Good readers but at a cost? Attitudes to reading in England

Abstract

The results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2001 (PIRLS) were reported in 2003. In addition to data about the reading achievements of 10-year-olds in 35 countries, the study also collected questionnaire information from children, their teachers, headteachers and parents. One aspect of the data that attracted comment in the media was the fact that, despite high achievement on the reading tests, children in England were reported as having relatively poor attitudes to reading, compared to children in many other countries. A review of the results of selected surveys over the past 30 years suggests that there may be some evidence of attitudes to reading in primary schools becoming less positive. Preliminary analysis of the attitude and achievement data from PIRLS suggests a more complex picture than that presented in the summary index published in 2003.When the results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) were published in (Mullis et al., 2003, the media identified two key findings of the study: that 10-year-olds in England had performed well in relation to their peers in most of the other 34 participating countries and that the attitudes to reading held by children in England (and also in Scotland) tended to be poorer than those in most other countries.'Better but bored: The teachers, children and policy-makers of England have done well to raise 10-year-olds' reading achievement . . . But we still have an attitude problem. ' (Ward, 2003) '10-year-olds ''are best and worst'' at reading: England's 10-year-olds are among the top and bottom in the world at reading, an international study reported . . . Despite their high average score, 10-year-olds in England had a poorer attitude towards reading, and read less often for fun, than pupils in other countries.' (Clare, 2003) Concern about children's attitudes to reading in the light of the PIRLS results needs to be put into context: are children in England expressing more negative attitudes to reading than they have in the past or do the PIRLS results reflect long-standing attitudes in this country?In the past, work on children's reading that has not been focused on reading development or competence has tended to divide into two main approaches -

Exploring teachers' knowledge of children's literature

“…England (Twist et al, 2003(Twist et al, , 2007, the reduction in primary phase book spending (Hurd et al, 2006), and the lack of teacher knowledge of children's literature evidenced in this research, there is a real need for increased professional attention and support in this area. Practitioners need ongoing opportunities to enrich this critical knowledge base and need to know how and where to access advice about books and writers.Whilst librarians could be central to this, evidence both in the US and in England, suggests their expertise is not well utilised (Ofsted, 2004;Ross, McKechnie and Rothbauer, 2006;Cremin et al, 2007b).…”

“…The earlier PIRLS study, which involved comparing ten year olds in 35 countries, revealed that 13% of the English children disliked reading, compared to 6% on average. When asked how confident they were about reading, only 30% rated themselves as highly confident, compared to an international average of 40% (Mullis et al, 2003;Twist et al, 2003). In the 2006 study, which involved 41 countries, only 28% of the English children reported reading weekly compared to an international average of 40%.…”

Teachers as readers: a study of the reading habits of future teachers / El docente como lector: estudio de los hábitos lectores de futuros docentes

“…So, a reading habit could be considered as a behavioural manifestation of a reading attitude: an established habit would imply a positive orientation towards reading, entailing some sort of personal satisfaction that reinforces the act of being a reader (Larrañaga & Yubero, 2005). It is precisely the lack of a consistent definition of reading attitude in the studies on the subject that has led to searching for more objective variables, such as reading Teachers as readers / El docente como lector 45 habits, to avoid the mere report of feelings or intentions for the study of reading behaviour (Mathewson, 1994;Petscher, 2010;Twist, Gnaldi, Schagen, & Morrison, 2004). In turn, attitude influences the participants' involvement in reading and, therefore, it becomes associated with motivation, considered to be a requirement for initiating and sustaining this activity (Alexander & Filler, 1976;Mathewson, 1994;Twist et al, 2004;Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997).…”

“…It is precisely the lack of a consistent definition of reading attitude in the studies on the subject that has led to searching for more objective variables, such as reading Teachers as readers / El docente como lector 45 habits, to avoid the mere report of feelings or intentions for the study of reading behaviour (Mathewson, 1994;Petscher, 2010;Twist, Gnaldi, Schagen, & Morrison, 2004). In turn, attitude influences the participants' involvement in reading and, therefore, it becomes associated with motivation, considered to be a requirement for initiating and sustaining this activity (Alexander & Filler, 1976;Mathewson, 1994;Twist et al, 2004;Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997). More specifically, related reading motivation to attitude through two components: extrinsic motivation, linked to the consideration of reading as an instrumental activity, which seems to lead the subjects to read while there are external demands, and intrinsic motivation, defined as the disposition to seek out reading activities for the sheer pleasure of them, which sustains the subject's involvement in reading beyond such demands.…”

Querying the Causal Role of Attitudes in Educational Attainment

“…There was only a very weak association between attitudes and achievement (0.04). Twist et al [107] found some links between attitudes to reading and reading attainment for 200,000 nine-and 10-year-old children in 41 countries in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).…”