Primary Education

Abstract

A reading comprehension exercise has all the characteristics of a problem and may thus be considered to be a problem-solving task. Research in cognitive science has found quantitative and qualitative differences between experts and novices. Reading comprehension instructions in the primary school involve the interaction between the teacher, who is an expert, and the learners, who are novices. Instructions involving demonstrations and verbal explanations by the teacher based on an expert, mental representation of the task may not benefit the novice learners. The learners' mental representations should be used as a foundation for effective instruction. Too much attention has been directed towards the product of accurate response to comprehension questions when the focus of interest should be placed upon the comprehension process itself. It may be more fruitful if the primary pupils are encouraged to develop their own self-monitoring measures during the comprehension process.

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