Inference Instruction for Struggling Readers: A Synthesis of Intervention Research

Educational Psychology Review

Hall, C. S. (2016).

Educational Psychology Review, 28(1), 1-22.

This systematic review investigates the efect of interventions to improve inferential reading comprehension in struggling readers.

Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education



Inception to 2013

Peer-reviewed experimental design studies; quasi-experimental design studies; single-subject design studies

9

Findings suggested that inference instruction interventions can be effective for struggling readers and students with learning disabilities when the interventions address prior knowledge activation and focusing on integrating information in the text. Findings also suggested the interventions to be effective across second through ninth grades. Many of the effective interventions instructed students to identify context clues and keywords and to use keywords to provide answers to post-reading questions.