Analysing students’ interaction during the in-pairs reading comprehension task: What kind of procedure supports the focus on the text?

Abstract

Working in pairs can create favourable conditions for students’ involvement in reading comprehension strategies. The literature has shown practical advantages of organisation in pairs in classrooms, assimilating the functioning of the pair to that of the "good reader"(Hall et al., 1989). Following previous research inspired by a Reciprocal Teaching protocol (Calvani & Chiappetta Cajola, 2019), the goal of the present work was to analyse the interactions of some pairs. The processes of understanding the text have been described when the pairs worked in two different procedures: when both students play an alternating tutorial role (tutorial procedure) and when two students tackle the comprehension tasks jointly (joint procedure). The interactions between the two students in the pairs (cognitive, regulative, and affective) are significantly focused on the texts, both in low-skilled pairs and in those with more advanced skills, with a greater prevalence in the joint procedure compared to the tutorial one.

Keywords

• collaboration
• pairs
• reading
• comprehension
• reciprocal teaching
• thinking aloud