El nivel de comprensión lectora y de representación mental en los estudiantes de sexto grado de las escuelas públicas y privadas urbanas del distrito escolar de Ponce, Puerto Rico

Resumen

The purpose of this research was to determine the level of reading comprehension and mental representation in sixth grade students in urban public and private schools in the District of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Sociodemographic data related to the student's gender, socioeconomic and educational level of the parents of the participants were collected. To setthe level of reading, literal, inferential and critical comprehension, taxonomy of Barret (1968) was used and for the mental representation, the building model - integrating Kintsch (1998) on the categories surface code, base text and model situation. The research was conducted with 155 sixth grade students of both genders, errolled in public and private urban schools Ponce School District. The instrument consisted of a test containing items of reading comprehension and mental representation. This was validated by a pilot and a panel of experts. The results showed that in both educational systems, the prevail ing level of reading comprehension was the literal and the level of mental representation was superficial. Significant difference between level of reading comprehension and mental representation by educational system was found . Moreover, significant differences between the variables and socioeconomic status and educational level of the parents of the participants were found . By contrast, there were no significant differences by gender. This research showed: that there is significant relationship between the level of reading comprehension and mental representation in sixth grade students in urban public and private schools in the School District of Ponce, Puerto Rico. That relationship was retlected in tile respective levels of the variables.