Improving (meta)comprehension: Feedback and self-assessment

Background

Monitoring is important for self-regulated learning from text, but is often inaccurate. Completing causal diagrams after reading texts has been shown to improve monitoring accuracy.

Aims

We investigated whether providing one or two model answer diagrams and self-assessment instructions would improve learners' monitoring accuracy, regulation accuracy, and text comprehension. Because little is known about how accurately learners who are reading in a language other than their home language monitor their comprehension, we also explored whether effects differed between readers who have English or another language as their home language.

Sample

Participants were 258 secondary school students at international schools in Singapore and Spain; 103 spoke a language other than English at home.

Methods

Participants read 4 texts, completed diagrams on these texts, monitored comprehension, took a first comprehension test, self-assessed their diagram under one of 6 conditions resulting from a 3 (model answer: 0, 1, 2) x 2 (self-assessment instructions: yes, no) design, made restudy decisions, made monitoring judgments, and completed a final comprehension test.

Results

Comprehension benefitted most when learners had access to two model answers. There were no effects of model answers or self-assessment instructions on monitoring accuracy. Regulation accuracy improved with model answers combined with self-assessment instructions. There was no differential effect of home language.

Conclusions

This study supports prior research showing the benefit of model answer diagrams on comprehension. Yet, improvements in regulation accuracy suggest that model answers combined with self-assessment instructions support more effective self-regulated learning behaviors.