Education Development Center in Newton, MA is continuing its work in the coming year with a research study to investigate the impact on the social studies content knowledge of middle school students using online reference tools (Visual Thesaurus and Merriam-Webster Online) in conjunction with research-based reading strategy instruction.
Education Development Center in Newton, MA is conducting a research study to investigate the impact on the social studies content knowledge of middle school students using online reference tools (Visual Thesaurus and Merriam-Webster Online) in conjunction with research-based reading strategy instruction. Project Director Karen Clay is organizing the next phase of study (to begin in November 2008), a randomized (by student), counter-balanced study with approximately 80-100 middle school social studies students with a range of reading ability, both with and without disabilities.
The study will be carried out during two social studies units, each lasting approximately three weeks. For the first unit, half of the students will be randomly assigned to the treatment condition. They will use Visual Thesaurus in conjunction with research based reading strategies when reading digitized text from the school’s current curriculum. The other half of the students will be randomly assigned to the comparison condition. They will use Merriam-Webster Online in conjunction with research based reading strategies when reading digitized text from the school’s current curriculum. The groups switch use of the technology tools for the second unit; that is, the students who had been using Visual Thesaurus will use Merriam-Webster Online, and the students who had used Merriam-Webster Online will use Visual Thesaurus. Student use of the tools will be recorded using screen capture software in order to better analyze how students use the tool, which words they look up, and how they explore word meanings. The first unit will begin in November 2008 and should be completed by December 2008. The second unit will likely take place in early spring 2009, with specific dates to be arranged with classroom teachers.