Research evaluation methods and frameworks

Improving the Reading Comprehension of Middle School Students with Disabilities through Computer-Assisted Collaborative Reading

With technology developing as fast as it has over the last few generations, many researchers have conducted studies which aim to prove the efficiency of using computer technology as a learning tool. A study conducted by Kim, Vaughn, & Klinger in 2006 entitled "Improving the Reading Comprehension of Middle School Students with Disabilities through Computer-Assisted Collaborative Strategic Reading," integrated a system called Computer-Assisted Collaborative Strategic Reading (CACSR) into the lesson plan of 34 learning-disabled students. They believed that this system would significantly improve reading comprehension through teaching strategies with the aids of computer technologies would help raise the level of comprehension in the students.

Personally, I believe this hypothesis is a very feasible one which would have great success when tested out. The fact that researchers combined both Collaborative Strategic learning techniques with computer technology meant they were combining two previously noted successful strategies in a method specifically designed for improving reading comprehension. It could be improved only if the students who were introduced to the program failed to improve their reading comprehension in any amount when compared to the control students who were not introduced to the program.

The subjects were students with learning disabilities, a population which does need significant improvement in areas such as reading comprehension. Several studies have shown that students with learning disabilities lag behind other students their age in reading and comprehension. They are a good choice for these researchers to have focused on because they are the population who truly need successful strategies in order to be more successful in reading comprehension. However, the selection of this particular population could have jeopardized the study in the larger scope of general Educational Psychology. Many people might not take these results as being sufficient to use in average student populations due to there being no inclusion of that group in this study.

The study focused on an urban middle school and two particular classes of 34 learning disabled students. Researchers broke the two classes down into two groups, the intervention group and the comparison group. The intervention group was introduced to the strategic lesson plans and collaborative techniques found in the computer administered CACSR. This program consisted of lessons on how to use the program and also informed students how to then implement those lessons in order to learn better reading strategies. The comparison group was instructed with typical language arts lesson plans. Both groups were then tested and those scores were analyzed for results using ANCOVA.