Study Behavior as a Function of Metacognitive Knowledge about Critical Task Variables: An Investigation of above Average,Average,and Learning Disabled Readers

Abstract

Through an interview, above average, average and LD readers in the intermediate grades were assessed on their metacognitive knowledge about vocabulary difficulty and passage organization in relation to the ease of studying a passage. After 3 weeks, they were given a pair of passages with difficult and easy vocabulary and a pair of organized and disorganized passages to study. Of interest is the consistency between the children's expressed metacognition and their subsequent studying behaviors. As expected, good readers possess substantially more metacognitive knowledge than both average and LD readers about the role of vocabulary difficulty and passage organization on the ease of studying a passage. Concerning study behaviors, only good readers studied the disorganized passage longer, while only LD readers studied the passage with difficult vocabulary longer. The results challenge the assumption that LD readers lack metacognition about reading. The results also raised methodological and theoretical issues with important implications for both researchers and practitioners.