VALIDITY OF THE PEARSON-JOHNSON TAXONOMY OF COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

Questions constitute an important component of reading instruction and several studies suggest that the Pearson-Johnson taxonomy of comprehension questions can be applied in classroom situations. However, the validity of the taxonomy has not been directly investigated. The present study was conducted for this purpose and involved 82 fourth- and fifth-grade students. Three research questions were investigated: (1) do mean scores for the taxonomy categories correspond to theoretical expectations regarding difficulty?; (2) do response patterns to questions correspond to taxonomy categories?; and (3) are the relationships among scores on the types of questions logical and to be expected? The results of the study generally conformed to theoretically derived expectations.