The Effectiveness of a Direct Instruction Paradigm for Teaching Main Idea Comprehension

Abstract

THIS STUDY investigated the effectiveness of a direct instruction model for teaching children the comprehension skill of main idea. Sixty-six, sixth-grade students, blocked on achievement level, were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: a Strategy group, in which subjects received intensive main idea instruction according to a direct instruction paradigm developed by the author; a Basal group, in which subjects were administered massed basal lessons on main idea comprehension from a current, popular basal series; or a Control group, in which subjects engaged in unrelated vocabulary development exercises. A series of dependent measures assessing students' ability to recognize and produce explicit and implicit main ideas at the paragraph and short passage levels indicated a powerful treatment effect favoring the Strategy group over both the Basal and Control groups. These results are interpreted as further support for the efficacy of a direct instruction paradigm for teaching children reading comprehension skills.