Theory and Related Research

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Theory and Related Research

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About the Researcher

Researchers have studied the effect of self-efficacy in student engagement and progress in school. One factor that has influenced student self-efficacy is the direct instruction of reading comprehension strategies. The studies that have been reviewed in this research were based upon students in elementary through high school. The present  study focused on a small group of second language learners (even though the issue of self-efficacy does not seem to be reflective of any one particular cultural group).

Research Hypothesis

As a veteran teacher of 22 years, the topic of self-efficacy has always been of great interest to me. In working with middle school students, increasing self-efficacy has taken on in an even greater importance. According to Pressley (2006), students at the middle school level are at greater risk of losing interest in reading than younger students. The demands of reading in the content area and high stakes testing impact the type of reading students need to participate in, in order to meet with success at the middle school level. By equipping students with  well taught, modeled reading strategies, self-efficacy and comprehension can increase.

 

Efforts to Solve the Problem
 McLoyd (1979) conducted a study comparing students who received no reward for reading with students who received rewards for reading. McLoyd observed that students receiving rewards for reading may not be as motivated to read in the absence of the reward. However, those students who were reading without the reward were identified as having intrinsic motivation to read. McLoyd also noted that students who were given rewards (extrinsic motivation) when they were already reading of their own accord were endangering their intrinsic motivation to read. Likewise, Pressley (2006) discussed the role of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for students when they met with success in academic areas.

As a teacher for the past 22 years, I struggled with using a reward system to engage and encourage students to read. The question of whether the students were developing self-efficacy when reading and claiming ownership of their learning remained in my mind.  The difficulty arose when trying to wean students from the reward system and helping them to value the intrinsic motivation to read. Students in the upper elementary grades and middle school especially needed to move toward intrinsic reasons for reading as they were expected to read more detailed and complicated texts. Without self-efficacy and the intrinsic motivation to read, it seemed highly unlikely that they would progress in academic areas and learn for the sake of learning.

Introduction to Exemplary Practice
Four reading strategies were employed in the study. The four strategies were visualizing, previewing, questioning, and summarizing.
  
In visualizing, students form mental images when reading or listening to a story. These images are similar to scenes in a movie that develop in the mind. Visualizations can engage all five senses and are connected to the reader’s prior knowledge. Visualization helps the reader to make inferences about the reading and offers a connection with the author’s writing. When students visualize, they can incorporate their own illustrations that depict the images in their minds. “Sketch to Stretch” is a visualizing strategy developed by Short, Harste, and Burke (1996). This visualization strategy helps students to create, represent, and share personal meanings. The strategy can be used for narrative or expository text. “Sketch to Stretch” also aids student in summarizing their understanding through sketches.

When previewing, students develop a sense of the text they are reading, and the purpose and content of the text. Previews can be generated from the title of the selection, from illustrations on the cover of the book or in the book, and from the summary offered on the back cover or the inside flap of a book. With this information, students can brainstorm what they believe the selection will be about, share any prior knowledge they may have regarding the text, and offer important information about the content. The Prereading Plan (PreP) is a previewing strategy designed to assist students to activate prior knowledge. PreP also introduces new vocabulary and allows students to make connections to text (Langer, 1981).

According to Harvey and Goudvis (2000), questioning allows the reader to engage with the text. Questioning allows the reader to clarify meaning, promotes comprehension and extends understanding of the text. It also provides the student with a purpose for reading. Questioning helps the student to monitor comprehension and construct meaning of the text. Likewise, Cris Tovani (2004) asserts that questioning helps the student to connect with his or her thinking while reading. “Thick and Thin Questions” is a strategy designed to help students to create questions pertaining to a text, discern the depth of the questions they ask and are asked, and facilitate understanding of the text.  “Thick Questions” encourage students to use higher level thinking skills such as analyzing and synthesizing. “Thin Questions” are text explicit and include superficial information obtained from the text.

When summarizing, students determine the importance of information when reading a text. Through modeling, students extract the main points of a story. Summarizing involves synthesizing ideas presented in a selection. Through summarizing, students obtain an understanding of information in the text and state the information in their own words. The “Narrative Pyramid” offers students a format for summary writing. Designed as a pyramid, it provides spaces for identifying the characters, setting, problem, three main events in the story as well as the solution. The narrative pyramid facilitates written and oral retelling of a story.

Theoretical Underpinnings
The effects of the use of comprehension strategies on student self-efficacy were studied. The social cognitive theory of Albert Bandura (1997) has self-efficacy as its focal point. Bandura defines self-efficacy as “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (p.3). Individuals exercise control over their feelings, actions, and thoughts through the use of a self-system. Bandura believes that self-efficacy is the most influential component of human activity. Self-efficacy is the means by which individuals evaluate the control over their actions and the environment. “Self-efficacy plays the central role in the cognitive regulation of motivation, because people regulate the level and the distribution of effort they will expend in accordance with the effects they are expecting from their actions.” (p.4).  

In social learning theory, Bandura and Schunk (1981) explain that individuals must “partly serve as agents of their own motivation and action” (p.586). When individuals establish goals and plans to achieve those goals, motivation to establish and attain new goals occurs. Establishing and attaining goals also support the self-precept of efficacy. “Self-efficacy consist of judgments about how well one can organize and execute courses of action required to deal with prospective salutations containing many ambiguous, unpredictable, and often stressful elements” (p.587). As individuals attain goals and set new goals and master these new goals, self-efficacy increases. By engaging in activities, seeking instruction, establishing attainable goals, and creating new goals, individuals can “increase intrinsic interest, self-satisfaction, intrinsic motivation and a sense of personal self-efficacy” (p.587). How individuals judge their capabilities can impact how quickly they acquire skills and perform those skills with mastery. With these new skills and this level of mastery, self-efficacy can be boosted.

According to Bandura (1982), when individuals are presented with a task, they intrinsically measure their ability to complete the task. If the individual senses the activity is beyond their capability, they tend to avoid the activity.

Bandura’s (1986) basic principle is that people are likely to engage in activities to the extent where they perceive themselves competent at those activities. In the educational setting, this means students will be more likely to attempt, to persevere, and to be successful at tasks at which they have a sense of self-efficacy. They will achieve if their perception is that they can achieve. When students do not achieve, this lack of achievement may be because they lack the necessary skills to succeed or because, while they have the skills, they lack a sense of self-efficacy.

Bandura (1989) identified three factors that may reduce student feelings of positive self-efficacy. Some students lose feelings of self-efficacy when they participate in rigid, sequential instruction, and they miss steps in the instruction and fall further and further behind peers. Grouping students by ability may lead to a loss of self-efficacy in those students identified as struggling learners. Competitiveness in the classroom may cause struggling learners to see themselves as failures from the beginning. Bandura also discusses the concept of self-regulatory efficacy-the belief that individuals will learn better if they believe they are good at managing their thinking strategies in a productive manner.

Background in Using Exemplary Practice
My teaching experiences range from kindergarten to grade 8 in two large urban settings- specifically in the areas of bilingual education, moderate special needs, and Title 1 reading. Presently I am employed as a Reading Resource Specialist at the middle school level. The focus is on teaching comprehension strategies and writing. Reciprocal teaching (summarizing, clarifying, questioning and predicting) was the major focus of my instruction. Modeling lessons in teaching inferences, analysis and synthesis, main idea, monitoring texts, previewing, making connections, visualizing, vocabulary development, evaluating, and poetry were also part of my teaching. The Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks served as a guide as its focus was to encourage the use of multiple comprehension strategies to improve student comprehension and, alternately, students test scores.


Justification for Research
The topic of comprehension strategy instruction to increase self-efficacy was chosen for many reasons. Working with students in kindergarten to grade 8, it became apparent that self-efficacy plays a key role in student learning. Extrinsic rewards do not always lead to intrinsic motivation to read, but lack of knowledge on how to encourage students to use intrinsic motivation to read left me with no other recourse but to offer extrinsic rewards. In the upper grades, the extrinsic rewards are less effective. Without the development of self-efficacy, students will not continue to read for the sake of reading.

Past conversations with colleagues and educators led me to reflect upon the recurring theme of self-efficacy. Much discussion revolved around the students' past reading experiences and when they began to lose interest in reading. Many theories have been offered as to why students lack self-efficacy, including influences of the media, high tech games that draw the child's attention away from reading, lack of student interest in the reading materials, lack of interest due to fear of failure, and learning difficulties. This study attempted to shed more light on this topic to increase student self-efficacy.

Review of Literature
In order to justify this research study, a review of the literature was completed that encompassed four areas related to the study. The first area reflects the role of self-efficacy in student learning. The second area identifies tools to measure self-efficacy. The third area discusses the use of comprehension strategies to improve understanding of text, and the fourth area highlights the research of comprehension instruction and English language learners. The research available for comprehension strategy instruction is extensive. However, the research available for the role of self-efficacy in student learning and tools to measure self-efficacy was limited.

Role of Self-efficacy in Student Learning
In the 1990s, the National Reading Panel (2000) identified student motivation as the most prominent and pressing issue facing teachers. Reader self-efficacy, reading competition, reading work avoidance, reader grades, and reader recognition were also identified as factors that affected student motivation (Pressley, 2006). Guthrie and Wigfield (2000) identified learning and knowledge goals, real world interactions, autonomy support, interesting text for instruction, strategy instruction, collaboration, praise and rewards, evaluation, and teacher involvement as practices that affected reading. Lenters (2006) conducted a study in which middle school students were interviewed and asked to identify factors that affected their willingness to read. Students reported lack of interest in reading materials being presented, the desire to read materials that revolved around the theme of identity development, and loss of autonomy in not being able to select materials of interest to them as factors that influenced their desire to read.

Bandura and Schunk (1981) conducted an experiment with students who were demonstrating deficits and disinterest in mathematics. Forty students from six elementary schools ranging in age from 7 to 10 participated in the study. These students came from a predominantly middle-class background. The participants were identified by their teachers as displaying gross deficits in math as well as low interest. A math performance test was administered to obtain pre-assessment scores. To measure student self-efficacy in the area of mathematics, students were individually presented 25 cards, each displaying pairs of subtraction problems of varying difficulties. Students were asked to judge their capability to solve the subtraction problem on a 100-point scale. The higher the scale value, the stronger the perceived self-efficacy.  The students were divided into three groups. The mathematic activities the students completed were self-directed. For the first group of participants the experimenter suggested the students complete six pages of the packet during each session. This goal setting was labeled proximal goal setting. The second group of students was told they should complete the entire 42 page packet by the end of the seventh setting. This goal setting was labeled “distal goal setting.” The third group of participants was a control group and no goal was offered to them.

The results of this experiment showed students presented with proximal goals substantially increased their perceived self-efficacy and exhibited gains on the mathematics posttest. The students receiving distal goals showed a moderate increase in self-efficacy. 

Schunk (1989) conducted experiments to apply self-efficacy principles in language and math lessons. Lessons to build self-perception were included. These lessons were geared toward helping students to set attainable goals, teacher modeling of cognitive strategies along with statements of positive self-efficacy, giving positive incentives, helping students to verbalize effective cognitive strategies, and focusing teacher feedback on applying effort to achieve goals.

Tools to Measure Self-efficacy
Gambrell, Palmer, Codling, and Mazzoni (1996) designed the Motivation to Read Profile (MRP) to identify factors that motivate students to read.  The MRP was designed to provide teachers with a tool to efficiently and reliably assess the reading motivation of students. It contains two sections. The Reading Survey is a Likert scale, group administered instrument. The Conversational Interview is given individually. The purpose of the MRP is to assist teachers in planning instructional activities to support reading development. The MRP focuses on the following categories: factors that get students excited about reading narrative text, factors that get students excited about reading expository text, factors that get students excited in general, sources of book referrals, sources of reading motivation, and the actions of those individuals that motivated students to read.
 
Bandura (1997) described four principle sources of information to judge self-efficacy. “These include performance attainment; vicarious experiences of observing the performances of others; verbal persuasion and allied types of social influences that one possesses certain capabilities; and physiological states from which people partly judge their capacity, strength, and vulnerability” (p.126).  Using Bandura’s theory of perceived self-efficacy, Henk and Melnick (1995) condensed Bandura’s four principal sources in developing a Reader Self-Perception Scale (RSPS) in order to facilitate scoring and interpretation of the scale. Henk and Melnick labeled the four principal areas as progress, social feed back, observational comparison, and physiological states. Progress is defined as the student’s perception of present reading performance compared with past performance. Observational comparison is how the child perceives his or her reading performance compared with performance of classmates and people. Social feedback includes direct or indirect input about reading from teachers, classmates, and people in the child’s family. Physiological states references internal feelings the child experiences during reading.
 
The RSPS incorporates 32 test items that measure the four areas of student self-efficacy: progress, social feedback, observational comparison and physiological states. The items on the test include one general item to prompt students to think about their reading ability. The remaining 31 items deal with overall reading ability including aspects of word recognition, word analysis, fluency, and comprehension. The test items are phrased in a positive manner and the written directions are brief in order to facilitate student reading. The items are presented using a Lykert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Undecided, 4 = Agree, 5 = Disagree). Progress scores range from 0 to 34 (low), 35-39 (average) and 40-45 (high). Observational comparison scores range from 0-16 (low), 17-21 (average), and 22-30 (high). Social feedback scores range from 0-27 (low), 28-33 (average), and 34-38 (high). Physiological states scores range from 0-25 (low), 26-31 (average), and 32-40 (high). (see Appendix A).

Use of Comprehension Strategies to Improve Understanding of Text
Schoenbach, Greenleaf, Cziko, and Hurwitz (1999) described reading as a problem solving process. The problems students encountered during reading could be solved by learning strategies and skills and by developing habits to become engaged, fluent, and competent readers. The researchers conducted a study in which the participants were taught how to clarify confusing parts of texts and to choose strategies to apply to texts. The strategies implemented in the study were previewing, sustained silent reading, use of reading logs, and book talks. The researchers reported that over time students began to take control over their reading. In a study conducted in a southwestern middle school in a low income suburban area of the United States, 13 students identified as struggling readers received academic instruction for 45 minutes a day over the course of one school year. The researchers were studying how adolescents’ literacy beliefs affected their performance in school. The findings indicated that struggling learners lacked strategies and routines to apply to literacy tasks (Colvin and Scholosser, 1997/1998).

Numerous research studies have identified the importance and value of comprehension strategy instruction in increasing student achievement. In 2002, Duke and Pearson outlined the characteristics of good readers and identified strategies that could be taught to help students improve comprehension skills. The researchers identified six strategies effective in increasing comprehension: predicting/prior knowledge, think aloud, text structure, visual representation, summarizing, and questioning. The researchers also identified reciprocal teaching as an effective strategy in increasing student comprehension.

Reciprocal Teaching is an instructional activity that takes place in the form of a dialogue between teachers and students when discussing parts of a text. The teacher and students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading a conversation. Reciprocal teaching incorporates four strategies: predicting, clarifying, generating questions and summarizing. The reciprocal teaching model helps students to construct meaning from text (Oczkus, 2003).

Lubliner (2004) conducted a study in which three struggling readers in grade 6 were presented a reciprocal teaching strategy to determine whether the four strategies of reciprocal teaching (summarizing, predicting, clarifying, and questioning) improved the reading comprehension skills of the students. After working with the students, the researcher determined that self-generated, main idea questioning had a significant effect on reading comprehension. The strategy helped students by making complex series of information manageable.

Langer (1981) identified a strategy to help students to use previewing to support comprehension of text. PreP (prereading plan) is based upon how knowledge is structured and organized in memory, how the knowledge is retrieved, and how it leads to comprehension. PreP helps students to identify what they know about a particular topic. The students’ use of language to express their knowledge assisted the teacher in identifying further judgments regarding additional background information and vocabulary that would be needed for students to successfully comprehend the text. Langer suggests that students can obtain stronger text comprehension by bringing appropriate knowledge to awareness and then applying that knowledge.

Schoenbach, Braunger, Greenleaf, and Litman (2003) examined a program implemented in California for middle and high school students. The Reading Apprenticeship program required teachers and students to reflect upon how they process materials presented in textbooks. The teachers and administrators involved in the Reader Apprenticeship program developed five processes to help teachers construct concepts in content areas. One of these processes was assisting students to gain control of the strategies they used to handle reading assignments. Schoenbach et al. presented the effects that the Reader Apprenticeship had on students’ ideas of themselves as readers. Through teacher modeling and sharing with students their own reading processes, students were better able to reflect on their own reading. Students were trained on the use of reading logs, visualizing, summarizing, and making connections in all content areas.

Fournier and Graves (2002) investigated instruction that taught reading and comprehension from the use of individual texts. The researchers conducted a study in which the Scaffolded Reading Experience in conjunction with an attitude survey was used to teach a group of 7th grade students. The SRE method is a program designed to guide students’ reading through the use of selected prereading, during reading, and post reading activities. The study was conducted with a group of 50 students in a suburban, Midwestern U.S. school with a student population of 1,300. The final data of the study indicated students who received instruction using the SRE method made substantial gains in reading comprehension.

Pardo (2004) defined reading comprehension as a complicated process which involved the reader’s interaction with text. Readers activate prior knowledge, make connections to previous experiences, and gain information from text. Pardo offered a model of reading that would include readers and the experiences that they brought to the text. The teacher’s role in this model was to support the readers by teaching decoding skills, helping students to build fluency, building and activating prior knowledge, and teaching text structure. The teacher also provided explicit instruction of comprehension strategies, helped the students to monitor reading, and scaffolded students’ learning through reading and writing connections. The model also incorporated the classroom text-its use of vocabulary, language, word choices, genre, and readability.  The readers produced mental images (visualizations) which called forth ideas and information (prior knowledge) to help students in making connections.

In 2004 Brown, Palincsar, and Armbruster conducted a study using reciprocal teaching. The study was conducted with two groups of four students in grade 7 identified as having fair skills in decoding, but below level scores in comprehension. A third control group was established with instruction given by the classroom teacher with no reciprocal teaching. The study was conducted over a six month period. At the end of the intervention period, Brown et al. made the following determinations: the two groups of students who worked with the researchers and received instruction in reciprocal teaching showed improvement in comprehension questions. Students generalized these skills to the classroom setting. The students receiving instruction with the classroom teacher and no reciprocal teaching also made gains in comprehension. However, the improvements were not as dramatic as the reciprocal teaching groups.

As far back as 1925, educators recognized the need for literacy instruction in the early grades. According to Moss (2005), there has been an increased focus on encouraging the instruction of content area learning in the elementary grades. The researcher identified three reasons for the implementation of comprehension instruction with expository text in elementary grades: the early exposure of expository text lays the foundation for work in the upper grades, the use of expository text as a motivator for reading, and the use of expository text to increase domain knowledge in areas such as history, science, and math. As a result of his study, Moss stressed the importance of comprehension instruction that assists students in becoming strategic readers and writers.

Joshi (2005) reviewed various studies identifying the importance of vocabulary development in improving reading comprehension. The researcher noted that students of lower socio-economic backgrounds were exposed to fewer words than students with higher socio-economic status. Exposure and interactions with words led to increased vocabulary which, in the upper grades, influenced reading comprehension. For vocabulary instruction, the researcher recommended meaning-based instruction such as antonyms, synonyms, morphemic roots, word origins, and the stories behind words. The researcher concluded that in order to increase reading comprehension, students needed an adequate vocabulary. The job of the teacher was to place a stronger emphasis on word meanings.

Hirsch (2003) explained low comprehension scores as reported by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). School districts have implemented and adjusted curriculum to address the issue of poor comprehension skills and low reading scores especially among children from low income families, but limited progress has been made. The researcher identified fluency and vocabulary as two factors that contributed to increased comprehension skills. Reading comprehension increased if the student, at a very young age, had acquired 90 to 95 percent of the words in the text. Through exposure to words in the world, students’ vocabulary increased and allowed for better comprehension of the text. The researcher identified some ways to increase comprehension including building words and word knowledge at an early age, building background knowledge and oral comprehension, and making effective use of school time.

Research of Comprehension Instruction and English Language Learners
The National Association of Educational Progress (NAEP) has reported that students of diverse backgrounds (African-American, Latina/o, Asian Americans, and Native Americans) have had lower achievement in the United States. This topic of literacy instruction and specifically comprehension instruction in educating second language learners was discussed and researched by many researchers.  Au (2002), Hammerburg (2004), Hones (2002), and Jimenez (2000) all conducted research regarding students with diverse backgrounds and the factors that influence their learning. Au suggested that through literature based instruction which included reader’s workshops, guided reading, repeated reading, and reciprocal teaching the students would show growth in all aspects of literacy. Au advocated for a Constructivist approach to learning for English language learners where students construct an understanding of the world through life experiences and literature. Au addressed five areas of student learning: motivating students, struggling readers, second language learners, teaching in a culturally responsive manner, and assessment. In motivating students, the teachers must work toward establishing positive relationships with students and understanding students’ cultural backgrounds as well as their values. The teacher should also demonstrate the kind of literacy they want their students to show. In working with struggling readers, Au recommended the use of the same strategies used with strong readers. These strategies include teacher read-alouds, sustained silent reading, shared reading, guided reading, guided discussion, and literature discussion groups. In working with second language learners, Au recommends intensive instruction in reading and writing skills. Au suggested that teachers develop a repertoire of strategies for student participation, note the strategies that work best for the students, and challenge the students by helping them to respond in ways that may not be comfortable to them as a way of preparing them for a variety of classroom situations. The researcher concludes by recommending that a continuum of intensive instruction offers the best chance of narrowing the literacy achievement gap.

Both Hones (2002) and Jimenez (2000) focused on the use of second language learners’ linguistic and cultural experiences as a connection to the academic content of schools. Hones conducted a study in an urban school located in the northwestern part of Wisconsin. By using narrative research, the researcher interpreted the social and historical lives of the three participants and discussed how, through a dialogic pedagogy, students could make connections to the curriculum. Given the opportunity to engage in conversations with classmates on topics of languages, cultures, and politics, the students became more interested in the academic content of school and were motivated to learn linguistic tools to be able to continue these conversations and gain more access to society.

Jimenez (2000) examined how literacy was integrated into the lives of students from linguistically diverse backgrounds. The researcher studied individuals in students’ lives who influenced their literacy development. The study was conducted in a large Midwestern city of the United States, with 85 students, aged 9 to 12, in four bilingual classrooms. Four teachers also participated in the study, and the study was conducted over one academic school year. Data were collected through classroom observations (teachers and researchers) and through student interviews in which students discussed literacy strategies. The results of the study indicated literacy development of Latina/o students was influenced by the concept of students and teachers as being bicultural, biliterate, and bilingual. Participants identified bilingualism, heritage, and individuality as components of literate identity. Jimenez concluded that students of diverse linguistic backgrounds benefit from teachers of similar backgrounds, teachers trained in sheltered English instruction, and culturally responsive instruction. Through the implementation and practice of specific reading strategies, the researcher noted an increase in the quantity and quality of student discourse.

In a review of literature conducted in 2004, Hammerburg noted that educators must be aware of the messages given to students through current methods of comprehension instruction. The researcher defined the importance of how these messages influenced and affected the learning of students from diverse backgrounds. Comprehension instruction in the classroom facilitates the students’ learning of the message given by the author of the text. Traditional reading strategies were presented to assist the students in obtaining this message. Hammerburg discussed how, through a sociocultural view, comprehension could be taken to another level that would allow students to interpret the message of the author. This use of the sociocultural theory encouraged thinking that extended beyond summarizing and synthesizing and encompassed interactive participation in creating meaning. Hammerburg concluded his review by recommending that educators must know their students, empower the students and respect differences, use students’ knowledge to build understanding of text, recognize that social interaction helps students to learn, and demonstrate that text can offer multiple meanings which should be discussed and interpreted in many ways.

Definitions of Terms
The following definitions have been provided to clarify the terminology in this report.

• Sheltered English immersion refers to a class of students in which various languages are spoken. All the students have English as their second language. Students are instructed in English with an emphasis on content area language. English language learning is supported through visual aids, peer learning, and scaffolding.
   

• Self-efficacy is defined by Bandura (1997) as “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (p 3). Self-efficacy is the means by which individuals evaluate control over their actions and the environment.
   

• English language learners are individuals whose first language is not English and who are receiving instruction to acquire the English language.
   

• Intrinsic motivation is defined by Malone & Lepper (1987) as “what people will do without external inducement. Intrinsically motivating activities are those in which people will engage for no reward other than the interest and enjoyment that accompanies them” (p.228).
   

• Extrinsic motivation is the desire to complete a task or activity for an external reward that may be received.
   

• Progress is defined by Henk and Melnick (1995) as one’s perception of present reading performance compared with past performance.
   

• Observational comparison is defined by Henk and Melnick (1995) as how a child perceives her or his reading performance in comparison with the performances of classmates.
   

• Social feedback is defined by Henk and Melnick (1995) as direct or indirect input about reading from teachers, classmates, and people in the child’s family.
   

• Physiological states are defined by Henk and Melnick (1995) as internal feelings the child experiences during reading.