Purposes for and processes of reading: New Zealand’s participation in PIRLS 2021 Publications
Publication Details
New Zealand took part in the fifth cycle of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, ‘PIRLS 2021’ in Term 4, 2020. PIRLS provides information on Year 5 students’ reading literacy/comprehension every five years.
Author(s): Hannah Bennett and Megan Chamberlain [Educational Measurement and Assessment, Ministry of Education]
Date Published: October 2023
Executive Summary
This report presents findings on Year 5 students’ achievement in the purposes for and processes of reading assessed in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), implemented in New Zealand in Term 4, 2020 and other participating countries through to mid-2022. The findings in this report augment the findings already presented in the national overview Reading literacy at Year 5: New Zealand's participation in PIRLS 2021, released in May 2023. The information presented in this report will most likely appeal to an audience familiar with or an interest in the teaching of reading and development of reading comprehension.
Background
PIRLS 2021 is the fifth in the series of assessments that provide trend achievement measures in reading literacy. It is 20 years since the first cycle was implemented in 2001. New Zealand has taken part in all five PIRLS cycles. Grade 4, the equivalent to Year 5 in New Zealand, is an important point in students’ reading development as most are transitioning from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’. Most of the Year 5 students who took part in late 2020 had started primary school in 2015 and were 10 years old.
Defining reading literacy for PIRLS 2021
"Reading literacy is the ability to understand and use those written language forms required by society and/or valued by the individual. Readers can construct meaning from texts in a variety of forms. They read to learn, to participate in communities of readers in school and everyday life, and for enjoyment.” (Mullis & Martin, 2019, p. 6)
Purposes for and processes of reading
PIRLS assesses students’ reading literacy or comprehension through two purposes for reading: reading for literary experience (‘literary reading’) and reading to acquire and use information (‘informational reading’). Students make meaning of these texts by using and applying different skills and reasoning, which are categorised into two categories: Retrieving and straightforward inferencing (or ‘text-based’ processes), and Interpreting, integrating, and evaluating (the ‘reasoning’ processes).
Implementing PIRLS 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic
PIRLS 2021 was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic was responsible for immense disruption to schooling around the world. Despite the disruptions to schooling, the PIRLS 2021 data collection was successful. There were three waves to the data collection, with the testing window starting in late 2020 with New Zealand and Singapore and finishing in 2022, instead of finishing in 2021 as planned.
The full impact of the pandemic on student outcomes has yet to be seen, but some countries have evaluated the impact on student learning during the height of the pandemic. In New Zealand, student engagement had been notably impacted but there was no evidence of progress in reading being impacted (see Learning in a covid 19 world: The impact of covid 19 on schools (Education Review Office, 2021) and Student learning during COVID-19: Literacy and maths in Years 4-10 (Webber, 2021). PIRLS 2021 cannot provide data on how students would have performed without COVID-19, as every country and its citizens were impacted.
Key Findings
Purposes for reading and resources used during instruction
- Year 5 students’ mean score for literary reading (523) and for informational reading (521) were not statistically different from each reading purpose score in 2015 (525 and 520 respectively) when PIRLS 2016 was implemented in New Zealand.
- In contrast to earlier cycles when literary reading was often found to be a significant strength relative to Year 5 students’ overall reading performance, neither purpose was found to be a strength or weakness in PIRLS 2021. It did however remain a relative strength for girls while informational reading was neither a strength nor a weakness. Boys showed no meaningful strength or weakness in either reading purpose.
- The average difference between girls’ and boys’ achievement was much greater in literary reading (27 score points) than it was on informational reading (16 score points).
- During reading instruction, short stories were the literary material that Year 5 students were most likely to read (about 75% did so at least weekly) and more than other literary forms. They were, however, less likely to be asked to read longer fiction chapter books as part of their reading instruction (64% at least weekly) than their peers in Australia, England, and Northern Ireland (more than 80% in these countries).
- Informational texts such as subject area books and articles were relatively popular in New Zealand classrooms, with a higher proportion of Year 5 students being asked to read these at least weekly than the international averages (between 41% and 82%, depending on text type, compared with 26%-68% internationally).
Processes of comprehension and activities to support their development
- In general, the sequence for when reading skills and strategies are first emphasised in New Zealand is similar to other English-language countries, with about half of them taught at the same year/grade level.
- There was no change from 2015 to 2020 in Year 5 students’ average achievement scores in either the retrieval and straightforward inferencing (text-based) processes (521 in both years) or interpreting, integrating, and evaluating (reasoning) processes (525 in 2015; 522 in 2020).
- The development of text-based comprehension processes was well supported in New Zealand classrooms during 2020, with almost all Year 5 students doing activities that supported their development at least weekly.
- Most Year 5 students were being taught predicting (95%) and generalising (91%) strategies to develop their reasoning comprehension processes at least weekly. However, fewer students were being exposure to instruction to develop their evaluating and critiquing strategies (61% taught these at least weekly compared with 65% on average internationally).
Year 5 classes and teachers’ instructional practices
- In 2020, teachers were teaching middle primary classes with an average (median) of 27 students about the same as in 2015. They were mostly composite (multi-level) classes with typically 15 Year 5 students.
- Teachers’ reports indicated that they were varying their approaches to organising their classes for reading more in 2020 than in 2015 or 2010, with mixed-ability grouping and whole class teaching more likely to be reported than previously. Organising reading instruction around same-ability grouping, while still relatively common, was less likely be reported in 2020 than in either 2015 or 2010. Teachers frequently worked with one group at a time, while the other students worked independently either on their own or in their groups.
- Year 5 students in 2020 were equally likely to be taught both new vocabulary systematically and decoding strategies at least weekly (84% of students). In 2015, slightly more emphasis was placed on teaching decoding skills, and in 2010, more emphasis was placed on teaching new vocabulary.
- There was a slight increase since 2015 in the percentage of Year 5 students being asked to read aloud at least weekly (82%), but it was still done at a lower rate than in other English-language countries (around 95% of their students).
Reading comprehension and digital reading
- Year 5 students in New Zealand were much more likely to be taught digital literacy skills (for example reading, writing, and communicating using digital tools and media) as part of reading at least weekly than their international peers (77% compared with 52% internationally).
- During reading, devices were most likely to be used by students to look up facts and definitions. New Zealand was also the only country in which students were asked to write stories using a digital device as often as they were asked to read digital texts.
- Compared with their reading confidence, Year 5 students were relatively more positive about their digital prowess. The decile of the school they were attending in 2020 did not appear to be related to how confident they were.
- Most teachers of Year 5 students identified digital literacy-related professional learning and development (PLD) as at least a medium priority area for the future. Of note is that teachers were more likely to prioritise PLD to address both differentiating reading instruction and students’ language needs a little higher than PLD on instruction related to digital literacies.
Engaging students in reading
- Most New Zealand Year 5 students were either somewhat or very engaged in reading lessons. These students achieved significantly higher scores on average (524 and 525 respectively) than those who were less than engaged (499). Year 5 students’ level of engagement in reading was about the same as in 2015.
- *Boys tended to be less engaged in reading than girls. However, the relationship between achievement and reading engagement was stronger for girls than for boys. Very engaged boys scored a non-significant 13 score point higher on average than boys who were less than engaged, whereas the difference for girls was 42 score points.
Insights from PIRLS, along with other international and local studies, form part of the evidence base which informs New Zealand’s education policy, curriculum, and guidance for schools and teachers. For example, results from earlier cycles of PIRLS informed the development of the Literacy & Communication and Maths Strategy (Ministry of Education, 2022).
Further information for PIRLS 2021 and IEA resources for teachers
- PIRLS 2021 international results are available here:
https://pirls2021.org/ - PIRLS 2021 Encyclopaedia: Education Policy and Curriculum in Reading https://pirls2021.org/encyclopedia/
- PIRLS 2021 Reading Assessment Framework
https://pirls2021.org/frameworks/home/reading-assessment-framework/overview/index.html - The ePIRLS tasks:
https://www.iea.nl/studies/iea/pirls/2021/take-the-epirls-assessment
IEA resources
- https://www.iea.nl/publications/introducing-iea-resources-teachers
- https://www.iea.nl/publications/iea-teacher-snippets
- https://www.iea.nl/publications/teachers-resources/putting-pirls-use-classrooms-across-globe and the full volume: Putting PIRLS to Use in Classrooms Across the Globe includes two PIRLS 2016 texts in full, the corresponding assessment questions, and practical suggestions to support students’ development of the applicable reading processes.
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