Teaching Summarization Skills: Influences of Student Ability Level and Strategy Difficulty

Abstract

Four methods of instructing summarization skills were compared to determine which was most effective in improving summaries written by junior college students of two ability levels. The four methods that differed in explicitness were (a) self-management alone, (b) specific rules (i.e., strategies) for summarizing, (c) self-management plus specific rules, and (d) self-management integrated with specific rules. The need for explicit, detailed pairing of self-management and strategy training varied as a function of students' ability level and strategy difficulty. These results are discussed in light of current theories of meta-cognition.