Ellen Schaffner

Ein erweitertes Verständnis der Lesekompetenz: Die Ergebnisse des nationalen Ergänzungstests

Im Rahmen der internationalen PISA-2000-Erhebungen wurde eine Reihe von nationalen Zusatzerhebungen durchgefuhrt, die vor allem dazu dienten, vernachlassigte Bereiche ausfuhrlicher zu erfassen. In Bezug auf den internationalen PISA-Test zur Erfassung der Lesekompetenz hatte der nationale Erganzungstest die Funktion einer komplementaren Erweiterung. Bei der Entwicklung des Erganzungstests gingen wir prinzipiell davon aus, dass im internationalen Testteil eine sinnvolle und differenzierte Konzeption zum Einsatz kam. Unsere Uberlegungen gingen deshalb dahin, den internationalen Test um neue Aspekte zu erganzen, insbesondere um solche, die den Schwerpunkt der kognitionspsychologischen und padagogisch-psychologischen Forschung zum Lernen aus Texten bilden.

Measurement Invariance and Validity of a Brief Questionnaire on Reading Motivation in Elementary Students.

In order to initiate more research on the role of reading motivation during the initial stages of learning to comprehend texts, we developed the Reading Motivation Questionnaire for Elementary Students (RMQ-E). The sample comprised 1497 elementary students in Grades 1–3. By means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, three factors were determined: Curiosity, involvement and competition. The three-factor structure of the RMQ-E was found to be invariant across grade levels (scalar invariance) and across female and male students (strict invariance). As was anticipated, students in higher grades and male students were lower in curiosity and involvement than students in lower grades and female students. Whereas competitive reading motivation did not differ across grade levels, it was higher for boys than for girls. Moreover, the contributions of involvement and competition to reading amount and reading competence were in accordance with the hypotheses. The predictive validity of curiosity, however, was not confirmed.

The Contributions of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reading Motivation to the Development of Reading Competence over Summer Vacation.

This study addressed the role of reading motivation as a potential determinant of losses or gains in reading competence over six weeks of summer vacation (SV). Based on a sample of 223 third-grade elementary students, structural equation analyses showed that intrinsic reading motivation before SV contributed positively to both word and sentence comprehension after SV when controlling for comprehension performance before SV. These effects were mediated by reading amount. Extrinsic reading motivation did not show significant associations with end-of-summer comprehension scores. Taken together, the findings suggest that intrinsic reading motivation facilitates students’ development of reading comprehension over SV.