What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction - International ...

SESSION 14
Metacognition and Self-Regulated
Comprehension (Chapter 13)
Michael Pressley makes the point that skilled readers actively use
a variety of comprehension strategies while they read, that these
strategies should be taught beginning in the earliest grades, and that
these strategies are often not taught at all. From this perspective, the
author explores the nature of effective comprehension instruction,
focusing particularly on the role of metacognition.
Framing the Session
Desired outcomes
• To investigate research-based instructional conditions for
increasing students’ reading comprehension
• To clarify the role of the thinking processes in self-regulated
comprehension
• To apply practices of comprehension instruction that are
well validated in research to support the development of
skilled readers
Guiding questions
• What applications for classroom practice can be gleaned
from both the older and more contemporary research studies
described in this chapter?
• What is specifically metacognitive about skilled, self-regulated
reading?
• What are effective practices of a “metacognitively sophisticated”
reading teacher?
Key vocabulary
• Metacognition: Knowledge of thinking processes; with respect to
reading, “specifically knowledge about reading and how reading
is accomplished” (p. 304)
From the Professional Development Edition of What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction
(3rd ed.), © 2009 International Reading Association.
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