NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY

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Student: Daniel Alan Coffin

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EDR8200 Dr. Kelsey

Scholarly Literature Review Analyze Peer-Reviewed Research

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Analyze Peer-Reviewed Research

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Daniel Coffin

Northcentral University
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Analyze Peer-Reviewed Research

In last weeks assignment, you identified a small number of potential research interests. In this weeks

assignment, narrow these potential research interests into three potential research topics. Identify and

review three scholarly peer-reviewed research articles related to your three potential research topics

(i.e., one research article for each topic). Avoid using studies only providing only a review of the

related research literature. Complete the three outlines below, one for each potential research topic. Be

sure to submit a link as noted below for each of the reviewed research articles.

Topic 1: Fluency Development

Author/Title (in APA format): Hilsmier, A.S., Wehby, J.H., Falk, K.B. (2016). Reading fluency

interventions for middle school students with academic and behavioral disabilities. Reading

Improvement, 53(2), 53-64.

Link: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5402abfa-6543-4d64-

9679-fe216c73387c%40sessionmgr101&vid=5&hid=122

Research Problem/Issue: What interventions are effective at developing fluency for middle school

readers with academic and behavior problems?

Purpose of the Research: To determine the efficacy of a repeated reading and oral previewing fluency

intervention on the reading rate and accuracy of middle school students with academic and behavioral

disabilities and to determine if a contingent reinforcer and performance feedback enhance the efficacy

of that same program.

Research Question(s): Are repeated reading and oral previewing effective interventions for fluency

development for middle school students with academic and behavioral disabilities? Do contingent

reinforcement and performance feedback enhance the efficacy of those interventions?

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Sample: Four middle school students, two boys, two girls, from grades 6-8, all diagnosed with a

specific learning disability or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; all were receiving regular

instruction in a self-contained classroom for students with academic and behavior difficulties.

Methodology and Design: Single-subject multiple baseline design. Intervention was conducted by

research assistants; during the baseline, the research assistant read aloud to the student with no

instruction; during the Read- Model-Read (RMR) condition, the student first read the passage silently

and independently before reading it again while the research assistant modeled a slow-rate fluent

reading of the passage. The student would then read the passage again independently. During the Read-

Model-Read+Contingent Reinforcement/Performance Feedback (RMR+CR/PF) phase, students

continued to receive the aforementioned RMR treatment with the addition of a reinforcer. Students

were ab le to choose a reinforcer of the day before reading and would receive the reinforcer at the end

of the lesson if the target words correct per minute (WCPM) was achieved by the student in that

session.

Variables: Words correct per minute (WCPM) and SRA comprehension.

Instruments: WCPM was assessed by having students read grade-leveled passages for a research

assistant, the figure was calculated by dividing the number of words in the passage read correctly by

number of minutes taken to read the passage. The comprehension measure was a set of standardized

multiple-choice comprehension questions related to the passage read by the student.

Findings/Results: Data indicated that the repeated reading intervention improved fluency and

comprehension from baseline measures; in a follow-up assessment, three of the four students

demonstrated further improvement to fluency after the end of the intervention. The data show that

there was only a slight improvement in fluency and no appreciable difference in comprehension scores

with the addition of the reinforcer and performance feedback.

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Conclusions: Repeated reading with oral previewing appears to be an effective intervention for middle

school students with academic and behavioral disabilities, a population at higher risk for reading failure

due to the effect of academic and behavioral disabilities on fluency acquisition; adding a contingent

reinforcer and performance feedback did not appear to significantly affect the efficacy of this

intervention positively or negatively.

Controversies/Disagreements with other Researchers: While the students demonstrated, on average,

improvement over baseline with the fluency intervention, performance from day-to-day remained

highly variable; the researchers were unable to definitely explain this variability but suggested this

might be due to behavioral disruption.

Limitations of the Study: The study size is quite small and, due to the makeup of the sample, these

results might not be applicable to struggling readers who do not have disabilities. While the students

were due to receive regular reading instruction in addition to the intervention, behavioral disruptions in

class often precluded the implementation of this curriculum for one or more students. In addition, the

researchers suggested that changing the reinforcement WCPM criterion from being based on practice

passages to the treatment passages might have made the reinforcement more relevant (i.e., basing it on

the WCPM from practice passages rather than the treatment passages might have made the goals too

obtainable and, thus, less enticing).

Implications for Theory, Practice, and Future Research: Repeated reading and oral previewing

appears to be an effective intervention for fluency development for middle school students with

academic and behavioral disabilities. This would imply that fluency development deserves a larger

place in middle school language arts instruction and teacher preparation programs should include more

training in these interventions to prepare middle school language arts teachers. An interesting area for

follow-up research would be to determine whether these interventions are as effective in improving
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fluency and comprehension on equivalent transfer text (e.g., delivering an intervention based on fiction

and assessing whether students demonstrate increased ability at reading instructional text).

Topic 2: Reading Comprehension

Author/Title (in APA format): Singer, L.M., & Alexander, P.A. (2016). Reading across mediums:

Effects of reading digital and print texts on comprehension and calibration. The Journal of

Experimental Education, 85(1), 155-172.

Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2016.1143794

Research Problem/Issue: Students are consuming text in digital formats in an increasingly greater

degree. Does this shift from print to digital format have an effect on how students understand what they

read?

Purpose of the Research: To determine whether the medium or type of text read affects the degree to

which that text is understood by a reader.

Research Question(s): What espoused preferences for reading digitally and in print do undergraduate

students voice and do those preferences vary as a consequence of text type? After accounting for topic

knowledge, to what extent do undergraduate students judgments as to their ability to comprehend

digital and print texts correspond to their actual comprehension performance? Is there any association

between stated preferences or calibration accuracy when undergraduates are called upon to identify the

main idea, key points, and other relevant information?

Sample: 90 undergraduate students from a large mid-Atlantic university (68.3% female, 31.7% male,

57.4 % White, 14.9% Asian, 14.9% African-American).

Methodology and Design: In this experimental quantitative study, participants were first asked which

medium (print or digital) they felt they best could understand following reading, as well as how often
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they used that format. Thereafter, participants were given texts to read in four formats (print book,

digital book, print newspaper, digital newspaper) and asked comprehension questions about what they

had read. Participants were asked to self-assess their performance at the comprehension tasks.

Participant knowledge of the topics in the experimental texts was going to be controlled for, but was

deemed by the researchers not to be significantly related to participants comprehension, and so no

adjustment to comprehension scores was required.

Variables: Medium preference, medium usage, predicted performance, and comprehension.

Instruments: Medium preference, medium usage, and predicted performance were all self-assessed by

survey questionnaire. Reading comprehension was assessed by a researcher-designed series of

questions; participants were asked, after reading a text, to identify the main idea, key points, and any

other information about the text in question.

Results/Conclusions: For the comprehension question related to main idea, there was no difference in

participant ability to identity a main idea related to either medium (print vs digital) or type (book vs

newspaper). For the comprehension question related to key points, participants were better able to

recall key points in the print medium; this difference was greater when reading a book excerpt rather

than a newspaper article. For the comprehension question related to other relevant information,

participants were better able to recall information in the print medium; there was no difference related

to text type.

The majority of participants (69%) indicated that they comprehended best with a digital medium, while

18% chose print, and 13% felt their performance would be the same across mediums.

Controversies/Disagreements with other Researchers: None that I could note.

Limitations of the Study: The study sample is based entirely on undergraduate students and, as such,

may not be generalized to other students in a middle or secondary setting for whom socioeconomic
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status and motivation to read would likely vary more widely. While the study accounts for differences

in text type, the study doesnt account for differences in purposes for reading (entertainment vs study);

these affective dimensions of reading may influence reading comprehension.

Implications for Theory, Practice, and Future Research: The study confirms digital natives

preference for text in the digital medium; it also calls into question how effectively readers can assess

their own reading performance given the disparity between preference for medium and the

comprehension scores in each medium. Further research might be done to determine whether the

purpose of the reading task (study, pleasure, gathering information for daily tasks) influences medium

choice or comprehension. The study could also be replicated with a larger population to determine if

age, educational background, or socioeconomic status affect comprehension in either medium.

Topic 3: Reading Motivation

Author/Title (in APA format): Metsapelto, R.L., Silinskas, G., Kiuru, N., Poikkeus, A.M., Pakarinen,

E., Vasalampi, K., Lerkkanen, M.K., & Nurmi, J.E. (2017). Externalizing behavior problems and

interest in reading as predictors of later reading skills and educational aspirations. Contemporary

Educational Psychology, 49, 324-336.

Link: http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/science/article/pii/S0361476X17300747?

Research Problem/Issue: Why are some students more or less motivated to read and/or achieve

educationally?

Purpose of the Research: To determine how behavior problems and reading motivation might be

correlated.

Research Question(s): Hypothesis one behavior problems and reading interest will decline from

grade 1 to grade 4. Hypothesis two a higher initial level of problem behaviors will coincide with a

lower interest in reading. Hypothesis three children with a higher initial level of problem behaviors
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will demonstrate a more steeply waning level of interest in reading. Hypothesis four a lower level of

interest in reading in grade one will coincide with higher initial level of problem behaviors followed by

a decrease in problem behaviors over time. Hypothesis five a higher initial level of problem

behaviors and lower initial reading interest predict poor reading fluency, poor reading comprehension,

and lower educational aspirations by grade 6. Hypothesis six student levels of problem behaviors and

educational aspirations in grade 6 influence student interest in reading.

Sample: 642 students from Finland (43% girls, 57% boys), half of which who were determined to be at

risk for reading difficulties and half of whom were not at risk that were selected at random from the

same classrooms. Students were observed from kindergarten to grade 6.

Methodology and Design: Quantitative correlational study using latent growth modeling to determine

relations between variables over time.

Variables: Externalizing problems (grade 1), externalizing problems (grade 2), externalizing problems

(grade 3), externalizing problems (grade 4), interest in reading (grade 1), interest in reading (grade 2),

interest in reading (grade 3), interest in reading (grade 4), educational aspirations (grade 6), reading

fluency (grade 6), and reading comprehension (grade 6).

Instruments: Externalizing behaviors were assessed by students teachers using the Strengths and

Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ); interest in reading was assessed by the Task Value Scale for Children

(TVS-C); reading fluency was assessed at grade 1 and grade 6 and reading comprehension was

assessed at grade 6 with a nationally normed reading test battery; educational aspirations were assessed

at grade 6 with the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI).

Results/Conclusions: A higher initial level of problem behaviors was associated with a concurrent

lower level of interest in reading and a lower level of initial interest in reading was associated with a

greater decline in problem behaviors over the elementary school years. A higher initial level with a
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following decrease in problem behaviors over grade 1-4 predicted lower educational aspirations and

poor reading comprehension in grade 6. There was no support for the hypothesis that a higher level of

initial problem behaviors predicts a steeper decline in reading interest. A lower initial interest in reading

was associated with a steeper decline in behavior problems than a higher initial interest in reading.

Students with lower educational aspirations in grade 6 had demonstrated higher, if diminishing, levels

of problem behaviors from grades 1-4. The impact of problems behaviors on educational aspirations in

grade 6 appeared to be mediated by interest in reading.

Controversies/Disagreements with other Researchers: None that I could note.

Limitations of the Study: Students with an early risk for reading problems were overrepresented in

the sample. The instrument for measuring interest in reading was comprised of only three items, which

might not full capture the nuances of engagement in reading. The study was completed in Finland; the

Finnish language has a greater degree of grapheme to phoneme correspondence, making achieving

reading fluency easier. Languages with a lesser degree of orthographic consistency may be affected to a

greater degree by problem behaviors which interrupt acquisition of phonics and fluency, translating into

greater deficits in reading comprehension later in school.

Implications for Theory, Practice, and Future Research: These data would seem to support the

importance of fostering interest in reading in students who evince problem behaviors as a greater

interest in reading may translate to overall greater engagement in learning and, thus, higher educational

aspirations. Other studies show that the kinds of experiences that students have in classrooms (in

particular, the instructional strategies employed by teachers) have a great impact in student motivation

to read. Follow-up studies might explore whether students with problem behaviors and/or lower interest

in reading show decreased behavior problems and increased motivation to read in child-centered
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classrooms featuring multimodal instruction versus teacher-centered classrooms where instruction is

consistently delivered in the same manner to all students.

References

Hilsmier, A.S., Wehby, J.H., Falk, K.B. (2016). Reading fluency interventions for middle school
students with academic and behavioral disabilities. Reading Improvement, 53(2), 53-64.

Metsapelto, R.L., Silinskas, G., Kiuru, N., Poikkeus, A.M., Pakarinen, E., Vasalampi, K., Lerkkanen,
M.K., & Nurmi, J.E. (2017). Externalizing behavior problems and interest in reading as predictors
of later reading skills and educational aspirations. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 49, 324-
336.

Singer, L.M., & Alexander, P.A. (2016). Reading across mediums: Effects of reading digital and print
texts on comprehension and calibration. The Journal of Experimental Education, 85(1), 155-172.