Examining the polestar of reading comprehension

One teacher's instruction in one L1 class-room and students' metacognitive knowledge of reading

Abstract

This qualitative study examines reading comprehension instruction and students' metacognitive knowledge of reading in one L1 classroom at the lower secondary level. The data comprises four consecutive videotaped lessons from the same class in grades 8, 9 and 10 (N = 12), student group interviews, and an in-depth interview with the teacher. The study investigates a) the prominent features of the reading comprehension instruction in videotaped lessons, b) to what extent and how features of the observed instruction is reflected in students' perceptions of L1 lessons, and c) students' metacognitive knowledge of reading, i.e., what strategies they express that they would use to understand complex texts. A key finding is that the observed instruction was mainly dominated by reading comprehension strategies and language skills, which was also reflected in students' utterances of strategies they would use themselves and emphasized as important instructional elements by the teacher. However, while the students overall expressed metacognitive knowledge of how to approach complex texts independently, they also expressed a lack of variation in the provided instruction. The article discusses instructional practices, instructional variation, and the necessity of reading instruction balancing between fostering basic skills and higher-order thinking at the lower-secondary level.