Reading and Believing: Beliefs, Attributions, and Reading Achievement in Moroccan Schoolchildren

Daniel A. Wagner, Jennifer E. Spratt, Iddo Gal, Scott G. Paris

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article reports data collected in Morocco. Measures of beliefs (megacognitive knowledge of reading skills and strategies, causal attributions, and conceptions of good readers) and reading performance were collected on a cohort of 350 first-grade children over a 5-year period, and on a second cohort of 464 fifth-grade children over a 3-year period. Metacognitive and causal attribution measures predicted significant portions of variance of subsequent reading achievement beyond the effects of background variables and cognitive skills. First-graders' conception of good readers was an important predictor of beginning reading, but metacognitive knowledge of particular reading skills was not. However, among fifth and seventh graders, both metacognitive knowledge about skilled reading and causal attributions to internal factors predicted reading performance. This study is one of the first cross-cultural demonstrations that metacognitive knowledge and other beliefs affect young children's reading.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)283-293
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Educational Psychology
Volume81
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1989
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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