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prior reading skill. In their study, college students read and self-explained two sci-
ence texts before and after iSTART training. After reading the two texts, the students
answered eight short-answer comprehension questions that corresponded to each
text. Their reading skill was measured with the Nelson Denny Comprehension Test.
Skilled readers answered more bridging questions correctly after training, whereas
less-skilled readers improved on the text-based questions. Thus, more-skilled read-
ers learned strategies that allowed them to make more connections within the text,
and this ability was most apparent on the bridging inference questions. In contrast,
the less-skilled readers learned the more basic level strategies (such as paraphrasing)
that allowed them to make sense of the individual sentences.
Thus, it appears that many students benefit from iSTART, but in different ways,
and according to their zone of proximal development (e.g., Vygotsky, 1978). Those
students who possess more prior knowledge of reading strategies are able to engage
in the more sophisticated processes (i.e., bridging inferences and elaborations), and
therefore perform well on the subsequent bridging inference questions. In contrast,
those students who have less knowledge of reading strategies struggle to develop
a coherent understanding of the basic information and need to learn how to piece
together the concepts from each sentence to form a coherent mental representation.
Thus, students tend to make progress in their area of proximal development, and
it appears that iSTART addresses at least two stages within reading comprehension
development. First, readers must learn how to assemble a sufficient mental represen-
tation of the text-based information (i.e., how to fit together the information from
each individual sentence). Once readers can create a conceptual representation, they
move toward understanding the text at a deeper level. This deeper understanding
comes from processing the relations between ideas and establishing links between
the text and the student's world knowledge.
iSTART Discussion
iSTART was designed to address some of the constraints associated with SERT
training. The human-based aspect of SERT-limited training to a single classroom at
a time (and sometimes down to a single individual at a time). This design imposed
physical constraints on the size of training groups and also made it more difficult
to establish comparable groups for accurate evaluations. Through the invention of
iSTART, it became possible to have an almost infinite number of students trained
simultaneously, and each with training adapted to their individual pace and ability
level.
Though iSTART is effective at producing learning gains and improving student's
self-explanations, it comes with its own limitations. iSTART is effective at deliv-
ering the necessary self-explanation content to students. The animated agents are
sufficiently engaging during the introduction, demonstration, and regular practice
modules. However, during the long-term extended practice module students have
been found to lose focus, disengage from the learning environment, and simply go
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