Georgia State University College of Education & Human Development professor Joe Magliano and assistant professor Kathryn McCarthy are co-principal investigators in a research project that will analyze students’ reading comprehension through a two-year, $599,973 grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Magliano and McCarthy join principal investigator Danielle McNamara from Arizona State University and co-principal investigators Holly O’Rourke (Arizona State) and Laura Allen (University of New Hampshire) on the project, which will examine how the things students say during reading reflect their underlying comprehension processes.

The grant team will review students’ constructed responses from computer-based learning environments and also explore how individual differences could affect the processes and strategies students use while reading.

“When students talk about their understanding of a text, it provides both valuable information about their understanding and an activity that can support comprehension,” Magliano said. “We have relied on computer-based approaches for analyzing student thinking during reading for almost two decades. This project is an opportunity to refine those approaches, which have important implications for both research and applications in computer based assessment and interventions.”