Deep-Level Comprehension of Science Texts

TLDR

Students across all grade levels struggle to understand science textbooks, partly because inference generation depends on prior knowledge, reading strategies, and the low‑cohesion nature of science texts that demands many conceptual inferences. This article examines the challenges of generating inferences in science texts and proposes remedies, including the introduction of the iSTART computer‑supported tool to aid students and teachers. Remedies involve matching texts to students' knowledge levels and providing explicit instruction in comprehension monitoring, paraphrasing, and elaboration, supported by the iSTART system. The study finds that many students lack the prior knowledge and reading strategies needed to generate inferences, resulting in poor comprehension of science texts.

Abstract

Many students from elementary school through college encounter difficulty understanding their science textbooks, regardless of whether they have language disorders. This article discusses some of the particular difficulties associated with science text comprehension and possible remedies for facilitating and enhancing comprehension of challenging expository text materials. Specifically, we focus on the difficulties associated with generating inferences needed to comprehend science texts. The successful generation of inferences is affected by factors such as students' prior knowledge and reading strategies, and the manner in which science texts are written. Many students lack the necessary prior knowledge and reading strategies to generate inferences and thus comprehend science texts only poorly. Further, science texts are typically “low-cohesion” texts, which means that they require readers to generate many inferences and fill in conceptual gaps. Remedies for overcoming comprehension difficulties include matching texts to students' knowledge level and providing explicit instruction aimed at teaching students to use reading comprehension strategies for comprehension monitoring, paraphrasing, and elaborations. The computer-supported tool iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking) is introduced as a technological support to assist students and teachers in the teaching/learning enterprise.