented at the 53^rd Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference, Scottsdale, Arizona.

This paper reports the results of a descriptive study of sixth and seventh-grade students' use of two different modes (writing vs. audio-recording) to respond to embedded strategy prompts in a hypertext version of a novel. Results reveal that students expressed clear preferences regarding audio recording versus writing, but preferences varied across students and students' preferred mode might not be their strength.

NOTE: This article also appears in the references for Universal Design for Learning.

Dalton, B., Pisha, B., Eagleton, M., Coyne, P., & Deysher, S. (2002). Engaging the text: Final report to the U.S. Department of Education. Peabody: CAST. http://www.cast.org/system/galleries/download/byCAST/EngagTextResearchRept1202.pdf.

This research study compared the reading comprehension and on-off task behaviors of two groups of middle school struggling readers, one engaging in offline strategy instruction, and another engaging in offline strategy instruction supplemented with computer-supported strategy instruction using digital hypertexts with embedded, leveled strategy prompts and supports. The experimental group achieved significantly higher comprehension gain scores and spent significantly more time on-task and responding during strategy instruction.

NOTE: This article also appears in the references for Universal Design for Learning.

Doering, A., & Veletsianos, G. (2007). Multi-scaffolding environment: An analysis of scaffolding and its impact on cognitive load and problem-solving ability. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 37(2), 107-129.

A Multi-Scaffolding Environment (MSE) is a multimedia environment reliant on authentic scaffolding. We examine the impact of the availability of multiple scaffolds on learning and cognitive load within an MSE where learners are assigned a real-world task and given access to four support tools to help them complete the task. By examining an MSE in the area of geographic literacy, we explore the effectiveness of problem-based learning and whether multiple scaffolding is applicable to any content area. Quantitative and qualitative data indicate that a learner-controlled multi-scaffolding approach may be a valuable approach in problem-based learning contexts.

Liu, M., & Bera, S. (2005). An analysis of cognitive tool use patterns in a hypermedia learning environment. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(1), 5-21.

In this study, we examined the use of cognitive tools provided in a problem-based hypermedia learning environment for sixth graders. Purposes were to understand how the built-in tools were used, and if tool use was associated with different problem-solving stages. Results showed that tools supporting cognitive processing and sharing cognitive load played a more central role early in the problem-solving process, whereas tools supporting cognitive activities that would be out of students' reach otherwise, and hypothesis generation and testing were used more in the later stages of problem-solving. The findings also indicated that students increasingly used multiple tools in the later stages of their problem-solving process. The various tools, performing different functions, appeared to enable students to coordinate multiple cognitive skills in a seamless way and, therefore, facilitated their information processing. Results also suggested that students with higher performance scores made more productive use of tools than students with lower performance scores. Findings of the study are discussed.

M^cNamara, D. S., O'Reilly, T. P., Best, R. M., & Ozuru, Y. (2006). Improving adolescent students' reading comprehension with iSTART. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 34(2), 147-171.

This study examines the benefits of reading strategy training on adolescent readers' comprehension of science text. Training was provided via an automated reading strategy trainer called the Interactive Strategy Trainer for Active Reading and Thinking (iSTART), which is an interactive reading strategy trainer that utilizes animated agents to provide reading strategy instruction. Half of the participants were provided with iSTART while the others (control) were given a brief demonstration of how to self-explain text. All of the students then self-explained a text about heart disease and answered text-based and bridging-inference questions. Both iSTART training and prior knowledge of reading strategies significantly contributed to the quality of self-explanations and comprehension. Adolescents with less prior knowledge about reading strategies performed significantly better on text-based questions if they received iSTART training. Conversely, for high-strategy knowledge students, iSTART improved comprehension for bridging-inference questions. Thus, students benefitted from training regardless of their prior knowledge of strategies, but these benefits translated into different comprehension gains.

M^cNamara, D. S., Levinstein, I. B., & Boonthum, C. (2004). Istart: Interactive strategy training for active reading and thinking. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36(2), 222-233.

O'Reilly, T., Sinclair, G. P., & M^cNamara, D. S. (2004). Reading strategy training: Automated versus live. Paper presented at the 26^th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

O'Reilly and colleagues investigated the effectiveness of Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking (iSTART), a user-adaptive web-based strategy trainer that uses animated agents and a simulated classroom environment to introduce reading strategies and provide guided practice with feedback. Students using the trainer showed improvement in their self-explanations and their comprehension of science texts.

Pol, H. J., Harskamp, E. G., & Suhre, C. J. M. (2008). The effect of the timing of instructional support in a computer-supported problem-solving program for students in secondary physics education. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(3), 1156-1178.

Many students experience difficulties in solving applied physics problems. Researchers claim that the development of strategic knowledge (analyze, explore, plan, implement, verify) is just as necessary for solving problems as the development of content knowledge. In order to improve these problem-solving skills, it might be profitable to know at what time during problem solving is the use of instructional support most effective: before, during or after problem solving. In an experiment with fifth-year secondary school students, one experimental group (n =18) received hints during and worked examples after problem solving, and another experimental group (n =18) received worked examples only after problem solving. Both groups used versions of a computer program to solve a variety of problems. The control group (n =23) used a textbook. There was a pre-test to estimate the measure of prior expertise of the students in solving physics problems. The results of a problem-solving post-test indicated that the version of the program providing hints during and examples after problem solving was the most effective, followed by the version which only supplied examples afterwards. There was no difference in effect for students with more than average prior knowledge or less prior knowledge.

Quintana, C., Reiser, B. J., Davis, E. A., Krajcik, J., Fretz, E., Duncan, R. G., et al. (2004). A scaffolding design framework for software to support science inquiry. Scaffolding: A Special Issue of the Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(3), 337-386.

The notion of scaffolding learners to help them succeed in solving problems otherwise too difficult for them is an important idea that has extended into the design of scaffolded software tools for learners. However, although there is a growing body of work on scaffolded tools, scaffold design, and the impact of scaffolding, the field has not yet converged on a common theoretical framework that defines rationales and approaches to guide the design of scaffolded tools. In this article, we present a scaffolding design framework addressing scaffolded software tools for science inquiry. Developed through iterative cycles of inductive and theory-based analysis, the framework synthesizes the work of prior design efforts, theoretical arguments, and empirical work in a set of guidelines that are organized around science inquiry practices and the challenges learners face in those practices. The framework can provide a basis for developing a theory of pedagogical support and a mechanism to describe successful scaffolding approaches. It can also guide design, not in a prescriptive manner but by providing designers with heuristics and examples of possible ways to address the challenges learners face.

Reinking, D. (1988). Computer-mediated text and comprehension differences: The role of reading time, reader preference, and estimation of learning. Reading Research Quarterly, 23(4), 484-498.

Investigates whether readers comprehend a text better when it is displayed conventionally (on printed pages) or computer-mediated (offering the reader access to additional information, or controlling the reader's processing of the text). Comprehension scores were significantly higher for readers of the computer-mediated, computer-assisted texts.

Reinking, D., & Schreiner, R. (1985). The effects of computer mediated text on measures of reading comprehension and reading behavior. Reading Research Quarterly, 20(5), 536-552.

Investigates whether the use of the computer to mediate text affects reading comprehension and concludes that computer-mediated text can influence reading comprehension and that comprehension was most consistently increased when manipulations of the text were under computer control.