A Look Back: Another Study Shows Why I Have Little Patience For Researchers Who Say Teachers Should Use Reading Strategies Less

(I’m republishing my best posts from the second half of 2024. You can see the entire list of them here)     It’s not uncommon for researchers and others who are not actually teaching in a classroom to criticize the alleged “overuse” of reading strategies. What they miss is that teachers often require students to […]

Mar 22, 2025 - 09:21
 0
A Look Back: Another Study Shows Why I Have Little Patience For Researchers Who Say Teachers Should Use Reading Strategies Less

(I’m republishing my best posts from the second half of 2024. You can see the entire list of them here)

 

geralt / Pixabay

 

It’s not uncommon for researchers and others who are not actually teaching in a classroom to criticize the alleged “overuse” of reading strategies.

What they miss is that teachers often require students to apply reading strategies because if we didn’t, many students wouldn’t actually read the text!  In other words, it’s also an accountability and engagement strategy (see How Reading Strategies Can Increase Student Engagement).

A new study, that’s not behind a paywall, reinforces this perspective.

The authors of Metacognitive Training Can Reduce Mindless Reading taught students what they described as “metacognitive strategies” and found that it reduced “mind wandering” when reading.

What were these “metacognitive strategies,” you might ask?

Participants were introduced to these strategies within a training that provided the following five strategies that are part of the self-explanation reading training (McNamara, 2004): comprehension monitoring, paraphrasing, elaboration, bridging, and prediction.

In other words, they taught students to use common reading strategies.

What a surprise!

NOT!

I hope critics of reading strategy use take note….

I’m adding this info to The Best Posts On Reading Strategies & Comprehension – Help Me Find More!