Theses and Dissertations (Centre for Evaluation & Assessment (CEA))

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    Identifying the relationship between the home environment, parental attributes and learner achievement in reading literacy
    (University of Pretoria, 2015) Howie, Sarah J.; Van Staden, Surette; karen.roux@up.ac.za; Roux, Karen
    Emphasis has been placed nationally and internationally by parents, schools and communities on reading literacy skills as it is essential to be able to participate in today’s society. Reading and literacy skills underpin literacy in formal schooling. However in order for children to cope in formal schooling, children should fist acquire the necessary informal and formal literacy skills. These literacy skills can be developed through early literacy experiences gained within the home context. The home environment plays a vital role in the development and acquisition of children’s reading and literacy skills. It is the researcher’s intention to ascertain the role that the home environment and parental attributes play in influencing the reading literacy achievement of South African Grade 5 learners by conducting a secondary analysis utilising a standard multiple regression analysis (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007) of the Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) 2006 data. PIRLS collected data using contextualised questionnaires to gain valuable background information. This study utilised the Learning-to-Read survey (a questionnaire which was completed by the parents or caregivers) in order to study the home environment as well as parental attributes. The conceptual framework of the study comprises home environment and parental attributes which might have an influence on learner reading literacy achievement. The study adapted Myrberg & Rosén’s (2008) model of direct and indirect influences of parental factors on reading achievement as there is absence of a South African model which looks at both the home environment and parent attributes. The study hopes to provide insights through its findings, whether the home environment and parental attributes have an effect on learner reading performance. Particular focus has been placed on parental involvement since it is imperative to establish whether involvement is important for learner reading literacy. Reading literacy is an interactive process and it is clear that a learner will be able to perform at best when guidance is given in a cultural context. Parents, who actively take part in not only their children’s upbringing but their children’s literacy skills, can make an important contribution to their children’s reading literacy. There are cases in South Africa where parents are poorly educated but it did not stop them in inculcating a positive attitude towards reading literacy into their children. Parental involvement is therefore of great importance in children’s development of reading literacy skills.
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    The effect of language of instruction and contextual factors on higher-order reading comprehension performance
    (University of Pretoria, 2017) Howie, Sarah J.; nelladee.palane@gmail.com; Palane, Nelladee Lorraine McLeod
    This study compares the different primary school language of instruction models found in South Africa for performance on the higher-order reading comprehension processes tested in the international, large-scale assessment, prePIRLS 2011. The language of instruction groupings include the African languages, Afrikaans, English L1 and English L2 as an immersion model. The marked differences in performance observed on the higher-order prePIRLS 2011 items across the language models are not singular reasons for performance in themselves, but reflect embedded contextual factors that influence performance. It was, therefore, examined how language of instruction creates or restricts access to ‘social tools’ and ‘cultural capital’ which mediate the development of higher-order reading comprehension at home and at school. It was found that socio-economic status (SES) at the school level contributes 86.06 (SE=20.48) and 98.54 (SE=17.28) score points for English (N=2 205) and Afrikaans (N=1 463) respectively as a school level indicator. For the Afrikaans LoLT grouping access to text explained 44 score points (SE=11.09). Neither SES nor access to text explained significant variance in performance for the African languages schools when examined within the language grouping (N= 12 076). A linear regression (N=6 342) showed that low SES learners whose language of instruction is English, despite it not being their mother tongue, benefit by 20.35 score points (equivalent to half a year) from being in the English L2 group, in comparison to the African languages L1 group as a measure of achievement on the higher-order subscale. The hypothesis that SES and access to text significantly affect performance in higher-order reading comprehension was further supported by the findings of a two-level regression, showing that access to text at school contributed 32.91 score points (B=32.91, SE=13.96, p=.03) to performance for English L2 low SES learners (N=480). It is argued that better provision of text at school can mediate the development of the cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies required for higher-order reading comprehension across all language of instruction models and socio-economic strata. Print material is often more accessible to learners in English. This strengthens a pragmatic, contextually-based argument for focused prioritisation of English L2 instruction concomitant to raising the quality of home language instruction.
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    Exploring Differential Item Functioning on reading achievement between English and isiXhosa
    (University of Pretoria, 2017) Van Staden, Surette; nmtsatse@gmail.com; Mtsatse, Nangamso
    Post-Apartheid South Africa has undergone an educational language policy shift from only Afrikaans and English in education to the representation of all 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele, siSwati, Sesotho, Setswana, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. The national languages policy included the Language in Education Policy (LiEP), which stipulates that learners from grades 1- 3 in all ways possible should be provided the opportunity to be taught in their home language (HL). With this change, there has been a need to increase access to African languages in education. The 2007 Status of LoLT report released by the Department of Education (DoE) revealed that since 1996 up to 65% of learners in the foundation phase are being taught in their home language. In other ways, the LiEP has been successful in bridging the gap of access to African languages in the basic education system. With that said, there has been rapid growth of interest in early childhood crosscultural literacy assessment across the globe. Internationally South Africa has participated in the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality as well as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study studies. The design of these particular international studies meant participation in the same assessment but in different languages, calling into question the equivalence of assessments across languages. Assessing across languages should aim to encourage linguistic equivalence, functioning equivalence, cultural equivalence as well as metric equivalence. South Africa has taken part in three cycles of the Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) study. The purposes of the current study is to present secondary analysis of the prePIRLS 2011 data, to investigate any differential item functioning (DIF) of the achievement scores between English and isiXhosa. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) developed a framework of input, process and output for curriculum process. The framework shows the multiple facets that needs to be considered when implementing a curriculum in a country. The curriculum process framework was used as the theoretical framework for this study. The framework views curriculum success as a process of measuring how the intended curriculum (input) was implemented (process) and should be reflected in the attained curriculum (output). The adapted framework is LiEP as the attained curriculum, as learners in the prePIRLS 2011 are tested in the LoLT in Grades 1-3. Followed by the prePIRLS 2011 assessment, as the implemented curriculum testing the learners’ comprehension skills requires by grade 4 in their HL. Lastly, the attained curriculum refers the learners’ achievement scores in the prePIRLS 2011 study. A sample of 819 Grade 4 learners (539 English L1 speaking learners and 279 isiXhosa L1 speakign learners) that participated in the prePIRLS 2011 study were included in this study. These learners wrote a literary passage called The Lonely Giraffe, accompanied by 15 items. The study made use of the Rasch model to investigate any evidence of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) on the reading achievement of the learners. The findings showed that the items did not reflect an equal distribution. In addition, an item by item DIF analysis revealed discrimination on one subgroup over the other. A further investigation showed that these discriminations could be explained by means of inaccurate linguistic equivalence. The linguistic equivalence could be explained by means of mistranslation and/or dialectal differences. Subsequently, the complexities of dialects in African languages are presented by providing isiXhosa alternative translations to the items. The significance of the current study is in its potential contribution in further understanding language complexities in large-scale assessments. Additionally, in attempts to provide valid, reliable and fair assessment data across sub-groups.
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    The effect of parental involvement on Grade 4 learner literacy : evidence from prePIRLS 2011
    (University of Pretoria, 2017) Van Staden, Surette; cecile.ackermann@tuks.co.za; Ackermann, Cecile
    The study aims to determine the effect of parental involvement on the reading literacy abilities of Grade 4 learners. Literacy is a fundamental skill needed to successfully function in a country’s economy, as well as broader society. The acquisition of literacy is a complex and difficult process, where several factors can have an effect. One of the most important factors in the acquisition of literacy, is parental involvement. Many initiatives have been launched in South Africa to get parents involved in their child’s acquisition of literacy, such as the Family Literacy Project and Nal’ibali. Both of these initiatives aim to improve learners’ literacy through parental involvement. In order to determine the effect of parental involvement on the reading literacy abilities learners, this study focused on selected variables from the PreProgress in International Reading Literacy Study (prePIRLS) 2011, notably from the parental responses and Grade 4 learners reading literacy achievement results. This study took the form of a secondary data analysis while specifically using descriptive and multiple regression techniques to measure the effect of parental involvement and the parental level of education on learner reading achievement. The conceptual framework of the study consists of parental involvement and the parental level of education which might have an effect on the reading literacy ability of Grade 4 learners. The study adapted Epstein’s six types of parental involvement (1992, 1994), as well as Myrberg and Rosén’s (2008) path model of direct and indirect influences of parental education on learners’ reading achievement. This study found that higher levels of parental education, as well as higher levels of parental involvement can be associated with higher reading literacy achievement results. Therefore parental involvement is of great importance in children’s development of reading literacy skills.