Education Commons^™

One Font Doesn’T Fit All: The Influence Of Digital Text Personalization On Comprehension In Child And Adolescent Readers, Shannon M. Sheppard, Susanne L. Nobles, Anton Palma, Sophie Kajfez, Marjorie Jordan, Kathy Crowley, Sofie Beier

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Reading comprehension is an essential skill. It is unclear whether and to what degree typography and font personalization may impact reading comprehension in younger readers. With advancements in technology, it is now feasible to personalize digital reading formats in general technology tools, but this feature is not yet available for many educational tools. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of character width and inter-letter spacing on reading speed and comprehension. We enrolled 94 children (kindergarten–8th grade) and compared performance with six font variations on a word-level semantic decision task (Experiment 1) and a passage-level comprehension task (Experiment 2). …

Readability Of Australian Road Safety Information For The General Public, Catherine Ferguson, Stephen Winn

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This research was conducted as a result of the authors becoming aware of the Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) submission to the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030. The ACRS submission outlined six key elements, one of which suggested that the National Road Safety Strategy should include ‘Publication in easily consumable form, for the public, of infrastructure safety star ratings for all road users’ (ACRS, 2021, p.61). This prompted the researchers to consider the road safety information provided to the general public about driving behaviour. Forty excerpts from online data from one Australian State’s road safety website were assessed for …

Readability Of Covid-19 Parental Guidance Documents, Amber M. Gordon B.S, Kurustun S. Musick B.S., Alison R. King Ph.D., Ccc-Slp, Lsls Cert. Avt, Erin Stehle Wallace Ph.D., Ccc-Slp

The Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship

The purpose of this study is to examine the readability levels of the state departments of education guidance documents regarding COVID-19 protocols for families of students receiving special education services. The authors searched the 50 states and the District of Columbia’s departments of education websites for their COVID-19, special education, parental guidance documents for the 2020-2021 school year. Parental guidance documents were available from 90% (46/51) of the department of education websites with 61% (31/51) of those documents specifically designed for parents of children receiving special education services. The researchers used the Flesch Reading Ease (FRES) to analyze the reading …

Fors 411: Forensic Comparative Analysis – A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Larry Barksdale

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark portfolio presents my work in reworking the goals, objectives, course design, teaching methods, student assessments, and learning outcome assessments of the undergraduate Univeristy of Nebraska-Lincoln core course FORS 411: Forensic Comparative Analysis. It reflects my application of the backward design concept of thinking about and identifying the desired outcomes of the course, what the students need to learn, and designing instruction and evaluations to directly address the outcomes [3]. My goal for the course is to embed in the intellectual framework of students an analytical orientation for understanding use of pattern evidence as viable information for the valid …

College Admissions For L2 Students: Comparing L1 And L2 Readability Of Admissions Materials For U.S. Higher Education, Zachary W. Taylor

Journal of College Access

Advancements in computational linguistics have allowed educational researchers to examine large amounts of text and assess the reading difficulty of that text for speakers whose first language is English (L1), and speakers whose first language is not English (L2). Considering L2 students exploring higher education, extant research suggests these L2 students do not access United States (U.S.) higher education as the same level as their L1 peers. Using popular measures of L1 and L2 readability, the current study analyzes admission instructions from 341 randomly-selected four-year U.S. institutions of higher education and finds L2 readability is more difficult (30.9) than L1 …

Ballot Readability And Plain Language, Roger Poole

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

The goal of this study was to examine the effect that readability and plain language had on voters' responses to Georgia's five legislatively-referred constitutional amendments (LRCA) in the November 2018 election. This study sought to answer the following questions regarding ballot readability and plain language:

1. Do voters distinguish the difference between traditionally composed ballots and plain language ballots?
2. Do voters have a preference between conventional worded ballots and reworded ballot language that improved readability?

Given that partisan lawyers and lobbyists write many state ballot questions, there may be tendencies to compose legislatively-referred constitutional amendments in confusing and unclear language designed …

Fifth Graders' Reading Choices, Janelle Dugger Bouknight

Doctoral Dissertations

This study sought to determine whether students were capable of selecting appropriately leveled text for independent reading and whether students read those books once they were selected. A sample size of 155 students from a metropolitan area of the southeastern United States was studied. During the first interview, the researcher collected data concerning how the student selected the book. The student was then allowed to take the book home. A follow-up interview consisted of having the student read a pre-selected portion of the text and was followed by three comprehension questions. Researcher compared the readability level as determined by Lexile …

Obscure U: Complexity And Complicity In For-Profit University Financial Statements, Caroline R. Counts

CMC Senior Theses

The prominence and size of For Profit Universities (FPUs) today has led to increased regulation and oversight. One important regulation is the 90/10 rule which states that FPUs cannot receive more than 90% of their revenue from government Title IV funds. The regulations require publicly traded For Profit Universities to not only comply with the 90/10 rule but also to disclose their score on their financial statements. There however, is little research studying the quality of these disclosures. My paper studies the readability and complexity of the 90/10 score disclosure in relation to the 90/10 score. My findings suggest that …

Readability Of Instructional Materials And Usability Of Online Learning Environment: Their Relations To The Development Of Authentic And Contingent Knowledge, Lisa Casper, Jeanne M. Myers, Chris L. Yuen

Adult Education Research Conference

This research project correlates authentic knowledge with the readability of instructional materials and contingent knowledge with usability of the online learning environment. Based on thematic analyses in above two areas, we propose a model that governs how adult learners develop authentic and contingent knowledge in an intertwined manner.

Analysis Of Cycle 2 Science Textbooks Representation Of Scientific Literacy And Readability Level, Aisha Abdulla Salem Al Qaydi Al Qaydi

Theses

For over half a century, textbooks have played a decisive role in teaching and learning activities. In today’s classrooms, textbooks serve as primary teaching instruments and greatly influence how knowledge is delivered and communicated. With the development of the society, a majority of teachers use textbooks to guide their instruction. On the other hand, readability of textbooks is an important construct for both educators and textbook authors. Finding the right fit between the students’ reading ability and the text difficulty is an important and challenging task for teachers. This study is about how scientific content is presented and represented in …

Toward The Development Of A Model To Estimate The Readability Of Credentialing-Examination Materials, Barbara Anne Badgett

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to develop a set of procedures to establish readability, including an equation, that accommodates the multiple-choice item format and occupational-specific language related to credentialing examinations. The procedures and equation should be appropriate for learning materials, examination materials, and occupational materials. To this end, variance in readability estimates accounted for by combinations of semantic and syntactic variables were explored, a method was devised to accommodate occupational-specific vocabulary, and new-model readability formulas were created and calibrated. Existing readability formulas were then recalibrated with the same materials used to calibrate the new-model formulas. The new-model and recalibrated …

So What's New In The New Basals? A Focus On First Grade, James V. Hoffman, Sarah J. Mccarthey, Judy A. Abbott, Cheryl Christian, Laura Corman, Catherine Curry, Mark Dressman, Bonnie Elliot, Debra Maherne, Debra Stahle

Faculty Publications

The authors examine the first grade materials in five new basal programs submitted for the 1993 Texas state adoption. These series are compared with program materials currently in use in the state (Copyright 1986/1987). The analysis focuses on features of the pupil texts(e.g., total number of words, number of unique words, readability levels, literary quality) and features of the teachers' editions (e.g., program design, organization, tone). Results of the analysis indicate substantial changes in the more recent series.The findings are interpreted in terms of historical trends as well as recent developments in the literature-based and whole language movements.Implications for future …

Reading, Understanding, Remembering And Using Information In Written Science Materials., Larry Yore, James Shymansky

Educator Preparation & Leadership Faculty Works

With traditional science textbooks still dominating the market, it is projected that the use of print material and related reading skills will persist as the prime method of science instruction. The need to research reading-science issues exists. This paper attempts to define the task or desired outcomes of research in reading-science dimensions. Areas developed in this paper include: (1) science reading and comprehension; (2) theories of the reading process (illustrated by models); (3) research in science reading (presented by grade level, subject matter, and curricular programs); (4) reading comprehension and science achievement (emphasizing text structure); and (5) research trends and …

Identifying The Readability Of The First Grade Books In The Vale School Library Using The Computerized Spache Formula, Doris Jean Byerley Rogers

All Graduate Projects

Books were identified with first grade readability in the Vale Elementary School library, Cashmere, Washington, utilizing the computerized Spache formula. Listing of supplementary books and ways the supplementary books could be used in the classroom were also studied. Forty-one books with first grade readability were found in the 8,000 voiume collection. ·Three bibliographies were included: (a) Vale books with first grade readabili_ty, (b) publishers with first grade supplementary materials, and (c) a list of book selection aids. The writer concludes that trade books with first grade readability were difficult to identify.

Reading Comprehension Of Pronoun-Referent Structures By Children In Grades Two, Four, And Six., J G. Barnitz

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications

A study of 191 native English speaking working class children in grades two, four, and six was undertaken to investigate the development of reading comprehension of selected pronoun-referent structures. Three linguistic comparisons were made: referent type, reference order, and referent distance. Target sentences were constructed with these features and were embedded into short passages, each followed by questions based on the target structure. It was found that noun phrase pronominal structures were easier to comprehend than sentential pronominals, structures with forward reference were easier to comprehend than those with backward reference, and there was no significant difference between inter-sentential structures …

Reading Abilities Of Vocational Trade And Industrial Education Students In Granite School District Relative To Readability Level Of Textbooks, William E. Mckell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The reading abilities of trade and industrial education students enrolled in the six trade and industrial education courses of automotive mechanics, building construction, drafting, electronics, machine shop, and welding in the six high schools of Granite School District were studied in relation to the rated readability of basic textbooks used in those courses. Additional relationships were studied between student reading abilities and intelligence, between course grades and intelligence, and between course grades and reading abilities.

The mean reading ability of the 388 trade and industrial education students included in the study assessed by administering the California Reading Test for grades …

A Readability Survey Of The Science Textbooks Used In University Place Elementary School, District No. 83, Melvin Hans Jangard

All Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine: 1) the readability of an intermediate series of science textbooks, Concepts in Science, published by Harcourt, Brace and World; 2) if the text was readable for the students at University Place Elementary School near Tacoma, Washington; 3) whether the gradation or slope of difficulty rises progressively from the beginning of the book to the ending of the book.