The Role of Knowledge Retrieval in Inference-making

Reading Disability Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Role of Knowledge Retrieval in Inference-making Among Struggling Readers

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05692973
• Other study ID #: 2022-2026_aebarth
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: May 31, 2023
• Est. completion date: August 31, 2027

Study information

• Verified date: June 2023
• Source: William Jewell College
• Contact: Andrea Meloan, BS
• Phone: 816-415-7831
• Email: meloana[@]william.jewell.edu
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This project will (a) examine the relationship between knowledge retrieval and inferencing; (b) determine the effectiveness of an intervention that improves knowledge retrieval and inferencing among struggling readers; and (c) expand research opportunities for undergraduates. The research design uses 316 struggling readers in grades 4-6 of diverse backgrounds. The effects of knowledge retrieval (accuracy and speed) on inferencing will be modeled without dichotomizing the distribution. Linear mixed effect models will be fit to determine whether reader characteristics make unique contributions to inferencing across the posttest and follow-up data collection time points. First, several structural models will be considered as students may be nested in teachers, schools, and tutors. Unconditional models will estimate the intraclass correlation for each level of the study design. If significant interclass correlations emerge, multilevel models will be fit to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention while controlling for covariates such as pre-test performance on inference-related measures and child-attributes such as English learner status. The primary analysis plan assumes an intent-to-treat model in which the efficacy of two intact conditions will be tested. Effect sizes will be estimated to report the magnitude of difference between the two conditions. Expected outcomes include (a) the identification of a method that effectively facilitates knowledge retrieval and the application of relevant knowledge to form inferences among elementary struggling readers from diverse backgrounds; (b) the validation of an intervention that teaches struggling readers how to activate, retrieve, and interweave relevant knowledge with information in the text and accurately form inferences while reading that can be broadly implemented in general education classrooms; and (c) expansion of undergraduate research opportunities, particularly among students from diverse backgrounds who have been historically underserved.

Description:

Theory and research suggest that inferencing serves as a critical aspect of comprehension and that inferencing fails when readers do not possess sufficient background knowledge or slowly retrieve and integrate knowledge from memory or text when reading. Research suggests that readers fluently retrieve and use knowledge that is well-connected to form inferences while reading. Further, inferencing among skilled comprehenders depends considerably on knowledge retrieval, thus implicating the important role knowledge plays in inferencing. Yet, very little research has examined how inferencing changes as a function of changes in knowledge. Understanding how inferencing adapts as a function of knowledge acquisition and knowledge use provides a necessary mechanism for refining how to improve this learning process, especially for older students with reading comprehension difficulties. This project fills this critical need. This project's goal is to determine if knowledge retrieval is a mechanism for improving inferencing among middle grade struggling readers attending rural schools. The central hypothesis is that knowledge is malleable, with fluent retrieval of relevant knowledge associated with improved inferencing. This hypothesis will be tested with the objective to evaluate knowledge retrieval methods and then test the effectiveness of an intervention that facilitates knowledge retrieval and inferencing among middle grade struggling readers attending rural schools. This proposal is scientifically important because it informs theory by determining whether fluent retrieval of relevant knowledge enables inferencing among struggling readers. It is practically important because it identifies the learning strategies struggling readers need to retrieve knowledge to make inferences. The rural context also becomes critically important here. Long-standing disparities in educational access exist for students of minority backgrounds, English-learners, and children at risk for learning disabilities who attend rural schools. However, fully powered randomized control trials rarely occur in rural settings and existing literature of studies in rural schools commonly contains methodological limitations. These gaps in the literature will be addressed through the following Aims.

Aim 1: Evaluate the relationship between knowledge retrieval and inferencing. This Aim will examine whether retrieval practice - a powerful and proven technique for enhancing knowledge retrieval, inferencing, and transfer among skilled adult readers - also improves knowledge retrieval and inferencing among rural, middle grade, struggling readers. Past research conducted in the middle grades shows that retrieval practice is associated with improved end-of-unit performance in content area classrooms. But no study has examined how, why, when, and for whom knowledge retrieval works and under what conditions for struggling readers. The primary hypothesis is that fluent retrieval of relevant knowledge facilitates inferencing. The expected outcome is the identification of a method that effectively facilitates knowledge retrieval and the application of relevant knowledge to form inferences among rural, middle grade, struggling readers.

Aim 2: Determine the effectiveness of an intervention that improves knowledge retrieval and inferencing. No intervention study has used knowledge retrieval techniques to help struggling readers retain new knowledge or retrieve and use relevant knowledge to form inferences while reading. The primary hypothesis is that changes in inferencing are associated with changes in knowledge retrieval; however, knowledge retrieval and inferencing must be explicitly taught and sufficiently practiced for inferencing to occur with the same regularity as skilled comprehenders use it. The expected outcome is the validation of an intervention that teaches rural, struggling middle grade readers how to activate, retrieve, and interweave relevant knowledge with information in the text to accurately form inferences while reading. Furthermore, very few reading intervention studies have occurred with middle grade struggling readers attending rural schools. The rural setting is important; existing practices do not consider the cumulative effects of rural poverty on general knowledge development and reading achievement or the long-term impact of limited access to academic support services. Additionally, only one inference intervention study has included English Learners. The English Learner population has increased substantially in rural communities, but past research shows that generalizing vocabulary and knowledge building interventions designed for monolinguals have not proven effective.

Aim 3. To expand undergraduate research opportunities by integrating undergraduate students on the research team with the knowledge and skills to successfully implement these randomized controlled trials.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 316
• Est. completion date: August 31, 2027
• Est. primary completion date: August 31, 2026
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 8 Years to 14 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• performance below a a standard score of 93 on the Test of Silent Reading Efficiency

Exclusion Criteria:

• clinical diagnosis of a significant cognitive impairment

• clinical diagnosis of a significant behavioral disability

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Dyslexia
• Reading Disability
• Reading Problem

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Role of Knowledge Retrieval
Students will learn a new knowledge base to perfect mastery. Following the attainment of mastery students will read passages on the topic and answer questions that prompt the literal recall of key facts and the formation of inferences.
• Inference Intervention
The intervention will pre-teach students a set of 20 essential facts about Egypt. Students will interact with expository and narrative texts. Students will practice using a text clue strategy to activate and integrate prior knowledge, will make in-text connections, connections across the 3 intervention texts, and connections between text and knowledge, and will make inferences about character motives and author intent. The tutor will ask students to justify connections and evaluate how these connections enhance understanding. Students will answer inference questions that require using text and background knowledge. A simple graphic organizer will support and scaffold inferencing. Throughout the intervention, students will practice retrieving the 20 essential facts about Egypt from memory using flash cards, completed in pairs with students providing each other feedback.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Excelsior Springs School District	Excelsior Springs	Missouri

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
William Jewell College

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (2)

Barth AE, Daniel J, Roberts G, Vaughn S, Barnes MA, Ankrum E, Kincaid H. The Role of Knowledge Availability in Forming Inferences with Rural Middle Grade English Learners. Learn Individ Differ. 2021 May;88:102006. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2021.102006. Epub 2021 May 12. — View Citation

Barth AE, Elleman A. Evaluating the Impact of a Multistrategy Inference Intervention for Middle-Grade Struggling Readers. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2017 Jan 1;48(1):31-41. doi: 10.1044/2016_LSHSS-16-0041. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension	measure of silent reading fluency and understanding of text	baseline screening of participants; pre-intervention
Primary	Gates-MacGinite Reading Test-4th Edition; Change is being assessed	a standardized, group-administered, multiple-choice assessment of reading comprehension.	pre-intervention
Primary	Gates-MacGinite Reading Test-4th Edition; change is being assessed	a standardized, group-administered, multiple-choice assessment of reading comprehension	immediately after the intervention
Primary	Test of Language Competence-Expanded; Change is being assessed	Inference Task asks students to read three sentences and form an inference	pre-intervention
Primary	Test of Language Competence-Expanded; change is being assessed	Inference Task asks students to read three sentences and form an inference	immediately after the intervention
Primary	Bridge-IT; change is being assessed	asks students to read a five-sentence text, form an inference, and determine if the next sentence provided continues the story.	pre-intervention
Primary	Bridge-IT; change is being assessed	asks students to read a five-sentence text, form an inference, and determine if the next sentence provided continues the story.	immediately after the intervention
Primary	Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-5; change is being assessed	Metalinguistics, Making Inferences subtest, an individually administered assessment, measures students' ability to make gap-filling inferences on the basis of causal relationships or event chains depicted in short narratives that are presented both orally and in print form.	pre-intervention
Primary	Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-5; change is being assessed	Metalinguistics, Making Inferences subtest, an individually administered assessment, measures students' ability to make gap-filling inferences on the basis of causal relationships or event chains depicted in short narratives that are presented both orally and in print form.	immediately after the intervention
Secondary	Knowledge Retrieval; change is being assessed	It teaches new knowledge then measures the accuracy and efficiency by which the individual can retrieve that knowledge. After learning the knowledge base, students read passages and form inferences with the accuracy and efficiency of inferencing measured.	pre-intervention
Secondary	Knowledge Retrieval; change is being assessed	It teaches new knowledge then measures the accuracy and efficiency by which the individual can retrieve that knowledge. After learning the knowledge base, students read passages and form inferences with the accuracy and efficiency of inferencing measured.	Immediately after the intervention
Secondary	Knowledge Retrieval; change is being assessed	It teaches new knowledge then measures the accuracy and efficiency by which the individual can retrieve that knowledge. After learning the knowledge base, students read passages and form inferences with the accuracy and efficiency of inferencing measured.	one-week after the intervention
Secondary	Knowledge Retrieval; change is being assessed	It teaches new knowledge then measures the accuracy and efficiency by which the individual can retrieve that knowledge. After learning the knowledge base, students read passages and form inferences with the accuracy and efficiency of inferencing measured.	one-month after the intervention
Secondary	Test of Word Reading Efficiency-2; change is being assessed	Sight Word Efficiency, a 45-second assessment of students' word reading accuracy and speed and Phonemic Decoding Efficiency, a 45-second assessment of students' non-word reading accuracy and speed.	pre-intervention
Secondary	Test of Word Reading Efficiency-2; change is being assessed	Sight Word Efficiency, a 45-second assessment of students' word reading accuracy and speed and Phonemic Decoding Efficiency, a 45-second assessment of students' non-word reading accuracy and speed.	immediately after the intervention
Secondary	Metacognition survey; change is being assessed	asks students to report study strategies used when learning from text and includes questions about repeated studying and retrieval practice.	pre-intervention
Secondary	Metacognition survey; change is being assessed	asks students to report study strategies used when learning from text and includes questions about repeated studying and retrieval practice.	immediately after the intervention
Secondary	Contextualized Reading Strategy Survey; change is being assessed	49-item self-report survey designed to assess a collection of learning and comprehension strategies that students might use when reading for school.	pre-intervention
Secondary	Contextualized Reading Strategy Survey; change is being assessed	49-item self-report survey designed to assess a collection of learning and comprehension strategies that students might use when reading for school.	immediately after the intervention
Secondary	Working Memory Test Battery for Children	Word List Recall that asks the student to repeat a list of monosyllabic words, Non-word List Recall that asks the student to repeat a list of non-words and Listening Recall Test that requires that the student listen to a series of short sentences, judge their accuracy, and recall the final word of each sentence.	pre-intervention
Secondary	Kauffman Brief Intelligence Test-2	Verbal Knowledge subtest, a norm-referenced, individually administered assessment of expressive word and world knowledge	pre-intervention
Secondary	Gates-MacGinitie Vocabulary Test; change is being assessed	group administered test of receptive vocabulary	pre-intervention
Secondary	Gates-MacGinitie Vocabulary Test; change is being assessed	group administered test of receptive vocabulary	immediately after the intervention
Secondary	Egyptian Content Knowledge; change is being assessed	a researcher developed assessment of one's knowledge of Egypt	pre-intervention
Secondary	Egyptian Content Knowledge; change is being assessed	a researcher developed assessment of one's knowledge of Egypt	immediately after the intervention
Secondary	Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension; change is being assessed	measure of silent reading fluency and understanding of text	pre-intervention
Secondary	Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension; change is being assessed	measure of silent reading fluency and understanding of text	immediately after the intervention
Secondary	Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency; change is being assessed	measures of silent reading fluency and understanding of text	pre-intervention
Secondary	Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency; change is being assessed	measures of silent reading fluency and understanding of text	immediately after the intervention
Secondary	CBM-Maze Task; change is being assessed	measure of silent reading fluency and understanding of text	pre-intervention
Secondary	CBM-Maze Task; change is being assessed	measure of silent reading fluency and understanding of text	immediately after the intervention