Fostering reading comprehension in regular classrooms: Implementation and effectiveness of whole-class reciprocal teaching

The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine the effects of two different teacher-led classroom reading literacy interventions in comparison to traditional literacy instruction (TLI). One of the interventions was reciprocal teaching combined with specifi c self-regulation procedures (RT + SRL). Another intervention was a good-practice program which was designed by a group of teachers (GP). Both treatments were strategy oriented programs to improve reading competence of fi fth graders. In total, there were N = 244 students taking part in this study. To evaluate the effects of the interventions in comparison to TLI we used standardized tests and experimenter-developed reading tasks, and a self-effi cacy scale. The study involved a pretest, posttest, and maintenance test design. Simple contrast analyses indicated that students in the intervention condition RT + SRL outperformed TLI students in reading comprehension and self-effi cacy at post-test and in strategy related task performance at post-and maintenance test. Students in the intervention condition GP, however, demonstrated no better results than students of TLI.