Enhancing Students' Comprehension and Critical-Analytic Thinking Through Quality Talk Discussions

• In Event: Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Division C Section 2a Poster Session 4: Cognitive Processes

Abstract

In this presentation we will describe how students’ comprehension and critical-analyitic thinking was enhanced over the course of a small-group classroom discussion intervention called Quality Talk (QT). We model subsequent changes in students’ critical-analytic thinking, high-level comprehension, argumentative writing, and examine the ways in which the QT model influenced classroom discussions. Over the course of the intervention: (a) teachers reduced their role in class discussions, as evidenced by fewer instances of teacher-initiated discourse indicators; (b) students exhibited enhanced critical-analytic thinking, as evidenced by increased student-initiated discourse indicators associated with critical-analytic thinking; and, (c) students displayed improved high-level comprehension and argumentation performance, as evidenced by gains on comprehension and argumentative writing assessments.

Authors

• P. Karen Murphy, The Pennsylvania State University

• Jeff A. Greene, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Carla Marie Firetto, The Pennsylvania State University

• Brendan Hendrick

• Cristin Montalbano, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Mengyi Li, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park

• Liwei Wei, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park