The Importance of Knowledge for Reading Comprehension: A Quasi-Experimental Investigation
Primary school (grades 1–6) Reading and writing Explicit teaching and knowledge building
Links to claims
Limits (1)
| Claim | Basis |
|---|---|
| C17 | Quasi-experiment, one complete Year 2 cohort (n = 73, Australia): explicitly taught topic knowledge let both skilled and less skilled readers make inferences in a related text, but less skilled readers mastered less of the knowledge in the same time and lost more of the benefit when reading came after a delay. Abstract only; no effect sizes in the abstract. |
Review state: first-pass draft, pending human review.
Source note
Syntes: Smith et al. (2026) — taught topic knowledge helped Year 2 children make inferences in a related text, but weaker readers learned less of it and lost more over a delay
Källa: Smith, R. J., Snow, P. C., Serry, T. A. & Hammond, L. S. (2026). The Importance of Knowledge for Reading Comprehension: A Quasi-Experimental Investigation. Reading Psychology 47(7), 1111–1137. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2026.2644971
Verified content
- [abstract] A complete cohort of 73 Year 2 children was explicitly taught a knowledge base during regular classroom instruction, tested on it, and then read texts with comprehension questions that required recalling and using that knowledge; the delay between learning and reading varied by text.
- [abstract] The knowledge base enabled both skilled and less skilled readers to make inferences in a related text.
- [abstract] Less skilled readers were less likely to master the knowledge base in a unit of time and more likely to show negative effects of delay between learning the knowledge and reading the related text.
Limits
- [assessment] Abstract only; no effect sizes stated in the abstract. One school, 73 children, no randomised control group (quasi-experimental).
Why it is in the library
A new classroom test of C17's mechanism in young readers, with a condition C17 does not carry: knowledge must be kept up (the authors call it schema maintenance), especially for weaker readers.
Added 2026-10-25 by the project (weekly source sweep, kind: new; read: abstract). [abstract] = from the published abstract; [full text] = read in the full text; [assessment] = the project's own assessment.
Metadata as recorded
- ID
- KNOW-009
- Tier
- quasi
- Titel
- The Importance of Knowledge for Reading Comprehension: A Quasi-Experimental Investigation
- Författare
- Smith, R. J., Snow, P. C., Serry, T. A. & Hammond, L. S.
- År
- 2026 (Reading Psychology 47(7), 1111–1137)
- Källa/DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2026.2644971
- URL
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02702711.2026.2644971 (open access per Unpaywall, CC BY-NC; the publisher blocked the box)
- Typ
- quasi-experimental classroom study, one complete Year 2 cohort (n = 73) in a regional Victorian (Australia) primary school; explicit teaching of a knowledge base, then reading related texts after different delays
- Åldersgrupp
- grundskola-lag
- Teman
- lasning-och-skrivande;explicit-undervisning-kunskap
- Hämtad
- 2026-10-25
- Paywall
- open access, not retrievable from the box
- Tillagd
- source sweep 2026-10-25 (kind: new); links pending human review
The original files (PDF or abstract) are kept in the project archive and are not published here.