Experts expressed greater appreciation of the poems and their specific images, while novices very frequently expressed interpretive frustration and dissatisfaction.¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitativer2·q2
Currency · newest study 1998 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Experts were more likely to express appreciation of the poem as a whole and made far more spontaneous comments enjoying specific images; novices very frequently expressed frustration at not getting the poem. → Peskin 1998
Evidence¶
Peskin 1998¶
Peskin, J. (1998). Constructing meaning when reading poetry: An expert-novice study. Cognition and Instruction, 16(3), 235-263. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci1603_1
q2 · i? · qualitative · r2
Reader-satisfaction coding of the think-aloud protocols (Research question 4), following Richards's premise that understanding the plain sense precedes appreciating poetic effects. Novice Two said: "I don 't get it. I don 't know, like I feel that I 'm missing some hidden things."
"As can be seen in Table 4, the experts were more likely to express appreciation of the poem."
Discussion¶
Learner Variables¶
- Prior Knowledge — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
Related Claims¶
- Experts employed productive interpretive strategies in making poems coherent — using structure, binary oppositions, wordplay, rhythm and rhyme as cues, and scanning to contextualize — which novices used minimally. — related
- When experts cannot make clear sense of a passage, they shift from constructing what the poem says to how the poet is saying it, treating obscurity as deliberate. — related
- Novices who have had poetry instruction have internalized Culler's general conventions for poetry as discourse: significance, thematic unity, and metaphorical coherence. — related
- Experts spent much longer on each poem and produced longer protocols than novices, because for experts finding a meaningful pattern was only the starting point for higher-level analysis. — related
- Attending to a poem's title as a structural cue was evident in novice but not expert protocols, and the title jolted a novice into revising a misinterpretation. — related
- In reading textually constrained period poetry, experts' organized domain knowledge (schemata) is the major factor differentiating them from novices, enabling allusion, contextualization and anticipation. — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
poetry-comprehension-supports-appreciation |
title |
Experts expressed greater appreciation of the poems and their specific images, while novices very frequently expressed interpretive frustration and dissatisfaction. |
description |
Experts expressed greater appreciation of the poems and their specific images, while novices very frequently expressed interpretive frustration and dissatisfaction. |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
1998 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-18 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — peskin-1998 |
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