Reciprocal Teaching in a Regular Primary School Classroom

A multiple baseline across-groups design was used to assess the effects of specific, overt instruction in summarizing, self-questioning, clarifying, and predicting on the comprehension of poor reading comprehenders' reading nonfiction material in a regular classroom setting. Heterogeneous reading groups from two parallel classes of Standard 3 and 4 children were instructed using reciprocal teaching procedures. Between-phase comparisons for both experimental groups showed significant improvements in comprehension scores on the Progressive Achievement Test and in daily comprehension tests across the 20 days of instruction, gains not evident in the test results of a no-treatment, story reading, and attention-only comparison group. Observed gains in both treatment groups were maintained at an 8-week follow-up, and test probes assessing reading comprehension on fiction material indicate generalization across these literary genre. Implications of these findings for the implementation of reciprocal teaching procedures in regular class settings are discussed.