Urban Middle School Students’ Self-Regulatory Practices: Gender Differences in Metacognition and Reading

• In Event: Examining Teaching While Addressing Implications and Differences in Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

Abstract

The United States government has taken drastic means in attempting to create a more literate society. This quantitative study use data from a cluster of 200 urban middle school students and their metacognitive problem solving (during reading) strategies on a state reading assessment. The author examines their direct relationship to problem solving strategies. The study found that there is significance amongst students’ gender and education programs and their direct relationship to their use of metacognitive reading strategies when reading complex literary texts on a statewide reading assessment.
Objectives
The purpose of this quantitative study is two-fold. First the researcher sought to determine specific problem-solving metacognitive reading strategies middle school students’ report they use in comprehending a statewide reading assessment. Second, after controlling for demographics, the researcher sought to examine if a linear relationship exists between metacognitive problem-solving reading strategies and their relationship to academic achievement on a statewide reading assessment.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical prospective of metacognition of learning establishes the central nature of this study. The premise of this study is based upon theorists Flavell’s metacognition theory (1979) and Baker and Browns’ (1984) reading and strategy skills. Flavell’s work focused on controlling one’s own thinking processes (metacognition), and Baker and Brown added to Flavell’s work by simply stating that readers must employ metacognitive strategies while reading texts for better comprehension. With regard to reading, metacognition is the ability of students to have their own thoughts and to control their own thinking while comprehending academic texts.
Methods
The survey assessment scale used in this study was the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) and a Demographic Background Information Questionnaire. The MARSI was designed to assess adolescent and adult readers’ metacognitive awareness and perceived use of reading strategies while reading academic or school-related materials (Mokhtari and Reichard, 2002).
Data sources
The population for this study includes a cluster of 200 students selected out of 654 eighth graders from an urban school district located in the Southwest corridor of the United States.
Results
Learners indicated that during reading, they use four high metacognitive problem-solving strategies with a mean of 3.5 or higher. The learners also indicate they use four metacognitive problem-solving skills ranged moderately. Learners have high apprehension of problem solving around strategies when text becomes difficult to read. The results suggest that Females had significant positive relationships in Problem Solving Reading Strategies with some Reading Objectives suggesting that as Problem Solving scores increase, scores for Reading Objectives 1, 3, and 4 also increase. No other significant relationship was revealed.

Significance
The average middle school student struggles with reading comprehension. Students’ ability to hone linguistically diverse comprehension strategies is important to their success in school. Middle and high school students read more complex, sophisticated texts (Tovani, 2004). To become strategic thinkers, students must be able to move beyond simple comprehension of academic texts; they must become independent critical readers (Au, 2009).

Author

• Mary Keller Boudreaux, The University of Memphis