University students for using the summarizing strategies

Abstract

Summarizing helps students to comprehend knowledge, transferring it to long-term memory significantly. Summarizing, which is one of the metacognitive strategies, leads to effective using of mental skills, and increases remembering and understanding. The purpose of this study is to find whether the university students effectively use the summarizing strategy as a reading comprehensive strategy or not. Taking the properties into consideration of a qualitative summary, we assessed in this study summaries of the university students. In the study, we used "document analysis method" which is one of the qualitative research methods. In the study with 4th Year students of Dokuz Eylül University, Department of Turkish Education, Turkish Teaching Program, we assessed 234 summaries as a qualitative data set, using "Assessment Criteria Form" for assessment of these summaries. These summaries were assessed within the criteria, and scored by both researchers. We found that the consistency coefficient of the scores was, 84 for the first criterion;, 78 for the second;, 82 for the third; and,71 for the third. In the light of data obtained form the study, the codes we reached were "setting the main theme, digression from the main points of the text, and superficial summarizing." And we set the theme of "getting in touch with the main and secondary points" by gathering these codes. In general, we may say that the students are successful in stating the main idea, but they project their own ideas and thoughts into these summaries. © 2009.