Exploring the Effectiveness of a Relational Reasoning Training on Middle School Students' Text Comprehension

• In Event: 43.012 - Pushing the Boundaries of Relational Reasoning in Research and Practice: Cross-National, Cross-Domain, and Cross-Age Explorations

Abstract

Objective

This presentation shares findings from a study in which middle-school students received relational reasoning (RR) training to improve their comprehension. The goal is to explore evidence of the training in students’ written response to RR prompts.

Theoretical Framework

Relational reasoning is the ability to derive meaningful patterns within any information stream (e.g., Alexander & the Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory [DRLRL], 2012) and can be broken down into four distinct forms—analogy (similarity), anomaly (discrepancy), antinomy (exclusivity), and antithesis (opposition). Relational reasoning has a long history in a variety of domains and contexts (for a review, Dumas, Alexander, & Grossnickle, 2013), yet little is known regarding the trainability of all four forms. However, a recent investigation found that students in the relational reasoning condition outperformed their fifth and sixth grade peers. The purpose of the current study was to examine why training in relational reasoning was effective for this group of students.

Method

Participants were 49 fifth and sixth graders from rural North Carolina (Table 4). Students participated in two, one-hour sessions during which they learned about RR forms and how question prompts using those forms could help them understand what they read by relating it what they knew or experienced (Appendix A). Students then practiced responding to these prompts before, during, and after reading. After training, students read about ancient Rome, answered the RR questions while reading, and took a comprehension test.

Results

Students’ responses to RR prompts were analyzed according to (a) form of RR indicated; (b) whether students’ response was a conceptual match; and (c) the source of evidence referenced (i.e., topic information, school content, or personal experience). Overall, RR was found to be significantly more effective at improving students’ comprehension than the alternative treatment or control. Further, students produced conceptually appropriate responses except for the antinomy prompts. Also, prior to reading, students relied on general school content and personal experiences, whereas during reading they referenced topic information. These results demonstrate that middle-school students can be trained to understand the forms of RR and to use those forms as prompts to improve their comprehension.

Significance

These results demonstrate that middle-school students can be trained to understand the forms of RR and to use those forms as prompts to improve their comprehension. Further, students are generally able to make conceptual matches between the form of relational reasoning and their connections to prior knowledge or experiences. However, even when prompted to think beyond topic-specific knowledge during reading, students tend to rely on information in the text rather than making broader connections to domain-general knowledge or their previous experiences, which could potentially increase the perceived relevance of the text.

Author

• Courtney Hattan, Illinois State University