Fostering reading comprehension of expository texts through the activation of readers’ prior knowledge and inference-making skills

•Multi-componential interventions improve reading comprehension.•Readers better comprehend a text if dimensions of prior knowledge are activated.•Prior knowledge is more useful if semantic inferences are explicitly activated.•Students’ metacognition increases if reading strategies are shared among peers.

The importance of being able to critically read expository texts cannot be overstated. It is, therefore, fundamental to identify evidence-based classroom practices that can help one with this. Among higher-order skills, prior knowledge and inferences are considered the most important predictors of reading comprehension. Unfortunately, however, few reading comprehension interventions specifically address the multidimensional nature of prior knowledge and inference-making skills. In this study, an intervention designed to activate prior knowledge during reading comprehension was used to test inference-making skills and metacognition. One hundred and sixty-six secondary schools students participated in the study. Both control and experimental groups had improved reading comprehension, however the intervention based on prior knowledge activation resulted in better reading comprehension, metacognitive and inference-making processes.