A scale for the measurement of metacognitive reading awareness in developmental college students

Scale titled the Metacognitive Reading Measure (MRM) based on Index of Reading Awareness (IRA) by Jacobs and Paris (1987) with adaptations made by the researcher was developed and evaluated for this study to measure metacognitive reading awareness in developmental college students. Procedure for scale development outlined by DeVellis (1991) was followed. The readability, reliability, and validity of the instrument were investigated.MRM scores from 287 undergraduate, developmental college student subjects enrolled in college reading or study skills courses at a medium sized Midwestern university were used. Student reactions from pilot testing, evaluations from reading specialists, and readability estimates were used to assess suitability and content validity.Reliability investigations showed the scale has internal reliability (( = .79) and test-retest correlations demonstrated reliability over time (r = .75).MRM could be read independently by developmental college students because the Homan-Hewitt, Fry, and Raygor methods of estimating readability yielded results within the sixth to eighth grade reading levels.MRM had content validity based on opinions of five reading specialists and links to current literature. MRM had limited concurrent validity with self awareness of study skills of information processing (r = +.38, p =.000) and selecting main ideas (r = +.40, p = .000). MRM had weak concurrent validity with general verbal skills as measured by SAT Verbal test (r = +.26, p= .000), and no concurrent validity with reading comprehension achievement from the Nelson Denny Reading Test (r =+.04, p = .76).Results of exploratory factor analysis indicated a three-factor solution with subscales for beneficial reading behaviors, negative reading behaviors, and text factors effecting reading comprehension, not four categories of metacognition from the Flavell (1978) and Jacobs and Paris (1987) definitions which were used for this study. The arrangement of items into the three factors suggests an alternative direction for the definition of metacognition in simpler terms, understandable to the developmental populations to which metacognitive strategy instruction is aimed.The MRM would be suitable for classroom use and further research into metacognitive reading awareness.Department of Elementary EducationThesis (D. Ed.