Teaching self-regulation strategies via an intelligent tutoring system (TuinLECweb): Effects for low-skilled comprehenders

The use of documents to perform tasks is a continuous task demand in the current knowledge-based society that involves making a series of decisions to self-regulate the use of text information. Low-skilled comprehenders have serious problems monitoring and self-regulating their decisions in these task-oriented reading situations, which has a negative impact on performance and merits instructional interventions in school settings. Intelligent tutoring systems have emerged as effective tools to teach strategic skills. Herein, we present TuinLECweb, an intelligent tutoring system that teaches monitoring and self-regulation strategies to young adolescents. Study 1 explores whether high-skilled and low-skilled comprehenders respond to the intervention with TuinLECweb differently in terms of task-oriented reading performance and monitoring accuracy of nonsearch decisions. The results show that the intervention with TuinLECweb primarily benefits low-skilled comprehenders. Study 2 compares the efficacy of TuinLECweb over a classroom intervention for low-skilled comprehenders. The results reveal that TuinLECweb training improves monitoring accuracy of nonsearch decisions over and above classroom instruction. Both studies also reveal that low-skilled comprehenders use the strategies learned beyond the time of training. Our results provide arguments in favour of using computer-assisted programs in strategy instruction.