Do Textbooks Matter for Reading Comprehension? A Study in Flemish Primary Education.

Jonas Dockx,Kim Bellens,Bieke De Fraine

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02959

Abstract

This study assessed whether textbooks affect academic performance and engagement in reading comprehension in primary education in Flanders (Belgium). The data of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2016 and a reassessment of this study in 2018 were used to describe students’ learning progress in reading comprehension and evolution in engagement between the fourth and sixth grade. The sample consisted of 3051 students in 98 schools. The averages of students’ learning progress and engagement were compared for five textbooks by using multilevel autoregression model and multilevel change score models. Contrasts between textbooks in average learning progress and engagement were also estimated. To control for differences between student populations that are educated with the different textbooks, we controlled for student’s socioeconomic status, language and initial academic performance in fourth grade at the student- and school-level. The main hypotheses were that textbooks affect learning progress and reading engagement. This was based on the literature and prior (mainly) cross-sectional research which describe textbooks as playing an important role in the curriculum that is taught to students on a daily basis. The results of both models showed that textbooks do not affect student’s average learning progress in reading comprehension and evolution in engagement between the fourth grade and sixth grade in Flanders. Hence, the hypotheses were rejected.

Highlights

Textbooks are often thought to guide the teacher’s daily practice and to provide the main teaching material that students experience (Schmidt et al, 1997; Mullis et al, 2012a; Harwood, 2017)
The group of students with Textbook 1 has the lowest proportion of students who speak another language at home and the highest average socioeconomic status (SES), whereas the group of students with Textbook 2 has the highest proportion of students who speak another language and the lowest average SES
Engagement in sixth grade is significantly related to engagement in fourth grade at both the school-level and student-level, and it is significantly related to academic performance in the fourth grade and sixth grade at the student level

Summary

Introduction

Textbooks are often thought to guide the teacher’s daily practice and to provide the main teaching material that students experience (Schmidt et al, 1997; Mullis et al, 2012a; Harwood, 2017). Textbooks are expected to affect students’ learning progress (Törnroos, 2005) This is especially true in countries that are characterized by educational freedom, where publishers are free to translate the government-set objectives for education into teaching materials that teachers can use (Mullis et al, 2012a). Flanders (Dutch-speaking northern Belgium) had the largest decrease in average student ability in reading comprehension between 2006 and 2016 out of all participating countries in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study in 2016 (PIRLS 2016, Mullis et al, 2017b). This result shocked Flemish policymakers, for reading was traditionally considered a strong aspect of Flemish

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Conclusion