The effects of a computer-based higher order thinking skills curriculum on inferential comprehension

Abstract

Recent literature in cognitive psychology depicts mental constructs through which processes and strategies are employed by the learner to facilitate learning. A remedial curriculum structured to enhance the development of the general constructs theorized, was evaluated for its effect on a cognitive component of reading. Inferential comprehension strategies of 4th-6th grade students in the experimental computer-based higher order thinking skills program and in a traditional program of drill and practice in reading skills were assessed using the strategy stories of Goodman and Burke (1980). A MANOVA design revealed a difference between the two treatment groups (p >.001) on eleven dependent measures. Univariate results indicate that the experimental students performed better on five out of the eleven individual measures. Qualitative analysis on the contextual cues utilized in forming hypotheses did not reveal great differences in the amount of contextual cues used by the two groups.