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Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of reading a refutation text on knowledge of dyslexia among pre-professional undergraduate students. Method: Undergraduate students in the Communication Sciences and Disorders major at the University of Georgia were randomly assigned to read a refutation text or a basic text about dyslexia. The refutation text served as the experimental group, while the basic text served as the control group. Students completed a pretest to evaluate existing knowledge on dyslexia prior to reading the randomly assigned article. Students completed a posttest directly after and a maintenance test four weeks after the assigned activities to determine change in knowledge of dyslexia associated with reading the refutation text.
Results: The refutation text facilitated greater conceptual change about dyslexia than the control text among undergraduate students in the short term (i.e., pretest to post-test). Participants’ knowledge of dyslexia decreased below post-test at the maintenance time point for both groups. While both groups demonstrated a decrease in knowledge between post-test and maintenance time point, knowledge of dyslexia remained higher at the maintenance time point than at the pre-test for both groups.
Conclusion: Refutation texts may be a viable option for facilitating conceptual change among preprofessional and professional speech-language pathologists.