Implications for Future Research and Practice

Instruction of cognitive strategies for reading comprehension has been successful across a wide number of studies for readers in grades three to eleven. Despite these successful demonstrations, there are many unanswered questions. Among these are whether certain strategies are more appropriate than others for readers of certain ages or different abilities, whether comprehension strategy instruction would improve performance and achievement in all content areas, whether successful instruction generalizes across different types of texts, and whether comprehension strategies work better if what is being read engages the readers’ interests. Researchers also need to find out more about important teacher characteristics that influence successful instruction of reading comprehension, especially in regard to decision-making processes (e.g., knowing when to apply what strategy with which particular student[s]). Finally, there has been little research that directly compares different methods of teaching comprehension. More needs to be known about “best approaches” to comprehension instruction and the circumstances under which they are successful. How does one best develop independent readers who have the abilities to understand what they read on their own?