Examination of Turkey’s PISA 2018 reading literacy scores within student-level and school-level variables

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to investigate both student-level and school-level factors influencing reading literacy of students in Turkey by using PISA 2018 data. The study focused on reading literacy since the main subject of PISA 2018 was selected as reading literacy. The design of the study is a correlational research examining the relationship between student and school variables and reading literacy. The stratified random sample consisted of 6890 15-year students from 186 different schools. Data coming from PISA 2018 dataset were analysed by Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) at student and school levels. Student-level variables of disciplinary climate in test language lessons, enjoyment of reading, information and community technologies (ICT) competence, parental emotional support, perceived discriminating climate, and perceived cooperation significantly predicted reading literacy, while reading literacy was also predicted by school-level variables of proportion of parents involved in the school, shortage of educational material, student behaviour hindering learning, and teacher behaviour hindering learning. Fifty-seven percent of variance between reading literacy scores of the students were caused by differences between schools. Student-level variables which are disciplinary climate in test language lessons, enjoyment of reading, ICT competence, parental emotional support, perceived discriminating climate, and perceived cooperation significantly predicted reading literacy. On the other hand, school-level variables predicting reading literacy significantly were proportion of parents involved in the school, shortage of educational material, student behaviour hindering learning, and teacher behaviour hindering learning. By considering results of the current study, collaboration between school stakeholders is recommended to increase performance of the students.

The Relationships Among Teachers’ Behaviours That Encourage Students’ Reading Engagement, Reading Enjoyment, Reading Self-Efficacy and Reading Success

“…Therefore, while interpreting these findings, one should consider that primary school children may not have enough maturity and life experiences to evaluate whether they like to read or not in a realistic way. As a matter of fact, studies conducted on older age groups show that reading enjoyment is one of the predictors of reading success, confirming the findings of this study (Cheema, 2018;Ertem, 2020;Rogiers, Van Keer & Merchie, 2020;Tavşancıl, Yıldırım, & Demir, 2019). Students who have positive attitudes and feelings towards reading spend more time on reading in their daily lives (Özbay, Bağcı & Uyar, 2008;Wilkinson et al, 2020).…”

An International Comparison Study Exploring the Influential Variables Affecting Students’ Reading Literacy and Life Satisfaction

“…Findings from previous studies using PISA data that focused on students in countries other than the U.S. and Korea, including schools with a higher proportion of lower-level socioeconomic students and schools with a shortage of educational materials, tended to show relatively low academic achievement (Ertem, 2020;Perry & McConney, 2010). 'School size' is positively related 11(3)…”

“…Based on findings for students in other countries (e.g., Australia, China, Finland, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Turkey) using PISA data, 'students' grade repetition' (Dong & Hu, 2019), 'fear of failure' (Koyuncu & Fırat, 2020), 'fixed mindset' (Claro et al, 2016), and 'ICT availability at school' (Xiao & Hu, 2019) were found to negatively influence reading literacy. Moreover, 'perceived emotional support from parents' and 'schools' classroom disciplinary climate' are significantly positively associated with students' academic achievement (Ertem, 2020). However, 'cooperation at school' is negatively related to students' reading literacy (Ertem, 2020).…”

“…Moreover, 'perceived emotional support from parents' and 'schools' classroom disciplinary climate' are significantly positively associated with students' academic achievement (Ertem, 2020). However, 'cooperation at school' is negatively related to students' reading literacy (Ertem, 2020).…”

Examination of Primary School Students' Exam Success in terms of Controllable Variables by Logistic Regression Analysis

“…According to the PISA results in 2012, 2015 and 2018, variables affecting student performance in the Turkish sample include fairness and effectiveness in educational resources, school resources, socio-economic level, pre-school education period, educational background, gender, motivation, self-efficacy, school income, reading habits, and emotional support of the family. These variables are based on the factors such as the number of mathematics teachers and the number of students in the school, computer usage opportunities, the mother's working status, having a computer at home, the students having a room of their own, and the number Mimbar Sekolah Dasar, Volume 8 Number 3 December 2021 [235] of books at home (Acar & Öğretmen;Özer-Özkan & Acar-Güvendir, 2014;Aksu et al, 2017;Ertem, 2021;Türkan et al, 2015;Arıcı & Altıntaş, 2014;Güzeller & Şeker, 2016).…”