Abstract
The PISA 2018 results revealed that Macao is a fast-improving economy in reading literacy. This study sought to show that Macao’s remarkable progress is due to the policy of narrowing the reading gender gap favoring girls in Macao schools in the past decade. One notable finding of all past cycles of PISA assessment is that in all participating countries/economies girls outperform boys in reading literacy. There is heated debate on whether this gender gap can be narrowed or not through educational means, and if the answer is yes then through what means and with what signs of instructional effectiveness. Regarding this, a pedagogical model of reading engagement which empowers teachers to help students read happily, widely and skillfully was proposed. It was hypothesized that Macao boys were benefitted more than the girls and the gender gap was reduced in magnitude continuously in the past decade. Secondary data analysis of the Macao-PISA 2009 and 2018 reading literacy data revealed that there are significant increase in the percentage of students having favorable reading engagement and that increase of enjoyment of reading and teacher stimulation of student reading engagement are especially substantial. Moreover, the score-point difference in PISA 2018 reading performance due to one unit increase in the reading engagement indices are very impressive. The conclusion is that enhancement of reading engagement in students and teacher stimulation of student reading engagement from 2009 to 2018 improves student reading performance rendering Macao ranked amongst the top positions in the PISA 2018.
Presenters
Pou-seong SitAssociate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macao Kwok-cheung Cheung
Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macao Soi-kei Mak
Senior Researcher, Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macao Man Kai Ieong
Senior Researcher, Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macao
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Gender Difference, Reading Engagement, Reading Literacy, PISA
