A study of the effects of an interactive-based remedial reading course on achievement in an introductory college biology course.

摘要

This study examined the effects of an interactive theory based remedial reading course on college biology achievement. In this approach, the reading students used biology materials to accomplish reading course objectives.; Subjects were selected from 100 college biology students. An experimental group of 15 students was concurrently enrolled in an interactive theory based remedial reading course. Two control groups were selected by frequency matching. The first control group consisted of 15 students enrolled in a traditional remedial reading course. A second control group of 30 students was not concurrently enrolled in a remedial reading course.; Alternate forms of the Diagnostic Reading Test were used as tests of reading ability. The ACT Natural Sciences Test measured pre-college biology achievement. The average score of six biology exams was used to measure of college biology achievement. Student t-tests indicated that the pre-test scores of the groups were equivalent.; Analysis of variance determined there was a significant difference between the groups on the post-test scores. Post-hoc analyses were performed. The college biology achievement of the experimental group was higher than the traditional group and lower than the non-remedial group. However, the differences were not statistically significant. The biology achievement score of the traditional group was significantly lower than the non-remedial group. Reading improvement scores of the experimental and non-remedial groups were higher than scores of the traditional group. However, the differences were not statistically significant. Data from subgroups based on sex, ethnic background and college major was presented and discussed.; Student scores from the three groups showed no significant correlation between reading improvement and biology improvement. Using data from 100 students indicated that there were significant positive correlations between college biology achievement and the following: the ACT Natural Sciences Test score, the high school grade point average, and the student's high school biology grade. There was no significant correlation between years of high school biology and college biology achievement. There were significant positive correlations between initial reading ability and both the ACT Natural Sciences Test score and the high school biology grade.