The national monitoring assessment programme recognises the impact of attitudinal and motivational factors on student achievement in individual assessment tasks. Students' attitudes, interests and liking for a subject have a strong bearing on progress and learning outcomes. Students are influenced and shaped by the quality and style of curriculum delivery, the choice of content and the suitability of resources. Other important factors influencing students' achievements are the expectations and support of significant people in their lives, the opportunities and experiences they have in and out of school, and the extent to which they have feelings of personal success and capability.
The national monitoring reading and speaking surveys sought information from students about their curriculum preferences and their perceptions of achievement. Students were also asked about their involvement in reading and speaking activities within school and beyond. The surveys were administered to both year 4 and year 8 students in a one-to-one interview setting, with most questions requiring rating responses and others a written or spoken response. There are numerous research questions that could be asked when investigating student attitudes and engagement. In national monitoring it has been necessary to focus on a few key questions that give an overall impression of how students view reading and speaking as school, home and community activities.
Reading
Survey
The reading survey included 18 items which invited students to record a rating
response, as well as other questions which asked them to select from a list
of options or to write down examples of books or authors they had read.
The students were
first asked to select their three favourite school subjects from a list
of twelve subjects. Among the year 4 students, art was the most popular
subject, listed as first, second or third choice by 70% of year 4 students.
Physical education came second (42%), mathematics third (37%), music
fourth (31%), and reading fifth (29 percent). Speaking was in eleventh
place (3%). Among the year 8 students, physical education was first (55%),
art second (44%), mathematics third (40%), technology fourth (23%), science
fifth (21%), music sixth (20%), and reading seventh (19%). Speaking was
again eleventh (5%).
Activity
silent
reading |
% responses | |
y4 62 |
y8 78 |
|
The students were then presented with a list of eight reading activities and asked which they liked doing most at school. They were invited to tick up to three activities. The responses are shown here, in order of popularity for year 4 students.
Year 4 and 8 students gave similar responses to four of the activities. However, year 8 students expressed stronger preferences than year 4 students for silent reading and browsing through books, together with weaker preferences for reading with a partner or reading with the teacher.
Approach to reading
go
back and try again |
% responses | |
y4 45 |
y8 42 |
|
Another question asked the students to select up to three "important things a person needs to do to be a good reader". They were given 10 approaches to choose from. The responses are shown here, in order of indicated importance for year 4 students.
The results show that year 4 students tend to think about reading as a technical task, requiring concentration, learning hard words and listening to the teacher, whereas year 8 students place greater emphasis on enjoying reading, choosing the right book and thinking about what they read.
Type of reading material
books
about real things and people (non-fiction) |
% responses | |
y4
|
y8
|
|
In response to a list of seven types of reading material, students indicated up to three which they liked reading in their own time. The responses are shown at the right, in order of popularity for year 4 students.
The results reveal some important changes of voluntary reading activity between year 4 and year 8. In particular, year 8 students reported a considerably greater focus on reading magazines, and markedly less interest in comics and poetry.
Students
were asked to list books and authors they had read during 1996, and to
tick their favourite book in the list. Only 43% of year 4 students indicated
the author of a favourite book, with 15% choosing a book by R.L. Stine,
5% choosing a book by Roald Dahl, and 4% choosing a book by Paul Jennings.
Among the 57% of year 8 students who indicated a favourite book and author,
11% chose a book by R.L. Stine and 8% a book by Paul Jennings. No other
author was favoured by more than 2% of the students.