The Relationship of Reading Strategies and Content Knowledge in Models of Integrated Instruction

Abstract

Integrating reading instruction and content area curriculum has been suggested as a method of improving students’ reading comprehension and access to content knowledge. Less clear are the specific practices that should be used across the curriculum to improve comprehension and build knowledge simultaneously. The two studies in this dissertation use different methodologies to contribute to a body of research on how to best integrate reading strategy instruction and content learning to improve both reading comprehension and general academic achievement. The first, an experimental design, seeks to determine the effect of teaching inferential strategies while building knowledge using informational text. The second uses meta-analytic techniques to determine if the practice of integrating science and literacy instruction is associated with higher effect sizes, both overall for measures of science and literacy achievement, and when particular literacy and science practices are present in the intervention. Both studies seek to systematically answer questions about the relationship of background knowledge, reading comprehension, and content learning.