Improving students' narrative comprehension through a multiple strategy approach

Effects of Dialogic Strategy Instruction in secondary school

Abstract

This article reports on an intervention study using a multiple strategy approach—called Dialogic Strategy Instruction (DSI)—to improve seventh grade students' narrative comprehension in terms of students' ability to generate inferences and develop interpretations of characters and events. DSI combines strategy instruction with dialogical principles for classroom discussion and response writing. After a 13-week intervention period, students in the intervention condition demonstrated significant improvement in generating inferences and interpretations compared to pre-test results. However, the average effect was small and the improvement was not significantly different relative to controls. An analysis of students with low pre-test scores showed that the intervention group had made significant and strong improvement relative to controls. Results for middle- and high-achievers were non-significant in this respect. Therefore, although DSI appears valuable for low-achievers, results indicate that the instructional principles implemented may not offer instructional support for all children. Possible reasons for the absence of a general effect are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.