Using a Refutation Text to Improve School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists' Knowledge of Dyslexia.

PURPOSE: Misconceptions about dyslexia abound among the public and educators alike. Refutation texts have been used to change misconceptions about a variety of topics, mostly in science education. The purpose of this study was to determine whether reading a refutation text about dyslexia could improve knowledge of dyslexia among school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs).

METHOD: Participants were school-based SLPs (n = 37). They completed a pretest of knowledge of dyslexia, were randomly assigned to read a refutation text or comparison text about dyslexia, and then completed a posttest of knowledge of dyslexia. They completed a maintenance test of knowledge of dyslexia approximately 4 weeks after completing the posttest. Data were analyzed using a two-way mixed analysis of variance with follow-up t tests.

RESULTS

There were statistically significant main effects of testing time (pretest, posttest, maintenance) and group (refutation text, comparison test). There was also a statistically significant time-by-group interaction. The refutation text group demonstrated more accurate knowledge of dyslexia than the comparison group at the posttest time point and at the maintenance time point. Additionally, the refutation text group demonstrated less forgetting between the posttest and maintenance time points than the comparison text group.

CONCLUSION

The refutation text was more effective than the comparison text for improving school SLPs' knowledge of dyslexia.