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Reading Comprehension in Early Childhood

Putting New Evidence of Trend Growth in South Africa into Perspective

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The Education Systems of Africa

Part of the book series: Global Education Systems ((GES))

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Abstract

A growing number of countries participate in International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs). While the aim of ILSAs is to provide countries with comparable information as indicators of systemic health, a potential pitfall for newcomers is to focus on league table standings or trend growth as a main body of evidence in policy-making decisions. This chapter details South Africa’s participation in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) across three cycles that resulted in disappointingly low results in each of the cycles. As a result, trend growth between the comparable prePIRLS 2011 and PIRLS Literacy 2016 studies did not provide evidence of significant growth over a 5-year period. However, a re-analysis of the micro data shows greater growth than what has previously been reported. While growth is important for a develo** system, the nature of systemic growth has to be qualified. The current analysis used the percentage correct per item across the processes of comprehension for the PIRLS 2016 trend passages. Results indicate that despite increased percentages of correct answers, these are observed for items at the basic processes of comprehension and not at the higher levels of comprehension where students can illustrate their ability to read for meaning. Policy-makers’ keen interest in evidence of education growth for education planning purposes is justified in a develo** context. However, the nature of growth has to be qualified beyond league table standings or trend changes from one cycle of testing to the next.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Surette van Staden

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  1. Surette van Staden
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Correspondence to Surette van Staden .

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  1. Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Kolawole Samuel Adeyemo

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van Staden, S. (2020). Reading Comprehension in Early Childhood. In: Adeyemo, K.S. (eds) The Education Systems of Africa. Global Education Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43042-9_50-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43042-9_50-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-43042-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-43042-9

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