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American and Chinese Students’ Calibration of Comprehension and Performance

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Abstract

In the present study we examined the ability of American and Chinese undergraduate students to calibrate their understanding of textbook passages translated into their native languages. Students read a series of texts and made predictions of their understanding of each text as well as the number of questions they would be able to answer correctly. Students also made postdictions of their test performance. Chinese students were significantly better than American students in calibrating their understanding of passages and predicting how many comprehension items they would answer correctly. Chinese students also outperformed American students on comprehension tests. All students were able to make more accurate postdictions of comprehension test scores than predictions. Results are related to possible instructional differences between American and Chinese students. Several possible directions for future research are discussed.

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Notes

  1. We used eight passages designed by Zabrucky et al. (2009) in the present study. Two passages were not included in the data analyses due to experimenter error (necessary figures were inadvertently left out).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank DeWayne Moore at Clemson University for his insightful advice and suggestions during readings of the manuscript. Portions of this work were presented at the annual meetings of the International Reading Association, Chicago, May 2012, and The Comparative and International Education Society, March 2013, New Orleans.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education, Georgia State University, 30 Pryor Street, College of Education, Suite 834, Atlanta, GA, 30302-3979, USA

    Nannette Evans Commander

  2. Department of Early Childhood Education, Georgia State University, 30 Pryor Street, College of Education, Suite 550, Atlanta, GA, 30302-3979, USA

    Yali Zhao

  3. Department of Educational Policy Studies, Georgia State University, 30 Pryor Street, College of Education, Suite 456, Atlanta, GA, 30302-3979, USA

    Hongli Li

  4. Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education, Georgia State University, 30 Pryor Street, College of Education, Suite 864, Atlanta, USA

    Karen M. Zabrucky

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast, 730 E. Beach Blvd., Long Beach, MS, 39560, USA

    Lin-Miao L. Agler

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  1. Nannette Evans Commander
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  2. Yali Zhao
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Correspondence to Nannette Evans Commander.

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Commander, N.E., Zhao, Y., Li, H. et al. American and Chinese Students’ Calibration of Comprehension and Performance. Curr Psychol 33, 655–671 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9235-4

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