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This booklet focuses on the reading literacy test scores of students in the grade levels where most 9 and 14 year olds were to be found in 32 systems of education. It describes the achievement levels of carefully selected probability samples of students in three domains of reading literacy and makes some preliminary interpretations of these results. The comparisons made in the test scores require the reader to assume that the tests were equally fair for all countries, that the tests were properly translated and administered, and that the student samples were comparable in age, in test motivation, and in their approach to test taking. Much effort was taken to ensure and to check on these possible influences. Where differences were still found to exist - for instance, in mean ages - comments have been made in the text and adjustments to the scores have been attempted.
Many different views exist about the best way to teach children to read, yet little is known about which countries are the most successful in this aim, or what the most productive strategies are for doing so. This report addresses these issues by building on the pioneering work of Robert Thorndike in 1973. Data are presented on the relative achievement levels of comparable samples of students in each of 32 school systems in all continents of the globe - making it the largest IEA study to date. Attempts are made to elucidate the reasons for the differences that were found and implications are drawn about the likely effects of different policies. Many advances have been made since the previous...
Published research and conference presentations on the Chinese language in the last decade have tended to focus on adult language processing. This book provides a comprehensive resource for the critical discussion of major issues in learning to read Chinese from a child acquisition perspective. The combined contributions from researchers in Asian studies, linguistics, psycholinguistics, psychology, cognitive psychology, reading, and education inform international comparative studies of literacy by making apparent the features of the Chinese culture, language, writing system, and pedagogy that may facilitate or impede the acquisition of literacy.
Issues of language curriculum development underlied the planning and implementation of language teaching programmes. These papers argue for the process to be made explicit and deal with curriculum planning, specification of ends and means, programme implementation and classroom implementation.
Understanding Reading revolutionized reading research and theory when the first edition appeared in 1971 and continues to be a leader in the field. In the sixth edition of this classic text, Smith's purpose remains the same: to shed light on fundamental aspects of the complex human act of reading--linguistic, physiological, psychological, and social--and on what is involved in learning to read. The text critically examines current theories, instructional practices, and controversies, covering a wide range of disciplines but always remaining accessible to students and classroom teachers. Careful attention is given to the ideological clash that continues between whole language and direct instr...
Approaches and methods in comparative education are of obvious importance, but do not always receive adequate attention. This second edition of a well-received book, containing thoroughly updated and additional material, contributes new insights within the longstanding traditions of the field. A particular feature is the focus on different units of analysis. Individual chapters compare places, systems, times, cultures, values, policies, curricula and other units. These chapters are contextualised within broader analytical frameworks which identify the purposes and strengths of the field. The book includes a focus on intra-national as well as cross-national comparisons, and highlights the value of approaching themes from different angles. As already demonstrated by the first edition of the book, the work will be of great value not only to producers of comparative education research but also to users who wish to understand more thoroughly the parameters and value of the field.