Strategy training and mind-mapping facilitates children's digital text comprehension

Abstract

In perspective of literacy skills for the 21st century, children in primary school read hypertext for comprehension. However, children typically are taught reading strategies for linear text, while these strategies are not automatically transferrable oneto-one to hypertext. In the present study, a training group of 55 sixth-graders were taught four hypertext reading strategies (planning, monitoring, evaluation and elaboration) via mind mapping and the usage of a prompting paper-card. A control group of 29 children received no strategy training. We examined to what extent strategy training influenced children's strategy use and learning outcomes: (1) number of pages read and reading time per text, (2) explicit / implicit reading comprehension scores and (3) knowledge representations (relatedness judgment task and mind maps). At posttest, the training group showed higher scores on a self-reported strategy usage questionnaire, higher comprehension scores, and more advanced mind maps as compared to the control group. It can be concluded that hypertext strategy training in combination with mind-mapping supports children's hypertext comprehension.