Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Week 4
By
Caryn Wander
Professor Weintraub
National University
May 4, 2019
DOMAIN B – LIT REVIEW 2
ABSTRACT
This is a review of The School Age Gender Gap in Reading Achievement: Examining the
Influences of Item Format and Intrinsic Reading Motivation by Franziska Schwabe, Nele
Mcelvany, and Matthias Trendtel (2015). This paper is a reading approach that looks at the need
to understand gender gaps on reading achievements. This research shows distinct advantages in
reading comprehension on constructed responses in comparing boys of the same age group. Two
samples were taken in Germany on these research criteria for ages 10- and 15-years old students.
A greater gap was seen in the 15-years old study between girls and boys than in the 10-years old.
DOMAIN B – LIT REVIEW 3
LITERATURE REVIEW
School studies consistently show higher levels of reading performance in basic reading
skills in female students over male students. Reading is essential for both interaction in society
and academic success. The lower performance of male students is an issue for teachers,
administration and intervention methods of education. Besides the girl’s advantages in reading
developed assessments because of the response to Common Core Standards and Smarter Balance
testing in the United States it is imperative for intervention in males supporting their reading
competency so it will not impede testing assessments. The difference between MC and CR
format is that CR not only requires personal responses but effective language skills.
Reading comprehension is actively pulling information and then formulating the meaning
of various types of texts. Reading motivation is one way to enhance comprehension. This can
be defined by finding ways for students to find an internal purpose to read. Possibly for
pleasure, personal goals, or satisfying their curiosity on a subject or specific topic could be a few
of the ways to engage students. However, with research it is shown that boys do not seem to be
intrinsically motivated as much as girls are to read in the age group of 15-years old. This may be
a contributing factor on why boys test lower than girls at this age when answering constructed-
responses on an assessment.
Comparing the two formats of reading assessments CR and MC, MC seems to be the
favored method of testing because it is more efficient when giving the test and scoring the test.
Those favoring CR argue that these types of question require a deeper understanding than can be
DOMAIN B – LIT REVIEW 4
measured. The argument is that CR questions do have restrictions namely scoring is more time
consuming, and subjective therefore it reduces the validity of the test. Other concerns are that,
for these questions, students may have difficulty writing an answer especially at elementary
school grade level. Also, students in secondary grade school level find it problematic to respond
to the question in their own words. These types of questions additionally require a greater
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this study explored 10- and 15-years old students, their gender and their
responses to both item formats CR and MC. The findings show that both 10- and 15-years old
girls outperformed the boys in CR questions which reflect girl’s higher reading achievements
The results were measured from a total of 4,979 students, boys being the majority of 51
percent. Out of these students 65.1% of both boys and girls stated that the test was the same
language that was spoken at home. Final finding showed that there were higher levels of
intrinsic reading motivation but overall it did not explain their advantage in responding to CR
REFERENCES
Schwabe, F., Mcelvany, N., & Trendtel, M. (2015). The School Age Gender Gap in Reading