Students' Self-Questioning and Summarizing as Reading Study Strategies

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Abstract
The effects of student-generated prequestions and summaries were compared as reading study strategies for college-age subjects. Eighty-seven freshmen and sophomores from several sections of a developmental reading course were trained to use one of two study approaches: (a) phrasing and answering higher level questions while reading or (b) constructing and checking summary statements while reading. An additional number of students from the same population served as members of a control group. The results of three post-treatment tests–free recall, an objective test, and an essay test–were used as dependent measures. The results indicated that training in summary generation as an adjunct study activity significantly increased college students' free recall as well as performance on the objective test and, especially, on the essay test. Training in the interspersed prequestioning significantly facilitated students' performance on the objective test recall but not on free recall or the essay test. It was concluded that college students benefited from engaging in encoding strategies during reading and that specific strategies may be strongly related to posttest measures.

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