Australian students ranked 2nd in digital reading literacy

Australian students ranked 2nd in digital reading literacy

The Preparing Australian Students for the Digital World report reveals Australia’s national results from the Electronic Reading Assessment component of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009. The international results were released in 2011. The PISA Electronic Reading Assessment examined 15-year-old students’ ability to read, understand and apply digital texts was assessed. Students also completed a questionnaire about their access to and use of information and communication technologies at home and school.

Nineteen countries or economies participated in the assessment and questionnaire, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hong Kong-China, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Australia was outperformed only by Korea, while all other countries or economies apart from New Zealand performed on average at a level significantly lower than Australia. New Zealand achieved a similar score to Australia.

The report notes that 17 per cent of Australian students were highly skilled digital readers compared to eight per cent of students across the OECD, while 10 per cent of Australian students were low performers compared to 17 per cent of students across the OECD. In Australia, 20 per cent of girls and 15 per cent of boys reached a very high level in digital reading literacy, compared to nine per cent and six per cent respectively across participating OECD countries.

Australian students performed more strongly in digital reading literacy than in print reading literacy. This was generally the case in countries that were high performers in print reading literacy. Lower achieving countries in print reading literacy, on the other hand, performed more strongly in print than digital reading literacy.

Student’s access to and use of ICT at home and school

PISA 2009 revealed that 99 per cent of Australian students reported having a computer in their home, with 95 per cent of those connected to the Internet. These proportions were higher than the OECD averages of 94 per cent and 89 per cent respectively.

Across Australia, 22 per cent of students reported having just one computer in their home, 31 per cent having two and 46 per cent having three or more. The number of computers in the home was positively related to digital reading literacy, with students having three or more computers in the home having much higher scores than students with one computer in the home.

The most popular leisure-related computer activities at home reported by students were browsing the Internet for fun, chatting online and using email, while the most common school-related activities at home reported by students were using the Internet for school work and doing homework.

Girls reported significantly more frequent use of computers at home for school-related activities, while boys reported significantly more frequent use of computers at home for leisure-related activities. Students from metropolitan schools reported significantly more frequent use of computers at home for leisure-related activities than students in provincial or remote schools.

The most common computer activity at school reported by students is browsing the Internet for school work. Students in remote schools reported significantly more frequent use of computers at school than students attending schools in metropolitan or provincial areas.

ACER Chief Executive, Professor Geoff Masters, said that while Australian students performed very well in digital reading literacy and had high levels of access to computers and the Internet at home and school, the report identified two major areas for policy attention.

‘The gender gap found in print reading literacy is also evident in digital reading literacy. On average, Australian males performed at a significantly lower level than females. At the same time, male students have stronger skills in digital navigation than female students, which will have negative repercussions in a digital age,’ Professor Masters said.

‘Significant differences in digital reading literacy performance have been found in different social groups. These include those students attending government schools or remote areas, indigenous students and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

‘These are generally the same groups that are disadvantaged in print reading and other literacy areas, so strategies that are applied to increase students’ understanding more generally need also be applied in this area,’ Professor Masters concluded.

Read the full report:
Preparing Australian Students for the Digital World: Results from the PISA 2009 Digital Reading Literacy Assessment, by ACER Head of Educational Monitoring and Research, Dr Sue Thomson, and ACER Research Fellow, Lisa De Bortoli, is available at <research.acer.edu.au/ozpisa/10/>