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PISA 2009 Singaporean students’ reading literacy : effects of out-of-school lessons and students’ socioeconomic background
Author
Chin, Kok Yeang
Supervisor
Liem, Gregory Arief D.
Abstract
While studies have shown that students’ academic performance and ability to afford out-of-school lessons are invariably linked to students’ socioeconomic status (SES), the literature reviewed showed that there have not been any studies assessing the relationship of these three variables. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of language- related out-of-school lessons across SES on the reading literacy of 15- year-old Singaporean students. The impetus is made urgent with the prevalence of out-of-school lessons in Singapore, and a recent study indicating negative education returns when students attend out-of-school lessons. All the variables of interest were drawn from the dataset of 4972 students who participated in the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment. In the database, there were four possible responses on the type(s) of language-related out-of-school lessons attended (i.e., none, enrichment only, remediation only, and both enrichment and remediation). Hierarchical linear regression was performed to investigate the amount of variance in 15 year-old Singaporean students’ reading literacy that is explained by the students’ SES scores and their different language-related out-of-school lessons attendance, after accounting for the students’ base demographics. The final regression model accounted for close to 23% of the variance students’ reading literacy attainment. A four-by-four factorial analysis of variance was conducted to investigate whether there are significant differences in mean reading literacy performance when the students are categorized into quartiles according to their SES scores to simulate the local population income distribution. There was significant interaction effect between SES and language-related out-of-school lessons attendance. Both statistical analyses showed that there were a positive relationship between SES and reading literacy for students who did not attend any language-related out-of-school lessons and those who attended language-related enrichment out-of-school lessons only. However, for students who attended remediation, and those who attended both types of language-related out-of-school lessons, there were significant disordinal interactions. The results from Scheffé post hoc criterion for significance did not support the popular belief that out-of-school lesson attendance is associated with higher performance when compared to same–SES peers. Findings also showed instances of education overinvestment and that the top reading literacy performers were students from the highest quartiles who did not attend any language-related out-of-school lessons. Limitations of the present study, future directions, implications and recommendations were discussed.
Date Issued
2013
Call Number
LB1050.46 Chi
Date Submitted
2013