The impact of explicit, self-regulatory reading comprehension strategy instruction on the reading-specific self-efficacy, attributions, and affect of students with reading disabilities

We compared a reading intervention that consisted of explicit, self-regulatory strategy instruction to a strategy intervention that was less explicit to determine the impact on the reading-specific self-efficacy, attributions, and affect of students with reading disabilities (RD). Participants included 20 students with RD who were entering grades 4-8. The interventions were delivered on a one-to-one basis over five weeks, four days per week, for one hour per day. Those receiving the explicit, self-regulatory strategy intervention showed greater gains in their attributions to incorrect strategy usage for reading failure than participants in the less explicit intervention. Group differences approached statistical significance on the reading self-efficacy measure, with the less explicit intervention showing higher reading self-efficacy at posttest than the explicit, self-regulatory intervention. The possibility of miscalibrated reading self-efficacy and reading skill in students with RD is discussed.