Comprehension in general

A little Vulcanization:
I take it that comprehension, in general, is demonstrated by performances such as:

1. Vocabulary: Subject uses relevant terms correctly in conversation.
2. Recall: Subject can correctly answer questions that call for information in the presentation.
3. Inference: Subject can make reasonable inferences derived from, but not included in, the presentation.

I think this list is complete taxonomy at the top level of abstraction. I think we know how to measure these performances in any give instructional case. I think we also foster these abilities.

I take it that instruction, in general, has two major goals: 1. Development of content relevant skills. 2. Development of metacognitive skills. Metacognitive skills support generalized applications and may be specific to some domain that includes the original content. I don’t think we have a good taxonomy of metacognitive skills. But we can probably identify major metacognitive skills in grade and middle school education.

Here is an initial taxonomy of methods (not explicitly limited to reading as input.)

Acquisition methods: span of attention, controlling input, chunking and chunk selection, content selection, engagement of processes, spaced learning, cue selection, mnemonic tricks, similes, metaphors, imagery, dramatization. Other methods may be found under terms such and memory or cooperative learning. (Note that parent helping child is a for of cooperative learning.)

Rehearsal methods: spaced practice, cues for practice, cue differentiation, multi-modal practice, generalization by simile, timing of rehearsal.

Production methods: questioning, use of methods matching acquisition and memory, selecting level of abstraction, production tricks.

System integration: Coordination of methods to match production objectives.

Other taxonomies may also be useful: A taxonomy based on production objectives might be of interest, although the initial planning of the instruction (by the educational system) may have already adjusted for that. A taxonomy based on skills will probably be in interest to us if we can produce a small and credible taxonomy. Perhaps we could get some use from a task analysis of reading comprehension.