Resumen de What they say is what they do? Comparing task-specific self-reports, think-aloud protocols, and study traces for measuring secondary school students’ text-learning strategies

Amelie Rogiers, Emmelien Merchie, Hilde Van Keer

• This study investigates the correlation between three data gathering methods for uncovering differences in secondary school students’ text-learning strategy use. In total, 56 secondary school students’ text-learning strategies were assessed with (a) a task-specific self-report inventory, (b) think-alouds protocols, and (c) the trace methodology. Correlational analysis indicated low to moderate correlations between students’ self-reports and think-aloud protocols on the overt and covert cognitive text-learning strategies, except for the strategy “linking with prior knowledge.” Similarly, low to moderate correlations were found between students’ self-reports and study traces on the overt cognitive strategies. Remarkable was that no significant correlations were found between students’ covert metacognitive self-reported and verbalized strategies. This study illustrates the importance of a multi-method perspective on students’ learning strategies to provide more insight into how students learn from informative texts.