Faculty of Education - Theses

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11343/162

Filters

1973 - 1977 2
1 1
Reset filters

Settings
Statistics
Citations
End date: 1979 × Start date: 1960 × Type: Masters Coursework thesis × Subject: Reading comprehension × Subject: Testing ×

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The measurement of readability: theory and research in the measurement of the difficulty level of reading materials
    Carozzi, B. ( 1973)
    The present submission consists of three papers. The first paper is a review of theory and research in the field of readability. The emphasis is upon approaches to the measurement of readability, and the theoretical bases of such approaches. Two broad types of approach are considered: analytic or formula approaches, and synthetic approaches. The second paper is concerned with the reliability and validity of the Readability Reference Scale (developed by Anderson). This paper reports research which focusses upon the Readability Reference Scale in comparison with formula approaches. The third paper, also a research report, describes research which seeks to assess the applicability of the Rasch model (a probabilistic model for item analysis) to the measurement of readability.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Children's understanding of literature
    Bunbury, Rhonda M. ( 1977)
    Sixty primary school children aged seven, nine and eleven years listened to and read a selection of six pieces of literature at three different difficulty levels. Children were interviewed individually about the literature. In interview, a flexible individualized approach was combined with some standardization to the extent that each child was asked seven key questions: two were literal questions, the remaining five were different types of inference as listed in the Barrett taxonomy. Responses were scored according to Piagetian stages of cognitive growth indicated on a scale developed by Hallam (1966, 1967). Data were analyzed in a mixed model design, with two factors on the subjects - age and sex, and three factors in the repeated measures - difficulty level, mode and cognitive demand. A multivariate analysis approach to the repeated measures was utilized (Finn, 1972). That there is a progression of cognitive growth in response to literature was established both statistically and descriptively. For literal and inferential cognitive demand a significant interaction was found. Mode of presentation of the literature was found not to be significant for inferential cognitive demand but was significant at the level of literal demand. No significant sex differences were established. Educational implications of the results are discussed.