Master Tove S. Frønes

Title of dissertation:

Online reading comprehension and navigation - a study of student's reading and navigation strategies.

The thesis Online Reading and navigation Explores readers' behavioral patterns when Reading texts online and combines knowledge from text and reading comprehension research. The concept of navigation, which is an integral part of the rpocess of reading online texts, involves maneuvering virtual space to reach a reading goal.

The research question is: which navigational strategies differ with students' reading skills and how can navigational behavior be classified? 666 fifteen-year-olds took part in a test of online reading comprehension in the PISA study, and their navigational paths were logged. These patterns of behavior were analyzed by means of SQL-Programming, and mixed methods research was applied to analyze behavior and contextualized by taking the tasks, the texts and the reading situation into account. The dssertation includes: a) a model of how readers interact with different kinds of hypertexts; and b) a framework for investigating evidence of metacognitive awareness, navigational strategies for pathfinding and control and fix-up strategies when lost.

The analysis shows that poor readers are unlikely to use control strategies and lack strategic flexibility. Poor readers have trouble finding their way, ant the navigational demands obstruct even the lower levels of meaning-making processes that they do handle in paper format. Good readers, on the other hand, more often follow the most efficient navigation path and display a number of strategies to reach their reading goal. They are also critical Readers, assessing the trustworthiness of sources while navigating.

Based on the behavioral patterns, Three kinds of online readers were observed in the material, independent of reading proficiency. Goal-oriented navigators locate pages swiftly and efficiently, With few detours. They have several strategies to control their reading and are seldom distracted by insignificant information. Eager navigators are exploratory and persistent in their navigation, even if it doesn't pay off. Passive navigators seldom find the most efficient navigation paths, get lost and visit few pages.

The Research has been conducted by the Department of Teacher Education and School Research at the University of Oslo.

 

Published Feb. 5, 2018 3:00 PM - Last modified Feb. 5, 2018 3:00 PM