School Age Gender Gap in Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Students' reading comprehension was found to be one of the major concerns with all teachers worldwide. It is essential to optimize students' performance in all courses. Yet, we claimed that gender, and reading attitudes and practices could influence reading comprehensibility. We utilized descriptive-correlational design of quantitative research. Descriptive design was used to obtain the attributes of students' reading attitudes and practices. Moreover, we used a correlational design to determine the relationship or association between and among attributes and their level of reading comprehension skills. We found out that students have a positive attitude towards reading when reading materials are educational and entertainment. In terms of the significant relationship between reading attitudes and practices, results reveal that reading attitude does not always affect reading practices. In terms of the relationship between student's reading attitudes and practices and their levels of reading comprehension skills, student's reading attitudes and practices have no significant relationships to all levels except between their reading attitudes and their comprehension skills in the Inferential Level. Lastly, in terms of the significant difference between male and female students' reading comprehension skills, there is a statistical difference in the Literal and Evaluative Levels between the male and female. Thus, reading comprehension skills vary in these two levels. On the other hand, they showed no statistical difference in the Inferential and Critical Levels between the male and female. Therefore, the Literal and Evaluative Levels of male and female to reading comprehension skills are due to their reading attitudes and practices individually.

Level of Reading Comprehension Among Grade 11 Learners Basis for Instructional Material Development

“…By looking into the mean the females had higher reading comprehension in literal, interpretive, and evaluative levels compared to the males. This result confirms the study of Pagal, Miafuentes and Ypanto (2017) where there was a statistical difference in the literal and evaluative levels between the male and the female Grade 8 students. However, it negates the study of Oda and Abdul-Kadhim (2017) where there was no significant difference in the literal and inferential level between the male and female college students but then it was consistent in the evaluative level where there was a significant difference between the male and the female.…”

Teachers' and students' attitudes towards reading and writing: Do they correlate to students' achievement in English?

“…Attitude towards reading has been found to influence the development of reading skills and academic success (Nootens et al, 2019). Whereas Pagal et al (2017) argue that reading attitude does not greatly affect the reading practices of the learner, other scholars see it differently. Patrick et al (2007) and Taylor (2014) separately maintain that attitude may affect the level of ability attained by a student through its influence, and poor attitude may lead to the absence of reading when other options are available (Nippold et al, 2005).…”

“…Research that examines both the attitudes of students and teachers towards reading and writing and at the same time determines whether such attitudes impact students' achievement has been very rare. Some studies have focused mainly on students' attitudes to reading and its relationship with reading performance (Tunde-Awe, 2014), differences in pupils' attitudes towards reading (Nootens et al, 2019), and gender gaps in reading comprehension (Pagal et al, 2017). A change in attitude towards reading is a common phenomenon observed in children especially as they transit from elementary to higher levels of education (Davis & Neitzel, 2010;Nootens et al, 2019).…”