Özet:

Children with improved inference skills are reportedly successful in reading comprehension. The study aims to determine the level of inference skills of secondary school students and examine the changes in relation to their characteristics. The causal-comparative design was adopted for this study which was conducted with 5th and 7th graders in public schools; the participants were given inference skills tests. The highest number of wrong answers was found to be in the basic level inference skills and the lowest number of correct answers in the high-level inference skills. Factors such as reading more than two books a month, reaching the ages of 13-14, attending a school in a high and medium level socioeconomic setting, and having parents with high education levels positively affected inference. Also, the students had higher inference levels if they had a bookshelf, or age-appropriate books at home, if their mothers read books, or if their parents "bought books" for them. On the other hand, the students whose parents were blue-collar workers had lower inference skills compared to those with parents who were other professionals. The results highlighted that disadvantaged children need to be supported in the process of their development of comprehension.

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