Is Retrieval Practice Always Superior to Restudy?

A classic study by Roediger and Karpicke (2006a) investigated the relative benefits of restudy versus retrieval practice, or “test”, on memory retention. Repeated studying was superior to repeated testing when memory was tested immediately (all study > multiple study/single test > single study/multiple tests). Strikingly, the pattern reversed when memory was tested after a days-long delay, with best performance in a single study/multiple tests condition. As each study period was minutes-long and contained repeated reading of a to-be-remembered text passage, we were interested whether the striking benefit for repeated testing at the expense of any restudy replicates when study opportunities are brief, akin to a single mention of a fact in a lecture. Participants encountered academically relevant facts a total of three times, each time either studied (S) or self-tested (T). Final test followed immediately or after a delay (Experiment 1: two days, Experiment 2: seven days). Partially replicating prior work, immediate memory benefited from repeated study (SSS > SST > STT), but the pattern did not reverse after a delay. Instead, memory was superior for facts the were restudied in addition to self-tested (SST > STT = SSS). We further investigated whether restudy after a test (STS) provides additional benefits compared to restudy before test (SST), but found comparably high delayed recall in both conditions. The results show that under some circumstances, balancing repetition and testing can allow for more information to be learned and retained long-term.

Development and Implementation of an Integrated Academic-Behavior Intervention

The relationship between learning disabilities and behavior disorders is well documented and has led to the development of integrated interventions that target both academic and behavior deficits in elementary students. This paper describes the rationale, development, and implementation of an integrated academic-behavior intervention called a cademic and behavior combined support ( ABC Support). The intervention was developed by integrating the critical intervention elements from two single-focus interventions (i.e., repeated reading and check-in/check-out) into a single comprehensive intervention designed to improve reading fluency for early elementary students with reading disorders while also strengthening their engagement and compliance with behavior expectations.

Contemplating COVID-19 through disease and death in three short stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Wort-case scenarios depicted in literary works may function to mourn and warn people about the real situation, such as the spread of COVID-19 that has altered worldwide life drastically. This study offers a reflection on the current pandemic time through a close reading of selected American classic literary works. The imagination of fear, isolation, and mask-wearing in Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories is resonant with the new expressions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Three short stories by Poe, i.e., ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, and ‘The Sphinx’ are chosen for examination using the thematic analysis method. Repeated reading of the short stories shows that parallels can be drawn between these stories and today’s phenomenon about anxiety, social restriction, and health protocols. What can be implied from the analysis are as follows: (1) Fear of the disease results in the characters’ added distress, (2) The characters’ aberrant behaviour as to overprotect themselves is exacerbated by the dreadful situation, and (3) Poe’s obsession with dread and death to shock the readers can be historically traced through his own inner predicaments, ill-health, and the 1832 Cholera contagion. In conclusion, the findings resonate with the COVID-19 epidemic’s upshots.

Business and Economics Students’ Self-Reports on Academic Reading in English as L2: A Factor Analysis

Adequate reading behaviour is vital for text comprehension across fields. In today’s professional environment, a well-developed reading skill is also expected in English as a second language (EL2), which happens already in college, although transition to college-level reading may be difficult even in the first language. It is therefore useful to analyse students’ use of reading strategies to facilitate their academic progress. This study investigates the reading behaviour of junior students of business/economics when reading academic texts in EL2. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis (N=134) of a 45-item questionnaire about students’ awareness of reading strategies and their reading confidence (i.e. self-perceived competence in text retelling). The majority of the items were based on self-reports found in the literature (Kolić-Vehovec, Bajšanski, 2001; Mokhtari, Reichard, 2002; Taraban, Kerr, Rynearson, 2004) and several items were added to the questionnaire (e.g. questions related to note taking). Five factors were interpretable: four factors related to Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies (Repeated Reading, Monitoring/Regulation, Note Taking and Elaboration) and the fifth factor covering self-perceived competence in text retelling (Reading Confidence). Internal consistency of the factors indicated by standardized Cronbach’s alphas were 0.83 (Repeated Reading), 0.80 (Monitoring and Regulation), 0.77 (Note Taking), 0.63 (Elaboration) and 0.75 (Reading Confidence). Three strategies positively correlated with each other (Repeated Reading, Monitoring/Regulation and Elaboration), while negative correlation was found between Note Taking and Reading Confidence. The results provide valuable information on the patterns in student reading as a baseline for further analysis of L2 text comprehension in college.

Enhancing Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Through Computer Assisted Repeated Reading (CARR)

This study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of using the Computer Assisted Repeated Reading (CARR) technique to enhance Form One rural students’ oral reading fluency (ORF). The single subject experimental design (SSED) which emphasised on the individual participant was used to collect data. Five students participated in this 12 week study in which the CARR intervention was carried out two times a week. CARR, the adaptation of the CBM/ORF procedure was used to improve the participants’ accuracy and automaticity in word decoding. Each participant’s accuracy and automaticity in word decoding before and after intervention were charted on line graphs. Accuracy was determined by the percentage of words read correctly. The participant’s initial reading accuracy which stood at 96.7%, 94.2%, 96.6%, 97.3% and 97.1% showed that they could only read at instructional level. After the CARR intervention their reading accuracy improved and stood at 98.8%, 99.2%,97.2%,98.8% and 98.0%.This showed that they can now read the assessment texts or other texts of comparable difficulty independently. Automaticity was determined by the reading rate or words read correctly per minute (WCPM). The participant’s initial WCPM was between 104 to 143 WCPM, 85 WCPM to 127 WCPM, 99 to 128, 57 to 209 WCPM and 103 and 163 WCPM. After the CARR intervention their reading automaticity improved between 108 to 158 WCPM, 99 to 146 WCPM, 99 to 135, 52 to 120 WCPM and 114 and 167 WCPM. Based on the participants’ individual results, it can be concluded that the CARR technique was effective in improving struggling readers’ reading fluency. The results further implied that the CARR technique will ease burnt out English teachers’ workloads. CARR is user friendly and it can help teachers to help their students become better readers while helping struggling readers to become fluent. Keywords: Reading fluency, Accuracy, Automaticity, Repeated reading, Computer Assisted Repeated Reading (CARR)