Page 100 - Štremfel, Urška, ed., 2016. Student (Under)achievement: Perspectives, Approaches, Challenges. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut. Digital Library, Documenta 11.
P. 100
neously by considering different criteria, searching for and combining several
parts of hidden information, dealing with mixed texts, formulating the mean-
ing of a certain phrase independently, understanding ideas that might be in
contrast to what was expected, integrating information from more than a sin-
gle part of the text, evaluating contrasting information and relating what they
have read to different areas of their lives. All of these are competencies that
seem to be of immense significance for young individuals to be able to func-
tion efficiently in today’s society, where one is daily faced with an increasing-
ly large amount of information and responsibilities. In relation to these out-
comes, in Slovenia there are also above-average differences (in comparison
with OECD and the EU) in reading between boys and girls – on average, boys
achieve 55 score points less on the reading literacy scale.
Both at the international level and as part of PISA 2009 secondary analyses
in Slovenia, students’ motivation for reading turned out to be one of the most
significant factors in reading performance. Results of Slovenian students in
this field are given below; these results also give reason for concern and in the
author’s opinion contribute significantly to the presented reading test results.
100 Motivation-related results indicate that 15-year-old Slovenian students are, on
average, less fond of reading than their peers in OECD countries. They get less
enjoyment out of it and do not read as much simply for the reason of liking or
being interested in it, which proved to be a significant factor in reading perfor-
mance in PISA. As for reading engagement, some gender differences can also
be noticed here. In Slovenia (similarly to the average level of OECD countries),
there are more female students (75%) than male students (46%) who read for
enjoyment. But differences in reading engagement are also noticeable be-
tween educational institutions in Slovenia – results indicate engaged and
deep readers are mainly general upper secondary school students. In techni-
cal and vocational educational programmes reading engagement is distinctly
lower. Another reason for concern is the fact that the percentage of Slovenian
students who often read fiction is considerably lower than in OECD countries.
What is more, on average, 15-year-old Slovenian students are also less likely to
read diverse reading materials. Best reading performance is achieved by stu-
dents who read fiction and non-fiction books several times a week or a month
– the average percentage of such students in Slovenia is 15% and 16% respec-
tively, which is again below the OECD average (31 and 19%).
International and national indicators of reading literacy thus provide a lot
of room for improvement of educational policy and practice in Slovenia. The
author believes one of the options for encouraging reading in youths is inte-
grating digital texts and the ICT equipment in the educational and learning
process. Computer technology plays an increasingly important role in today’s
world, in one’s private, social and civic lives alike. Accessing information from
computers connected to the internet is becoming the norm for anyone who
student (under)achievement: perspectives, approaches, challenges
parts of hidden information, dealing with mixed texts, formulating the mean-
ing of a certain phrase independently, understanding ideas that might be in
contrast to what was expected, integrating information from more than a sin-
gle part of the text, evaluating contrasting information and relating what they
have read to different areas of their lives. All of these are competencies that
seem to be of immense significance for young individuals to be able to func-
tion efficiently in today’s society, where one is daily faced with an increasing-
ly large amount of information and responsibilities. In relation to these out-
comes, in Slovenia there are also above-average differences (in comparison
with OECD and the EU) in reading between boys and girls – on average, boys
achieve 55 score points less on the reading literacy scale.
Both at the international level and as part of PISA 2009 secondary analyses
in Slovenia, students’ motivation for reading turned out to be one of the most
significant factors in reading performance. Results of Slovenian students in
this field are given below; these results also give reason for concern and in the
author’s opinion contribute significantly to the presented reading test results.
100 Motivation-related results indicate that 15-year-old Slovenian students are, on
average, less fond of reading than their peers in OECD countries. They get less
enjoyment out of it and do not read as much simply for the reason of liking or
being interested in it, which proved to be a significant factor in reading perfor-
mance in PISA. As for reading engagement, some gender differences can also
be noticed here. In Slovenia (similarly to the average level of OECD countries),
there are more female students (75%) than male students (46%) who read for
enjoyment. But differences in reading engagement are also noticeable be-
tween educational institutions in Slovenia – results indicate engaged and
deep readers are mainly general upper secondary school students. In techni-
cal and vocational educational programmes reading engagement is distinctly
lower. Another reason for concern is the fact that the percentage of Slovenian
students who often read fiction is considerably lower than in OECD countries.
What is more, on average, 15-year-old Slovenian students are also less likely to
read diverse reading materials. Best reading performance is achieved by stu-
dents who read fiction and non-fiction books several times a week or a month
– the average percentage of such students in Slovenia is 15% and 16% respec-
tively, which is again below the OECD average (31 and 19%).
International and national indicators of reading literacy thus provide a lot
of room for improvement of educational policy and practice in Slovenia. The
author believes one of the options for encouraging reading in youths is inte-
grating digital texts and the ICT equipment in the educational and learning
process. Computer technology plays an increasingly important role in today’s
world, in one’s private, social and civic lives alike. Accessing information from
computers connected to the internet is becoming the norm for anyone who
student (under)achievement: perspectives, approaches, challenges
