Are boys and girls ready for the digital age?

ERA-Electronic Reading Assesment-PISA 2009

More than 17% of students in Australia, Korea and New Zealand are top performers in digital reading, while fewer than 3% of students in Austria, Chile and Poland are.


• On average, girls outperform boys in digital reading; however, the gender gap is narrower than it is in print-reading proficiency.

• Among boys and girls with similar levels of proficiency in print reading, boys tend to have stronger digital navigation skills and therefore score higher in digital reading.


Top performers in print reading can handle
unfamiliar ideas in the context of competing
information, and generate abstract categories for
interpretation.

Top performers in digital reading can locate,
analyse and critically evaluate information in an
unfamiliar context and despite ambiguity. They can
also navigate across multiple sites without explicit
direction and handle texts in a variety of formats.

The assessment revealed some interesting differences between the skills of girls and boys in the digital domain. While girls outperform boys in both print and digital reading, the gender gap tends to be narrower in digital reading. On average, among the 16 OECD countries that took part in both assessments, girls outperformed boys by 38 points – the equivalent of one year of formal schooling – in print reading, but by
24 points in digital reading.



The bottom line: Boys’ interest and abilities in digital reading could be
exploited to start a “virtuous cycle” through which more frequent reading of
digital texts would result in better digital reading proficiency, which, in turn,
would lead to greater enjoyment of reading and better proficiency in print
reading, as well. Parents, educators and policy makers should also take
note of girls’ weaker skills in digital navigation. Without those skills,
students will find it difficult to make their way in the digital age.

Más informacion:ERA-PISA 2009_informe español

Se puede acceder a las Pruebas Liberadas de PISA-ERA, 2009 (lectura electrónica) en el siguiente enlace: http://erasq.acer.edu.au

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