Abstract: PIRLS 2006 collected data about reading literacy and various factors connected to educational policies and school, family and student contexts, using a large sample of European fourth grade students. The aim of the present study is to examine, for European data (N = 96177), the interplay between educational policy, school, teacher, family and student factors, and their relationships to reading literacy. A structural equation model (SEM) comprising school, teachers, parents, and pupils variables is developed and tested. The influence of curriculum policies in various European countries was tested in terms of an interaction effect by means of multiple samples SEM
Abstract: The main purpose of this study was to examine psychometric properties and construct validity of the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (ASRQ). Subjects were Italian pupils who took part in PIRLS 2011 Field-Trial. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) was performed to test the scale theoretical structure and the measurement invariance across gender. Moreover, construct validity was assessed examining the structure of latent correlations among the subscales and by means of structural equation modeling. Results of MCFA were consistent with the hypothesized scale structure and showed measurement invariance across gender, moreover evidence from SEM supported the construct validity of the ASRQ
Abstract: Questionnaire data from the PIRLS 2006 study in Italy provided a number of indices in order to summarize factors of educational context influencing reading achievement. The aim of the present paper is to study the relationships between school factors, teacher factors, family factors, student factors and reading achievement by means of multilevel regression analysis. Results show that pupils' attainment in reading is significantly related to: (1) home educational resources (home/student level effect); (2) parents' attitudes toward reading (home/student level effect); (3) students' attitudes toward reading; (4) students' reading self-concept; and (5) teacher career satisfaction (school/teacher level).
Abstract: This article uses a computer assisted mixed methods approach to investigate academic motivation in a large sample (N = 878) of young students. The purposes of the study were to explore the various aspects connected to motivation in primary and secondary school, using a mixed methodology (both inductive data-driven and deductive theory-driven) and to assess the findings by means of a powerful statistical inferential test. Textual analysis of the students’ free answers was carried out with the support of the NVIVO 7.0 computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, and included the following steps: creating and testing the codebook, coding of texts, reliability testing and data analysis. The results show that intrinsic motivation tends to decrease in the transition from primary to secondary school, but they also reveal a hitherto undemonstrated trend, which is the significant increase, during this phase, of identified motivation, a different, yet still highly self-determined, form of regulation, involving the conscious attribution of value to studying. On the whole the results suggest that the elements dictating student motivation at school are more complex than indicated by previous studies.
Abstract: In a wide conception of positive educational outcomes, fostering favorable attitudes toward reading is an important goal. Data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study in Italy yielded a number of variables potentially associated with students' attitudes toward reading. The purpose of the present study is to explore the relationship between these variables at the school as well as the student levels and the students' attitudes. A multilevel analysis was conducted using two levels: the student level nested under the school. First results show that pupils’ attitudes toward reading are significantly related to gender, to home educational resources and to the parents’ attitudes toward reading
Abstract: In PISA 2006 the largest proficiency gap is between students who do not show the competencies that are necessary to participate effectively in life situations related to science and technology and students who have competencies which could allow them to create innovative technology. The objective of this paper is to identify, for the 30 OECD PISA 2006 countries, distinct subgroups of students who share characteristics that are mostly associated with this proficiency gap.
Data is based on the answers of those PISA 2006 OECD students with scores classified below level 2 (N=50762) and above level 4 (N=21665), as well as the answers at the school questionnaire of their principals and the OECD indicators of financial and human resources invested in education at a national level for secondary school (year of reference: 2005).
The dependent variable of the analysis was a dichotomous variable the values of which represent the two different groups of students. The independent variables were the OECD indicators, items and indices derived from the student and school questionnaires. The analysis was based on classification and regression trees (CART) (Williams, Lee, Fisher, & Dickerman, 1999), a method suited to detecting and interpreting complex interactions in large data sets. Results show that the cumulative expenditure per student for upper secondary education over the theoretical duration of secondary studies, is the country level factor that has the greatest importance to predict if these fifteen year-olds belong to the group of the “first” or the “last” in OECD countries in relation to their future ability to participate in life situations involving problems of a scientific nature. Additionally the analysis conducted by means of CART made it possible to point out that the factors associated with the school, the family and the student interact in a complex way
Abstract: PIRLS 2006 collected data about reading literacy and about factors connected to school, family and student context for Italian fourth grade students. The aim of the present study is to examine, in Italian data, the interplay between school, teacher, family and student factors, and their relationships to reading literacy. A structural equation model comprising school, teachers, parents, and pupils variables is tested. This model as a whole accounted for 37% of variance in reading literacy in Italian fourth grade pupils. Home variables accounted for 18% of variance, students' variables for 14% and school and teacher variables for 5% of variance. An important part of home variables effect is related to the direct and indirect influence (through other variables) of educational resources, whereas the importance of economic resources seems to be very small in total. Variables connected with students seem to strongly influence the effect of home variables. Finally as concerns school and teachers variables, material resources available in schools have a very small effect on reading literacy. The most important variable in this latter context proves to be the time spent by students in reading activities at school.
Abstract: Questionnaire data from the PIRLS 2006 provided a number of international indices measuring various elements of the educational context influencing reading achievement. These constructs refer to characteristics of school, teachers, parents, and pupils. The first aim of this study is to explore, by the means of a regression model on the PIRLS 2006 data for European countries, the relationship between contextual variables at the country, school and pupil levels, and the Rasch-scaled score for reading achievement. This in needed in order to clarify which variables, at different levels, show to have a direct impact on reading achievement. The second aim is to examine, by means of multi-group structural equation modeling, the interplay between school, teacher, family and student factors, and their relationships to reading achievement. Results show a large overall effect of home variables on reading literacy: they accounted for the 31% of reading literacy variance. School and teachers variables explain instead a small proportion of variance (3%). Finally, students variables (students’ attitudes toward reading and students’ reading self-concept) seem to strongly modulate the effect of home variables: the addition of these two variables to the model, can help to explain a substantial proportion of variance in the scores of reading literacy (+10 %).
Abstract: Questionnaire data from the PIRLS 2006 study in Italy provided a number of indices in order to summarize factors of educational context influencing reading achievement. The present paper study the relationships between school factors, teacher factors, family factors, student factors and reading achievement by means of multilevel regression analysis. Results show that pupils’ attainment in reading is significantly related to home educational resources, to parents’ attitudes toward reading, to students’ attitudes toward reading, to students’ reading self-concept and to teacher career satisfaction
