Representing the AdultEd research team, Dr. John
Sabatini and John Hollander will present their research at the 2022 AERA
Annual Meeting. They will be presenting two posters, described below.
April 23, 2022: In AERA Virtual
Poster Room 1, Dr. Sabatini, John Hollander, and Dr. O’Reilly will present “Comparing
Foundational Skills of Adolescents to Adult Learners.” In this presentation, the researchers compare the foundational skills results of students in 5th
and 8th grade to adults participating in educational programs. Both groups
completed a battery of subtests including word recognition/decoding,
vocabulary, and morphology. The researchers found different patterns of results
across the three groups. Specifically, the adult group showed relatively weaker
growth in word recognition/decoding than the adolescents, as well as different
error and response time patterns. The study adds to the literature on
similarities and differences in adolescent and adult reading skills.
April 26, 2022: In AERA Virtual Poster
Room 9, Dr. Sabatini, John Hollander, Dr. O’Reilly, and Dr. Wang will present “A
Middle-Grade-Level Trajectory of Reading Component Skills.” This presentation first
introduces that reading comprehension involves the efficient coordination of
print and linguistic skills. However, reading instruction often shifts in
middle school from developing these skills to focusing on discourse-level
processes. Reading ability assessments at this level often treat comprehension
as a singular skill. Consequently, understanding of how reading subskills
develop across ages/grades is underdeveloped. This study examines a dataset of
students using a component reading skills assessment. Results indicate
differences in word recognition and decoding, vocabulary, and morphological awareness
across grade levels. Further, word recognition and decoding error rates
indicate how decoding strategies develop. Students become both more accurate
and more efficient at identifying vocabulary words and morphological
inflections, demonstrating how typical reading instruction may affect reading
component skills over time.