Investigation of reading comprehension strategies of gifted and unidentified 4th grade students

In this study, the reading comprehension strategies used by gifted and unidentified 4th-grade students while reading narrative and informative texts were examined with a holistic multi-case design from qualitative research designs. Through purposeful sampling, a study group was formed by determining including 3 unidentified poor, 3 unidentified good, and 3 identified gifted readers. The data were collected through a think-aloud strategy and interview. Data collection tools developed by the researcher. Data were analysed with descriptive analysis. According to results, the students in every group used the varied strategies in comprehension process. The variety in the use of strategies can be associated with students' being active in data collection by means of think aloud activities. It was determined that while gifted readers could solve complex structures with fewer strategies aimed at deep understanding, good readers followed more mental process for making sense of the texts they read than poor readers did, and that while poor readers were competent for superficial understanding, they were not as successful in deep understanding as desired and were behind good readers in showing tendency to complex thinking and analyzing. When the use of strategies was compared in terms of text types, it was determined that the strategies which gifted students used higher order thinking more than the strategies then other groups used. Readers in three groups prefer using strategies according to their characteristics, so the reasons for using strategies can be said to be related to individual differences of the readers.