Date of Award

2000

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

First Advisor

Janice M. Hinson

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in students' reading self-efficacy, students' personal perceptions of the learning environment, and change in reading level across instructional programs. In addition, the study explores the relationship between students' personal perceptions of the learning environment as measured by the My Class Inventory-Short Personal Form (MCI-SPF) and student reading self-efficacy as measured by the Reader Self-Perception Scale (RSPS). Analyses showed that: (1) Students in the Success for All (SFA) reading program exhibited higher levels of general reading self-efficacy than did students in the language-based comparison group, (2) Students in the SFA instructional program felt more positive about their performance than did students in the language-based comparison group, (3) Students participating in the SFA instructional program were more likely to describe the social feedback received more positively than students participating in the language-based comparison group. With respect to reading levels the analyses indicated that change in students' reading levels as measured by the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) was not significantly different between the two programs. Also, the relationship between changes in students' reading levels as measured by the DRA and student self-efficacy as measured by the RSPS is weak and manifests itself only within the RSPS-Progress subscale. In addition, analyses suggested that students with high subscale scores on MCI-SPF Satisfaction and MCI-SPF Difficulty subscales were more likely to be members of the language-based instructional program. The relationship between students' personal perceptions of the learning environment as measured by the MCI-SPF and student reading self-efficacy as measured by the RSPS is weak and manifests itself as a positive relationship between the MCI-SPF Satisfaction subscale and the RSPS-Physiological State subscale, and as a negative relationship between the MCI-SPF Difficulty subscale and the RSPS-Physiological State subscale. This repeated pattern of findings across instructional programs suggests that specific components of an instructional program in reading may exert a certain degree of influence on student self-efficacy toward reading. The findings suggest the need for additional research to identify which components of instructional programs are most instrumental in contributing to the formation of high reading self-efficacy and positive perceptions of the learning environment.

ISBN

9780599990661

Pages

129

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.7321

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