Abstract:

Metacognition is closely related to executive function, which involves the ability to monitor and control the information processing necessary to produce voluntary action. Understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible. Competent readers must master an important set of metacognitive skills. They must, for example, be able to reject the irrelevant information and find what they are looking for. In previous studies we have seen that subjects with reading deficits in specific populations (ADHD, the deaf, etc) were not aware of metacognitive skills, and in those cases where they were familiar with them their effective implementation was practically non-existent. Research was conducted in a secondary school in Madrid with the aim of evaluating to what extent specific training in the skills of planning, monitoring and evaluation can improve students’ performance. A sample of 38 students with low levels of reading comprehension was selected and they were provided with training in the effective application of metacognitive strategies over a period of three months. The results show that there was a statistically significant overall improvement (p < 0.001), which allowed subjects to move from the 38th to the 50th percentile in comprehension. It was thus possible for subjects with low school performance, caused by their low level of reading comprehension, to achieve the average levels of understanding of their reference groups.

Acknowledgements:
This work was supported by Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and Comunidad de Madrid (DGUI) of Spain (grant: CCG10UCM/HUM-5158).

Keywords:

Reading comprehension, metacognitive strategies, secundary education.