Theory and research suggest that inferencing serves as a critical aspect of comprehension and that inferencing fails when readers do not possess sufficient background knowledge or slowly retrieve and integrate knowledge from memory or text when reading. Research suggests that readers fluently retrieve and use knowledge that is well-connected to form inferences while reading. Further, inferencing among skilled comprehenders depends considerably on knowledge retrieval, thus implicating the important role knowledge plays in inferencing. Yet, very little research has examined how inferencing changes as a function of changes in knowledge. Understanding how inferencing adapts as a function of knowledge acquisition and knowledge use provides a necessary mechanism for refining how to improve this learning process, especially for older students with reading comprehension difficulties. This project fills this critical need. This project's goal is to determine if knowledge retrieval is a mechanism for improving inferencing among middle grade struggling readers attending rural schools. The central hypothesis is that knowledge is malleable, with fluent retrieval of relevant knowledge associated with improved inferencing. This hypothesis will be tested with the objective to evaluate knowledge retrieval methods and then test the effectiveness of an intervention that facilitates knowledge retrieval and inferencing among middle grade struggling readers attending rural schools. This proposal is scientifically important because it informs theory by determining whether fluent retrieval of relevant knowledge enables inferencing among struggling readers. It is practically important because it identifies the learning strategies struggling readers need to retrieve knowledge to make inferences. The rural context also becomes critically important here. Long-standing disparities in educational access exist for students of minority backgrounds, English-learners, and children at risk for learning disabilities who attend rural schools. However, fully powered randomized control trials rarely occur in rural settings and existing literature of studies in rural schools commonly contains methodological limitations. These gaps in the literature will be addressed through the following Aims.
Aim 1: Evaluate the relationship between knowledge retrieval and inferencing. This Aim will examine whether retrieval practice - a powerful and proven technique for enhancing knowledge retrieval, inferencing, and transfer among skilled adult readers - also improves knowledge retrieval and inferencing among rural, middle grade, struggling readers. Past research conducted in the middle grades shows that retrieval practice is associated with improved end-of-unit performance in content area classrooms. But no study has examined how, why, when, and for whom knowledge retrieval works and under what conditions for struggling readers. The primary hypothesis is that fluent retrieval of relevant knowledge facilitates inferencing. The expected outcome is the identification of a method that effectively facilitates knowledge retrieval and the application of relevant knowledge to form inferences among rural, middle grade, struggling readers.
Aim 2: Determine the effectiveness of an intervention that improves knowledge retrieval and inferencing. No intervention study has used knowledge retrieval techniques to help struggling readers retain new knowledge or retrieve and use relevant knowledge to form inferences while reading. The primary hypothesis is that changes in inferencing are associated with changes in knowledge retrieval; however, knowledge retrieval and inferencing must be explicitly taught and sufficiently practiced for inferencing to occur with the same regularity as skilled comprehenders use it. The expected outcome is the validation of an intervention that teaches rural, struggling middle grade readers how to activate, retrieve, and interweave relevant knowledge with information in the text to accurately form inferences while reading. Furthermore, very few reading intervention studies have occurred with middle grade struggling readers attending rural schools. The rural setting is important; existing practices do not consider the cumulative effects of rural poverty on general knowledge development and reading achievement or the long-term impact of limited access to academic support services. Additionally, only one inference intervention study has included English Learners. The English Learner population has increased substantially in rural communities, but past research shows that generalizing vocabulary and knowledge building interventions designed for monolinguals have not proven effective.
Aim 3. To expand undergraduate research opportunities by integrating undergraduate students on the research team with the knowledge and skills to successfully implement these randomized controlled trials.
