Self-questioning: A comparative analysis of what teachers and students report about the use of this reading comprehension strategy

This study explored self-questioning as a reading comprehension strategy from the perspective of the fifth grade classroom teacher. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to a sample of fifth grade teachers selected from public schools in the eastern portion of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The questionnaire probed teachers' reported beliefs about self-questioning as a reading comprehension strategy (IBELIEVE), teachers' instructional practices of this strategy (IDO) and teachers' awareness of their students, use of self-questioning (IKNOW).; Multivariate correlation techniques were used to investigate how well the composite teacher variables predicted student responses to strategy use questions on the most recent Pennsylvania System of School Assessment instrument. Student variables represented percentage of affirmative response to three questions concerning self-questioning as a reading comprehension strategy; Do any of your teachers teach you to form your own questions before reading? (TTOWNQS); Before reading, I ask myself questions that I think may be answered by the story. (BRQUESS); I ask questions about what I am reading and try to answer them as I go along, (DRALONGS). Regression analysis identified teacher beliefs (IBELIEVE) as a weak predictor of one student variable, acknowledgement of instruction in the strategy (TTOWNQS).; Teachers indicated relatively strong beliefs about the value of self-questioning as a reading comprehension strategy and reported that they taught their students to use this strategy frequently. However, just 43% of students responded affirmatively to TTOWNQS; 40% to BRQUESS, and 55% to DRALONGS.; To account for this discrepancy, sample extremes representing students registering the lowest and highest 30% of affirmative responses to TTOWNQS were examined and revealed significant differences. These results support prior research demonstrating that good readers use self-questioning to facilitate reading comprehension but poor readers show little evidence of efficacious use of this skill. A closer look at specific classroom practice might suggest differentiated strategy use instruction for less able and accomplished readers.; This study suggests that preparation in self-questioning instructional techniques should receive greater emphasis in teacher precertification programs and in inservice offerings. Additional research is proposed to identify the most effective strategies for transmitting ownership of this critical thinking skill to fifth grade students.