Supportive hints in a digital environment to foster adolescents’ expository text comprehension

Marlies ter Beek, Leonie Brummer, Anouk Donker-Bergstra, Marie-Christine Opdenakker

Research output: Other contributionProfessional

Abstract

Over the last decades the research focus in the domain of learning and instruction has shifted towards digital applications and environments. With the use of new technologies and web 2.0 most ICT programs seem promising, but often empirical research to prove their effectiveness is lacking. After conducting a scientific literature review on the topic of digitally supported middle school text comprehension programs, it was decided to design a program based on existing knowledge and specific practical needs. The researchers developed the lay-out and the content of the program in co-creation with teachers and 7th-grade students. In doing so, the result was a web-based digital environment: Gazelle. This acronym (in Dutch) stands for motivated and active self-regulated reading. Gazelle aims at fostering comprehensive reading, since many educators emphasized their students’ struggle with expository texts (e.g., in geography and history, where students need to read vast amounts of text). Comprehensive reading is supported by cognitive, metacognitive and motivational scaffolds called ‘hints’. The program logs students’ performance, their use of hints, and their judgement of learning (JOL). At the same time, the program provides relevant output for teachers, such as an overview of student progress and results. The questions used in Gazelle are categorized based on specific skills, such as causation or recognizing the main idea. This way, teachers can not only see which students are struggling with text, but also which skills need to be developed.
Original languageEnglish
TypeICT demonstration
Publication statusPublished - 30-Sept-2017

Keywords

  • learning environment
  • EDUCATION-PROGRAM
  • ict

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  • EARLI 2017

    Beek, ter, M. (Invited speaker)

    29-Aug-20172-Sept-2017

    Activity: Talk and presentationAcademic presentationAcademic

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