Reading Comprehension of Digital Texts

Author(s):

Maria Rasmusson(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

16. ICT in Education and Training

Format:

Paper

Session Information

16 SES 06 A, ICT and Reading

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-09

15:30-17:00

Room:

3005. [Main]

Chair:

Ruben Vanderlinde

Contribution

Historically, we have used various types of tools as text carriers, ranging from bark, clay, cloth, papyrus, book, computer, smart phones, and tablets. The young people of today are involved with Instagram, Facebook, as well as games on consoles, computers, the Internet, and mobile phones. They consume, comment, and produce videos on Youtube, write and read fan fiction, blogs, and tweets. In Sweden, 100 per cent of the youngsters aged 12-15 years use the Internet daily and 78 per cent do so on their smart phones. The Internet has enabled the use of many new popular digital activities where reading is included. Meanwhile, the time spent on reading books decreases, results drop in recurrent reading literacy surveys, and the gender gap in reading ability widens in Sweden (Skolverket, 2012a; SOU 2012:10; Rosén, 2011).

From a democracy and equity perspective, all citizens should have equal opportunities to develop the necessary skills to read and understand digital texts in order to participate in today's society. Consequently, most states strive to have a compensatory educational system to provide equal opportunities for all students regardless of their backgrounds.

The aim of this thesis has been to both investigate and describe reading comprehension of digital texts per se in relation to the reading comprehension of traditional texts, and to do so with respect to gender differences, computer-game playing, and socioeconomic background factors. Based on this explorative and complementary aim, four research questions were formulated: 1. Do the students' performance on a reading comprehension test on paper or on screen differ and, if so, on which aspects? 2. Is it possible to identify a digital reading factor and, if so, how is it related to gender and computer gaming? 3. Is there an influence from socioeconomic background factors on achievement in overall reading comprehension and reading comprehension of digital texts, on the student and the school level, in Norwegian and Swedish education? 4. What skills and abilities required for reading comprehension of digital texts can be identified? I attempt to answer each of these questions in four studies. In the first study, the parts of the material developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) (Elley, 1992) are used. Study II and III build on data from the PISA-survey in 2009 (OECD, 2010). The fourth study is based on qualitative data from video observations.

Method

A mixed-methods approach was adopted in the present thesis. Advantages in combining different views, despite different ontological and epistemological foundations, are emphasised by mixed-methods researchers (see Harrits, 2011). There are four motives for my choice of approach. (1) The mixed-methods approach sheds light on more dimensions of the phenomena than a single type of data is able to do (Ercikan & Roth, 2006). (2) It is well suited for an explora-tive purpose using both qualitative and quantitative data in a relatively un-researched area such as digital reading. (3) Moreover, this approach provides an opportunity to view different existing theoretical reading theories, not as conflict-ing but rather to acknowledge that they contribute to the complementary aspects on reading. Finally, (4) the approach enables overall conclusions and inter-pretations of the results from the four different studies with an outset in different reading theories (Johnson, et al., 2007). In Study I, the students were offered a part of the test used for Grade 8 in the IEA literacy assessment in 1991 (Elley, 1992). Nine texts out of 19 texts were selected and included three types of texts: narrative prose, expository prose, and docu-ments. The students took the test both on paper and on screen with 8-10 weeks in between. The study had a balanced design, and thus, about half of the students began with the screen test, and the other half began with the test on paper. Data from the PISA survey in 2009 were used in Study II and III. In this admin-istration, traditional reading literacy and digital reading literacy were tested with two separate measures. The traditional reading literacy test was part of the main body paper-based assessment, which took two hours and included reading literacy as well as mathematics and science. The digital reading literacy was assessed in a separate 40-minute computer-based test. Study IV differs from Studies I-III, in that it is based on qualitative data. Data in this fourth study are comprised of video-recordings of students working in pairs with tasks on the Internet and two sets of interviews with students. The methods of analysis differed between the studies. The quantitative analysis of the data in Study I involved rather uncomplicated descriptive statistics. In Studies II and III, a confirmatory factor analytic approach using structural equation modelling techniques was adopted.

Expected Outcomes

Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, the overall conclusion drawn from the results of the four studies was that reading comprehension of digital texts has unique aspects in addition to those required for reading comprehension of traditional texts. Three other important conclusions were pointed out as well. The first was that reading comprehension is influenced by the context of the texts; the second was that particular skills and abilities are required for digital reading; and the third was that there seems to be less of an influence of background factors on the performance of digital reading compared to traditional reading among Swedish (and Norwegian) youth. The results are discussed in relation to a Dual Level Theory formulated by Leu et al., as well as the validity issues with an outset in Bachman’s conversation analysis.

References

Cronbach, L. J., & Meehl, P. E. (1955). Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological bulletin, 52(4), 281. Coiro, J. (2003). Exploring literacy on the Internet: reading comprehension on the Internet: Expanding our understanding of reading comprehension to encompass new literacies. The Reading Teacher, 56(5), 458–464. Coiro, J. (2011). Predicting Reading Comprehension on the Internet Contributions of Offline Reading Skills, Online Reading Skills, and Prior Knowledge. Journal of Literacy Research, 43(4), 352-392. Greene, J., & Hall, J. (2010). Dialectics and pragmatism: Being of consequence. I A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Red.). Sage handbook of mixed methods in social & behavioral research (2nd ed., pp. 119- 43). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Greene, J. C. (2007). Mixed methods in social inquiry. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. Gustafsson, J.-E. (2008). Effects of international comparative studies on educational quality on the quality of educational research. European Educational Research Journal, 7(1), 1-17. Gustafsson, J.-E., & Balke, G. (1993). General and specific abilities as predictors of school achievement. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 28, 407–34. Gustafsson, J.-E. (2008). Effects of international comparative studies on educational quality on the quality of educational research. European Educational Research Journal, 7(1), 1-17. Gustafsson, J.-E., & Balke, G. (1993). General and specific abilities as predictors of school achievement. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 28, 407–34. Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J., Castek, J., & Henry, L. A. (2013). New literacies: A dual level theory of the changing nature of literacy, instruction, and assessment. I D. Alvermann, N. J. Unrau, & R. B. Ruddell (Red.). Theoretical models and processes of reading, 6, 1150-1181. Leu, D. J., Forzani, E., Rhoads, C., Maykel, C., Kennedy, C., & Timbrell, N. (2014). The New Literacies of Online Research and Comprehension: Rethinking the Reading Achievement Gap. Reading Research Quarterly, p. 1-23. OECD (2011). PISA 2009 Results: Students on Line: Digital Technologies and Performance (Volume VI). OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264112995-en Yang, Y. (2003). Measuring socioeconomic status and its effects at individual and collec-tive levels: A cross-country comparison. (Doktorsavhandling). (Göteborg Studies in Educational Sciences, 193). Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Åberg-Bengtsson, L., Beach, D., Bergnell Karlsson, A., Ljung Djärf, A., Ottosson, T., Karlsson, K.G., Norberg, M., Westman. A.-K., & von Zeipel, H. (2014). "När Agnes fick va solen så fattade man ju precis": Om illustrationer i undervisning av yngre elever. I Resultatdialog 2014 (s. 246-254). Stockholm: Vetenskapsrådet. Hämtad från: https://publikationer.vr.se/produkt/resultatdialog-2014/

Author Information

Maria Rasmusson (presenting / submitting)

Mid Sweden University, Sweden

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