Abstract

Reading of the youth in 2009 and 2018: differences according to gender and national study programme The article presents reading characteristics of 15-year olds, as assessed in the OECD PISA study. Since reading was the major domain of assessment in PISA 2009 and 2018 cycles, we investigated differences in the results in the following areas: reading motivation, frequency of reading specific reading materials, reading activities on-line, and the assessment of the usefulness of metacognitive reading strategies. The analysis was carried out on a PISA sample of Slovenian 15-year olds (n = 6073 in 2009; n = 6401 in 2018). Besides the differences in reading motivation and other reading factors between the two PISA cycles, we were also interested in if these factors differ according to gender and national study programme. The results of the present study show that in PISA 2018, compared to PISA 2009, Slovenian 15-year olds reported less enjoyment in reading, less time spent reading for enjoyment, they assessed the metacognitive reading strategies to summarize information as less useful, and they also reported significantly lower levels of reading newspapers, magazines and comic books. On the other hand, they reported more frequent searches for particular information on-line. Compared to boys, girls from all national education programmes reported higher levels of enjoyment in reading, they more often perceived reading as an important hobby and reported more frequent reading of fiction books. On the other hand, boys reported more frequent reading of non-fiction books. The results of the present study also showed no significant differences between boys and girls within a particular study programme in reading activities on-line. Furthermore, the majority of these activities were associated with above-average results in both PISA cycles. We see a challenge for the teaching profession in Slovenia in strengthening the interest for reading in youth, encouraging the social context of reading, empowering them with knowledge of the efficient use of different reading strategies and creating quality on-line learning materials with applicable content. Key words: PISA study, reading characteristics of youth, reading motivation, gender differences, differences in national study programmes

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