| This study was designed to elicit fourth grade teachers' knowledge and beliefs about reading comprehension and comprehension instruction and to explore what teachers actually do to develop comprehension, given the basal reader as the core of the reading program. The relationship between the teachers' knowledge/beliefs and practices was examined as were other factors which emerged as influences on the teachers' instructional decisions.;The study was conducted in two phases with nine fourth grade teachers interviewed during Phase I and two of these teachers observed and further interviewed in Phase II. The Knowledge and Beliefs about Reading and Comprehension Interview (RCI), an interview schedule designed by the researcher, was used to elicit the teachers' knowledge and beliefs about comprehension and their understandings of the role of metacognition in comprehension. Each of the two teachers who participated in Phase II were observed during classroom reading instruction for 10-12 days.;While the two teachers who participated in Phase II appeared to possess considerably more understandings of comprehension than their colleagues, the findings of this study suggested that the school district's fourth grade teachers, as a whole, knew little about the comprehension process and how to develop comprehension. They also possessed little knowledge of metacognition and its relationship to comprehension development. As a whole the teachers believed the basal reader was not very effective in helping them teach comprehension, but they made heavy use of it for lack of a better alternative.;Based on the data in Phase II, it was concluded that teachers' beliefs and knowledge about reading comprehension and reading comprehension instruction shaped their instructional decisions. However, beliefs grounded in solid knowledge of a topic appeared to be a more influential force in instructional decision-making than beliefs based on intuitive knowledge or experience, at least when instructional change is the focus. Other factors which influenced teachers' instructional decisions included time, the basal reader, administrative directives, personal interest, departmentalization, classroom management issues, and the availability of instructional materials.;Questions and direction for future research were discussed. Suggestions were offered in the areas of reading comprehension instruction, curriculum redesign, and staff development. |
