The effects of four instructional strategies on English learners’ English reading comprehension: A meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882199413
Author(s):  
Jui-Teng Li ◽  
Fuhui Tong ◽  
Beverly J. Irby ◽  
Rafael Lara-Alecio ◽  
Hector Rivera

This meta-analysis includes experimental and quasi-experimental studies of reading interventions for English learners (ELs) coupled with four specific instructional strategies. The purposes of this meta-analysis were two-fold: (1) to identify the effects of the four instructional strategies (i.e. scaffolding, graphic organizers, interactive read aloud, and leveled questions) on ELs’ reading comprehension; and (2) to evaluate the combined effect of these four strategies when used together on ELs’ reading comprehension. In addition to considering that different studies might have varying effect sizes on ELs’ reading comprehension, we also conducted moderator analyses to explore potential moderators that might affect the variation between selected studies. Our moderators were school level, intervention duration, language learning context, and sample size. After an extensive search of research literature, 23 studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria of this meta-analysis study with a total of 2,284 participants. Mean effect sizes among these studies ranged from –.05 to 2.23, depending on instructional strategies. These studies were associated with increased reading comprehension across varied school levels, methodological features, and settings. Our findings showed that each of the four instructional strategies is beneficial for ELs’ reading comprehension. We also found an additional potential benefit on ELs’ reading comprehension when these four instructional strategies are used together throughout a lesson. Our findings also revealed that intervention duration was the only significant moderator, suggesting that the longer the treatment is, the greater the impact will be on ELs’ comprehension.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Bartkoski ◽  
Ellen Herrmann ◽  
Chelsea Witt ◽  
Cort Rudolph

Muslim and Arab individuals are discriminated against in almost all domains. Recently, there hasbeen a focus on examining the treatment of these groups in the work setting. Despite the great number of primary studies examining this issue, there has not yet been a quantitative review of the research literature. To fill this gap, this meta-analysis examined the presence and magnitude of hiring discrimination against Muslim and Arab individuals. Using 46 independent effect sizes from 26 sources, we found evidence of discrimination against Muslim and Arab people in employment judgments, behaviors, and decisions across multiple countries. Moderator analyses revealed that discrimination is stronger in field settings, when actual employment decisions are made, and when experimental studies used “Arab” (vs. “Muslim”) targets. However, primary studies provide inconsistent and inaccurate distinctions between Arabs and Muslims, therefore future work should be cautious in categorizing the exact aspect of identity being studied.


Author(s):  
Turan Kaçar ◽  
Ragıp Terzi ◽  
İrfan Arıkan ◽  
Abdullah Cevdet Kırıkçı

Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is a student-centered strategy within the constructivist learning approach. This strategy is an important approach that makes students active inside and outside the classroom, and enables students to work in groups, conduct research, present their research, and increase their academic success. When the literature is reviewed, there are many studies that show that IBL increases the academic success of students. The aim of this study is to make the meta-analysis of articles and theses carried out in Turkey between the dates of 01.01.2000 and 01.03.2020 that investigate the impact of IBL on the academic achievement. In this study, meta-analysis method was used to determine the effects of IBL on students’ academic achievement based on grade levels and publication types. The studies evaluated within the scope of this study were created by using the databases of Google Scholar and the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education. To this end, 30 studies were selected in accordance with year, method, data, and publication type criteria. In this study, the thesis and article evaluation form developed by the researchers was used as the main means of data collection. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) program was used to analyze the data. According to the results of this study, it is concluded that IBL significantly increases the academic achievement and the effect sizes are meaningful when grade levels are compared. That is, IBL at high school level is more effective than other educational levels, and when the effect sizes are examined, there are no significant differences based on the types of publication (i.e., articles and theses).


Author(s):  
David Sorrell ◽  
Gavin T.L. Brown

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the explicit teaching of information text schema with vocabulary instruction to primary-aged students in Hong Kong international education. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through three quasi-experimental studies with different age groups and participants. Each study divided participants into two randomly assigned groups, either informational texts (IT) or vocabulary building (VB). Impact was evaluated with gain scores on a standardized reading comprehension test and researcher-designed cloze tests of fiction and nonfiction passages. Findings The explicit teaching of IT can benefit student reading comprehension from an early age, particularly to first language (L1) English students and possibly second language (L2) English learners. School reading programmes should include opportunities for students to experience IT (nonfiction) and fiction materials, and build their vocabulary through incidental learning and explicit teaching. For IT, they should be exposed to: layout – e.g., headings, sub-headings, glossary, and index; and content – photographs and specific/technical vocabulary. For fiction-based texts and VB, the following themes should be covered by younger aged students: antonyms, synonyms, and affixes. Research limitations/implications Several limitations apply to this study which will need to be addressed in future studies. These include: the random sampling of students from the overall student population was not an option, given the necessity of voluntary participation and avoiding disruption to school routines. This study used meta-analysis to aggregate results across multiple comparisons largely because of the extremely small samples available. The data show large standard errors as a consequence of small numbers of participants. Hence, the current results, notwithstanding the power of meta-analysis, need to be validated with much larger samples in future studies. Originality/value This paper suggests that greater comprehension and cloze performance among L1 students was found due to the teaching of IT compared to vocabulary training, with the reverse result for L2 English learners.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1059-1080
Author(s):  
Qing Zhang ◽  
Elizabeth S. T. Cheung ◽  
Christian S. T. Cheung

The flipped classroom is one the most popular teaching models in recent years. Domestic and international scholars have carried out many experimental and quasi-experimental studies to explore the impact of flipped classroom on students’ academic performance, but the results are mixed. To further explore the impact of flipped classroom on college students’ academic performance, this paper adopted the meta-analysis method to quantitatively analyze 20 domestic and international experimental studies of flipped classroom. We found that: i) The flipped classroom positively affected college students’ academic performance, and the overall combined effect size was 0.66; ii) Effect sizes vary somewhat by subject types. For example, effect sizes for science, liberal arts, and engineering were 0.75, 0.72, and 0.34, respectively; iii) The flipped classroom had the same effect on the learning effect of different knowledge types, but practical knowledge learning was better than theoretical knowledge; and iv) The flipped classroom had produced significant impact on different class sizes, particularly medium class size.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. e100135
Author(s):  
Xue Ying Zhang ◽  
Jan Vollert ◽  
Emily S Sena ◽  
Andrew SC Rice ◽  
Nadia Soliman

ObjectiveThigmotaxis is an innate predator avoidance behaviour of rodents and is enhanced when animals are under stress. It is characterised by the preference of a rodent to seek shelter, rather than expose itself to the aversive open area. The behaviour has been proposed to be a measurable construct that can address the impact of pain on rodent behaviour. This systematic review will assess whether thigmotaxis can be influenced by experimental persistent pain and attenuated by pharmacological interventions in rodents.Search strategyWe will conduct search on three electronic databases to identify studies in which thigmotaxis was used as an outcome measure contextualised to a rodent model associated with persistent pain. All studies published until the date of the search will be considered.Screening and annotationTwo independent reviewers will screen studies based on the order of (1) titles and abstracts, and (2) full texts.Data management and reportingFor meta-analysis, we will extract thigmotactic behavioural data and calculate effect sizes. Effect sizes will be combined using a random-effects model. We will assess heterogeneity and identify sources of heterogeneity. A risk-of-bias assessment will be conducted to evaluate study quality. Publication bias will be assessed using funnel plots, Egger’s regression and trim-and-fill analysis. We will also extract stimulus-evoked limb withdrawal data to assess its correlation with thigmotaxis in the same animals. The evidence obtained will provide a comprehensive understanding of the strengths and limitations of using thigmotactic outcome measure in animal pain research so that future experimental designs can be optimised. We will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses reporting guidelines and disseminate the review findings through publication and conference presentation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0044118X2110223
Author(s):  
Natasha Pusch

School delinquency in public elementary, middle, and high schools has decreased in recent years, but is still a major issue that has negative mental health and academic implications for adolescents. Although research has focused on both individual-level and school-level explanations of school delinquency, it is not yet clear which macro-level criminological perspectives best explains it. Using 656 effect sizes nested within 75 studies and 30 unique datasets, this study addresses two questions using meta-analytic methods: Which macro-level criminological perspectives explain between-school differences in delinquency? Are effect sizes invariant across samples and research design? Results indicate that only concentrated disadvantage and social cohesion are significantly related to school delinquency. With the exception of concentrated disadvantage, effects are homogenous. This suggests that some school-level explanations are useful and future research should not exclude these factors. Practical implications suggest that improving social cohesion in schools may be more effective at preventing violence than target-hardening efforts.


2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima Safi ◽  
Anna M. Aniserowicz ◽  
Heather Colquhoun ◽  
Jill Stier ◽  
Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia

Abstract Background Eating disorders (ED) can reduce quality of life by limiting participation and performance in social and occupational roles, including paid or unpaid work. The association between ED pathologies and work participation and performance must be well understood to strengthen vocational rehabilitation programmes and prevent occupational disruptions in the ED population. The aims of this study are: (1) to examine the degree of association between ED pathologies and work participation and performance in 15-year-olds and older; (2) to highlight the specific ED symptoms that are most correlated with changes in work performance and participation; (3) to compile the most common metrics and assessments used to measure work participation and performance with ED. Methods Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library will be searched for observational and experimental studies that meet the following criteria: (1) a clinical sample of typical or atypical ED; (2) paid or unpaid employment or training; (3) an association between ED pathologies and work participation or performance. Unpublished data will also be examined. Title and abstract, and full-text screening will be conducted in duplicate. Risk of bias and quality of evidence assessments will be completed. A random-effect meta-analysis will be performed. Discussion This synthesis can clarify knowledge and gaps around the impact of ED on work functioning, thereby allowing better evaluation, improvements and development of current workplace assessments, interventions, and policies. Trial registration The registration number for this systematic review on PROSPERO is CRD42021255055.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noel A. Card

Longitudinal data are common and essential to understanding human development. This paper introduces an approach to synthesizing longitudinal research findings called lag as moderator meta-analysis (LAMMA). This approach capitalizes on between-study variability in time lags studied in order to identify the impact of lag on estimates of stability and longitudinal prediction. The paper introduces linear, nonlinear, and mixed-effects approaches to LAMMA, and presents an illustrative example (with syntax and annotated output available as online Supplementary Materials). Several extensions of the basic LAMMA are considered, including artifact correction, multiple effect sizes from studies, and incorporating age as a predictor. It is hoped that LAMMA provides a framework for synthesizing longitudinal data to promote greater accumulation of knowledge in developmental science.


AERA Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 233285842090169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daibao Guo ◽  
Shuai Zhang ◽  
Katherine Landau Wright ◽  
Erin M. McTigue

Although convergent research demonstrates that well-designed graphics can facilitate readers’ understanding of text, there are select situations where graphics have been shown to have no effect on learners’ overall text comprehension. Therefore, the current meta-analytic study examined 39 experimental studies published between 1985 and 2018 measuring graphics’ effects on readers’ comprehension. We first quantified the overall effect on reading comprehension. Then, we considered interactions with learners’ characteristics, graphic types, and assessment formats. Our analysis revealed that the inclusion of graphics had a moderate overall positive effect (Hedges’s g = 0.39) on students’ reading comprehension, regardless of grade level. Regarding graphic type, we did not find a significant difference among pictures, pictorial diagrams, and flow diagrams. Only when compared to mixed graphics, pictures had a greater effect on comprehension. Additionally, compared with true and false assessments, graphics differentially benefited students’ comprehension on open-ended comprehension assessments and mixed format assessments. Implications for future research are presented.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 111-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard P. Phelps

Background: Test frequency, stakes associated with educational tests, and feedback from test results have been identified in the research literature as relevant factors in student achievement. Objectives: Summarize the separate and joint contribution to student achievement of these three treatments and their interactions via multivariable meta-analytic techniques using a database of English-language studies spanning a century (1910–2010), comprising 149 studies and 509 effect size estimates. Research design: Analysis employed robust variance estimation. Considered as potential moderators were hundreds of study features comprising various test designs and test administration, demographic, and source document characteristics. Subjects: Subjects were students at all levels, from early childhood to adult, mostly from the United States but also eight other countries. Results: We find a summary effect size of 0.84 for the three treatments collectively. Further analysis suggests benefits accrue to the incremental addition of combinations of testing and feedback or stakes and feedback. Moderator analysis shows higher effect sizes associated with the following study characteristics: more recent year of publication, summative (rather than formative) testing, constructed (rather than selected) item response formats, alignment of subject matter between pre- and posttests, and recognition/recall (rather than core subjects, art, or physical education). Conversely, lower effect sizes are associated with postsecondary students (rather than early childhood–upper secondary), special education population, larger study population, random assignment (rather than another sampling method), use of shadow test as outcome measure, designation of individuals (rather than groups) as units of analysis, and academic (rather than corporate or government) research.


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