Margie Paulson

12/06/06

Article Review

Reference:

Alfassi, M. (2004). Reading to Learn: Effects of combined strategy instruction on high

school students. Journal of Educational Research, 97, 171-175.

Kozminsky, E. & L. Kozminsky (2001). How do general knowledge and reading

strategies ability relate to reading comprehension of high school students at different educational levels. Journal of Research in Reading, 24, 187-204.

Research question:

How do general knowledge and reading strategies ability relate to reading comprehension of high school students at different educational levels?

Constructs of interest in the study:

This study looks at “general knowledge, skills in applying reading strategies, and reading comprehension for ninth-grade students at varying educational levels: academic, semi-academic, vocational and learning disabilities” (Kozminsky & Kozminsky 187).

These issues seem important. I think that it is good to use a plethora of different learning variables. It gives a boarder range to look through and find commonalities and differences within each area.

Research design/method and participant description:

This is a comparison/contrast study that observes the differences between ninth grade students at different educational levels in various Israeli high schools.

For this paper, the research methods seem to be the best methods possible for this type of research. Because each student is taking the same tests, they can focus on different levels for different educational groups. This sampling is good. The students are from Israel. Looking at these same strategies in America may be a little different. Because of cultural differences in education, students in an Israeli school may actually be more prone to use on reading strategy over a different one of another student. Also, total there are 205 students being sampled. This actually looks like this is a rather large size.

Data Gathering Techniques:

The data was gathered by the researchers testing students at the beginning of the school year. They used two different kinds of structured tests: general knowledge and reading strategies. The tests make sense because they are testing reading and knowledge; however, in the document there is not a copy of the tests so I don’t know how good of an assessment these tests are which causes me to wonder how reliable the data really is. The data is descriptive because the researchers were looking for differences between the tests. They used a lot of charts and graphs that were sorted by groups. There was a problem with the sample size of two of the groups being small—they did not show much of a difference in the uses of reading strategies.