Abstract
The 2012 PISA reading literacy aims to measure 15 year-olds’ reading performance in preparing them to meet real-life challenges. The primary aim of the present study is to examine Malaysian students’ reading performance by comparing the girls’ and boys’ performances in PISA 2012. The 2012 PISA reading literacy framework comprises three important reading aspects: access and retrieve (AR), interpret and integrate (II), and reflect and evaluate (RE). These aspects were further examined through the students’ reading performance in five types of text namely narration, exposition, argumentation, description and instruction. The findings demonstrate that the students performed better in AR than in II and RE indicating a better performance in lower-order reading skills than in the higher-level reading aspects. Findings also show that girls outperformed the boys across all reading aspects and types of reading texts. This paper concludes by emphasizing the need to integrate higher-order reading skills in the reading curriculum in order to prepare Malaysian students for better literacy competency. Keywords: PISA 2012; reading performance; gender; reading aspects; text types DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2016-2202-08
Highlights
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which was developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a measure for assessing the excellence, equity and effectiveness of the school systems
The findings show that the girls scored higher number of correct answer than the boys in reflect and evaluate (RE) than integrate and interpret (II) aspect
Better performance in this aspect demonstrates that the girls were able to construct a better overall understanding of the text which allows them to connect their knowledge to the information in the text in order to evaluate the quality and appropriateness of the information that match their mental representations of the text
Summary
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which was developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a measure for assessing the excellence, equity and effectiveness of the school systems. The triennial PISA assessment was first implemented in 2000 with 43 countries. The assessment continued in 2003, 2006, 2009 and the latest assessment was administered in 2012, which saw the participation of 65 countries. The scope and nature of the PISA assessments are outlined by the participating countries based on recommendations from the experts. PISA provides three major outcomes; basic indicators on students’ knowledge and skills profile, indicators highlighting the relationship between skills and demography, social, economic and educational variables and indicators on developments in student performance and the relationships between student-level and school-level variables and outcomes (OECD 2013b). The statistical outcomes have facilitated governments and educators to characterise policies suitable for the local context (OECD 2013a)
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