Home book reading and reading achievement in EU countries: the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2011 (PIRLS)

Home shared book reading during the preschool years is a strong predictor of students’ reading achievement in primary school, and, according to Sénéchal (2012), it can benefit more children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. This study examines the association between frequency of book reading before the start of compulsory education and the reading achievement of 4th-grade students whose parents have high and low education levels in 22 European countries. Using data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2011), we show that the contribution of shared reading for the achievement of students from distinct SES backgrounds is different in different countries and that shared reading does not always benefit more children from low-SES backgrounds. Results are discussed in light of Sénéchal's home literacy model, the dynamics of cultural capital, and current policy efforts to support children's literacy development in European countries.     

Teachers and tests: assessing pupils' reading achievement in primary schools

The purpose of the present study was to examine validity aspects of teachers’ judgements of pupils’ reading skills. Data come from Sweden's participation in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001, for Grades 3 and 4. For pupils at the same achievement levels, as measured by PIRLS 2001 test, teachers’ judgements of pupils’ achievement levels varied from one teacher to another. Moreover, there were significant differences between teachers’ judgements in Grades 3 and 4. Teachers in Grade 3 who had taught their pupils for almost 3 years showed higher correspondence between their judgements and pupil achievement within classrooms than 4th-grade teachers who, typically, had only taught their pupils for approximately 1 semester at the time of the data collection. The results indicate that teachers’ judgements and tests can be useful within classrooms, but that teachers may need external assessments to calibrate judgements over classrooms.     

PIRLS与PISA视域下的阅读课程改革

在阅读素养培育与测评方面,PISA与PIRLS为我们提供了参照,为我国大陆的阅读课程改革指明了方向。依据PISA与PIRLS,我们需要更加重视阅读的社会性、阅读乐趣和终身阅读能力的培养,要联系学生生活实际进行阅读材料选择,构建全面科学的阅读素养评价指标体系并完善阅读课程标准,加强开放题的编制与评分指导,综合考虑各种影响因素,系统进行阅读素养培育。     

Explaining the substantial inter-domain and over-time correlations in student achievement: the importance of stable student attributes

Multi-domain and longitudinal studies of student achievement routinely find moderate to strong correlations across achievement domains and even stronger within-domain correlations over time. The purpose of this study is to examine the sources of these patterns analysing student achievement in 5 domains across Years 3, 5 and 7. The analysis is of longitudinal population data of over 22,000 students and utilizes fixed-effects models to incorporate stable general and domain-specific latent factors. These latent factors correspond to a general cognitive-ability-like factor and specific aptitudes in particular, or types of, subject areas. The preferred model incorporates both general and domain-specific latent factors with stronger effects for the general factor, although the domain-specific factors are particularly strong for spelling and numeracy. When taking into account general and domain-specific latent factors, the effects of student’s socioeconomic status (SES) and school SES are trivial.     

Executive functioning and word reading in Hong Kong Chinese children: A 1-year longitudinal perspective

This study examined the bidirectionality between kindergarten children's executive functioning (EF) and word reading across two time points. Participants were 523 Hong Kong Chinese-speaking children (mean age at Time 2 = 64.59 months; 52.9% male) and their parents. At Time 1, children were administered the measures of EF skills: inhibitory control, attention shifting, working memory and Chinese word reading. They were reassessed with these measures at Time 2 one year later. Results from the cross-lagged panel model revealed that, controlling for child age, gender and parental education levels, children's word reading at Time 1 was significantly predictive of their working memory at Time 2, but that the three EF skills at Time 1 were not predictive of word reading at Time 2. These findings underscored the role of early word reading in promoting children's working memory.     

PIRLS评价内容及其对小学阅读课程变革的启示

PIRLS(国际阅读素养进展研究)是由国际教育成就评价协会(IEA)主持的评价项目,计划五年一轮进行世界范围的四年级学生阅读素养发展趋势研究.PIRLS评价内容聚焦“学生阅读素养”测评和“阅读学习环境”调查两个方面,前者包括阅读目的、理解过程、阅读行为与态度的测评,后者涉及国家、社会、家庭、学校、教室以及学生特点等因素的调查.PIRLS评价内容对我国小学语文阅读课程变革具有积极的启示:小学语文应建构均衡化的阅读课程组织、研制明确而具体的阅读教学内容、营造具有联动性的阅读课程环境.     

The effects of cognitive strategy instruction on Chinese reading comprehension among Hong Kong low achieving students

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive strategy instruction (CSI) on Chinese reading comprehension of Hong Kong low achieving students. A total of 88 Grade 7 students from four intact Chinese language remedial groups were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. Students in the treatment group received a 6-week Chinese CSI Program in their regular Chinese language lessons. The findings in this study generally supported that the Program had a positive impact on the reading development of low achieving students. Students who received strategy instruction made superior gains in comprehension performance, used more strategies during their reading process, had more knowledge about, strategy use, and showed a more positive attitude toward the reading instruction than did their peers who received traditional Chinese language instruction. Students’ improvements on their strategy use and reading comprehension were maintained 4 months after the termination of the Program. However, the positive treatment effects of the Program were not transferred to other school subject materials, and students’ reading motivation did not have significant changes after the Program. Factors contributing to the success of the Program as well as its limitations are discussed.     

Relationship between Computer-Based Reading Activities and Reading Achievements among Hong Kong and U.S. Students: A Comparative Study Using PIRLS 2011 Data

Reading for personal interest and acquiring and using information using various reading processes are important parts of reading literacy that students need to develop in order to progress successfully through their schooling and fully function in the information society. Computer assisted reading instructional activities are assumed useful in improving the reading literacy of students, especially reading processes. However, students in Hong Kong and the US demonstrated a substantial performance gap in reading proficiency. Using the data from Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) 2011, this study examines whether and to what extent four computer-based reading instructional activities influence students’ performance in reading processes central to reading for interest and acquiring and using information in Hong Kong and the US. It found that computer-based reading activities are associated with students’ literacy performance in different ways in the two places. In particular, the more often Hong Kong students used the computer to read, the lower the reading achievement in all reading processes measured. However, in the US context, using the computer to write is positively associated with students’ reading scores in all reading processes while using software is negatively related to their reading performance in using all the reading processes.     

Formal Teacher Competence and its Effect on Pupil Reading Achievement

The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of formal teacher competence on pupils' reading achievement. The data comes from the Swedish participation in PIRLS 2001 in grade 3. Information was obtained from pupils (n = 5271) and teachers (n = 351). The analyses were conducted using 2-level structural equation modeling. Teacher competence was operationalized with multiple observed indicators and defined as a latent variable. Two measures of achievement were used: PIRLS 2001 reading test results and teacher judgement of pupil performance in the Swedish language. The results reveal that teacher competence was positively and similarly related to both achievement measures. No selection effects in terms of pupil socioeconomic status were found. The current study provides evidence for a strong impact of teacher competence on pupil reading achievement.     

Goal orientations and achievement among Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong

This study examined four goal orientations and their relationships to achievement among 1041 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. These students endorsed learning and social goals over performance‐approach and performance‐avoidance goals. The endorsement of learning goals emerged consistently as the significant predictor predicting achievement in academic, non‐academic, and social/leadership areas. Implications of the findings for coordinating different goal orientations for enhancing achievement in different areas are discussed.     

Early cognitive and home environmental predictors of reading fluency and reading comprehension in Turkish-speaking children

In this study, we aimed to determine the early cognitive and home environmental predictors of reading in Turkish-speaking children. A total of 362 children participated in the study. We monitored the children for 3 years and assessed the home environmental variables and cognitive skills in kindergarten, reading fluency at the end of the first grade, and reading comprehension at the end of the second grade. We found that home literacy environment and socioeconomic status predicted early literacy skills in kindergarten as they also predicted reading fluency and reading comprehension through early literacy in later years. In addition, we found that phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and rapid naming predicted reading fluency, while language and verbal working memory predicted reading comprehension. The results of the study showed us that it is important to consider reading and reading comprehension in Turkish-speaking children holistically, together with cognitive skills and home environmental variables.     

Learning strategies and reading literacy among Chinese and Finnish adolescents: evidence of suppression

Many arguments have been advanced in the context of the predictive correlation between learning strategies and reading achievement. There is insufficient understanding, however, of the subtle ways in which different types of learning strategies (i.e. memorisation, elaboration and control strategies) function in facilitating students’ reading achievement. A post hoc analysis was performed to examine this issue among Chinese and Finnish adolescents who participated in the PISA 2009 reading programme. A multigroup structural equation modelling found the suppression pattern among the three strategies: control strategy is positively related to reading literacy and this association increases substantially once memorisation and elaboration strategies are accounted for. There is evidence that Chinese adolescents outperformed their Finnish counterparts due to larger suppression effect from elaboration. Implications for models of learning strategies and intervention are discussed.     

语文阅读教学新探

语文学科教育对学生阅读行为的要求远高于其他学科，它要经历认读、辨析、提取、概括、类属化等一系列的活动。在阅读教学中要引导学生进行创新阅读，不断提高学生的阅读水平。     

The validity of student ratings of teaching quality: Factorial structure,comparability, and the relation to achievement

Student ratings are widely used to assess teaching quality in primary and secondary education. This necessitates a thorough examination their validity and reliability in such contexts. To this end, we present validity evidence for using student ratings of teaching quality based on their factorial structure, comparability across grades and subjects, and relation to achievement. Based on data from the 2019 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and its national extensions in Norway (N = 3951 5th graders and N = 4575 9th graders), we could confirm a theoretically assumed three-dimensional factor structure (i.e., classroom management, cognitive activation, and supportive climate). Moreover, classroom management and supportive climate were more comparable across grades and subjects then cognitive activation. Finally, classroom management was associated with achievement across all groups, whereas other dimensions showed mixed results, especially across grades. Overall, the findings indicate that students, especially in Grade 9, can provide a valid assessment of teaching quality.     

内地香港语文教学之比较

香港因殖民地统治,形成了与内地完全不同的文化背景,"港式中文"就是这种文化背景的的产物。与内地相比,香港语文教学的理念不同,重工具性,轻人文性,强调创造性;语文课堂教学语言、教学文字不同,香港的课堂语言是粤语,使用繁体字;语文教学的课程目标不同,重在培养学生阅读、写作、聆听、说话和思维等语文能力,重在对学生自学能力的培养、对文化的认识。香港所使用的教材、采用的教学方法、考试范围等也与内地不同。香港的教师和学生与内地相比也表现出不同的特点。     

新加坡和我国香港对高职学生管理的经验与启示

新加坡和我国香港的高等职业教育成绩斐然,在学生管理方面颇具特色,培养了大量具有国际视野的高素质、高技能人才,为其经济社会发展做出了重要贡献。学习和借鉴其先进学生教育管理经验,有助于提高我国高等职业教育水平,促进学生成长成才和参与国际竞争。     

Construction and validation of a Chinese SRL-based reading instruction questionnaire

The purpose of the study is to construct and validate a Chinese self-regulated learning (SRL)-based reading instruction questionnaire (CSRIQ) and to examine the relationship between Chinese reading instruction and Hong Kong students' reading development from the SRL perspective. A total of 339 Grade 10 students completed the initial CSRIQ in Study 1. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability analyses were used to assess the psychometric quality of the questionnaire, and the original CSRIQ subscales were then revised. Study 2 comprised 1,121 Grade 10 students. The factor structure of the revised CSRIQ was supported by the findings of confirmatory factor analysis. The findings of structural equation modelling indicated significant relations between SRL-based instruction and various reading-related variables. Among the four aspects of instruction, teacher support was the most positive factor facilitating Chinese students' reading development, whereas student autonomy seemed less favourable. Cultural and curricula factors affecting Chinese reading instruction in Hong Kong were discussed.     

The role of teachers’ cognitive support in motivating young Hong Kong Chinese children to read and enhancing reading comprehension

This study analysed the reading lessons of 35 Hong Kong Grade 2 Chinese teachers to investigate whether their instructional practices were related to their students’ motivation and reading comprehension scores. The reading lessons of the teachers were analysed according to the five dimensions of the Motivating Instructional Context Inventory. Students’ subjective reports on their motivation and their teachers’ teaching performance, and their reading comprehension scores were collected. Hierarchical linear modelling showed that students tended to have better reading comprehension scores when their teachers provided more cognitive support and used more motivating instructional practices to motivate them to read.