Improvements of self-regulation procedures for fifth graders' reading competence: Analyzing effects on reading comprehension, reading strategy performance, and motivation for reading

• Reciprocal teaching (RT) was combined with different self-regulation procedures.
• These three enriched treatments were compared with a conventional RT.
• All three treatments enhanced the stability of improvement in reading comprehension.
• Enriching RT with SRL had the strongest effects on reading strategy performance.

In this study, reciprocal teaching (RT) was combined with specific self-regulation procedures to promote the reading comprehension of fifth grade students. Twenty four classes with N = 534 students were assigned to RT plus strategy implementation procedures (RT + SIP), RT plus outcome regulation procedures (RT + ORP), RT plus strategy implementation and outcome regulation procedures (RT + SRL), or RT without explicit instruction in self-regulation. At maintenance students assigned to the three self-regulation conditions outperformed RT students according to a standardized measure of reading comprehension. RT + SIP and RT + SRL students outperformed RT as well as RT + ORP students using a measure of reading strategy performance. However, reading comprehension was only mediated by strategy performance under the RT + SRL condition. Among students assigned to the RT + ORP condition, an improvement in reading motivation between pretest and posttest and between posttest and maintenance was observed.