Reading Skill Versus Dispositional Strategy Influences on Learning From Multiple Documents Inquiry

• In Event: How Learners Use, Integrate, and Evaluate Multiple Sources of Information

Abstract

This study explored the independent contributions of individual differences in a domain-general thinking disposition (Commitment to Logic, Evidence, and Reasoning; CLEAR thinking), domain-specific epistemology, and reading skill on learning from a multiple-document inquiry task. Students in 7th-12th grade science classes used a set of 7 documents to write an essay explaining how and why recent patterns in global temperature are be different from what has been observed in the past. Learning was by essay quality and an 18 item inference verification tests. The results show that each of the predictors account for unique variance in both learning measures, and that CLEAR thinking interacts with reading skill in a manner consistent with its role in guiding higher order strategies.

Authors

• Thomas D. Griffin, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Carlos R. Salas, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Jennifer Wiley, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Anne Britt, Northern Illinois University