Comparison of more effective and typical teachers’ instructional quality and implementation of engaged reader processes

Abstract The multiple methods study was utilized to determine the following: (1) the relationship between reading/special education teachers’ instruction of processes designed to engage readers in thinking about what they read, (2) students’ use of the processes, and (3) comprehension development. This was followed by qualitatively examining performance utilizing contingent teaching and the self-direction dimension, and student application of 8 students. This is the first study to assess all three jointly. Moreover, this study is the first to examine instructional scaffolding of the engaged reader process in such depth. The study examined planned and interactional scaffolding in comprehension. Fidelity of implementation ratings and percentage of time allocated to the instruction of engaged reader processes were examined to see if they predicted comprehension post-test scores for 85 students. Adding the variables of instructional time and fidelity only increased the explanation of the variance by 2%, a total of 27% with the control variables. Qualitative results displayed the importance of explicit instruction in domain information on how and why engaged reader processes should be used. Additionally, providing feedback on domain information was a key ingredient in effective scaffolding.