Using Reader Profiles as Snapshots to Investigate Students' Reading Performance

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-3-2019

Abstract

Explanatory patterns regarding situational differences in reading comprehension performance may be best captured by multidimensional reader profiles. Data from 56 third- and fifth-grade students were collected to investigate the applicability, scope, and convergent validity of a reader profiling scheme based on Alexander's (2005) reader profile framework and then compared with results from a hierarchical cluster analysis and a Bayesian cluster analysis. The reader profiling methodology used identified examples of all six of Alexander's reader profiles at each grade level, along with an additional hypothesized profile, the interest-reliant reader. The reader profiles related as expected to reading outcomes on a researcher-designed comprehension measure and a standardized comprehension assessment, with a few exceptions, and explained variance in those outcome measures better than the use of cluster analysis, except for the third-grade standardized scores. Finally, interesting differences emerged in the proportions of elementary students assigned to each profile across the grade levels.

Publication Title

Journal of Experimental Education

Volume

87

Issue

3

First Page

470

Last Page

495

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1080/00220973.2017.1421519

ISSN

00220973

E-ISSN

19400683

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