Effective teaching factors and student reading strategies as predictors of student achievement in PISA 2009: the case of China and the United States

Abstract

This study investigated effective teaching factors and student reading strategies as predictors of student reading achievement in the United States and China. Participants were 10,348 students in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, 5115 from China and 5233 from the United States. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed 22 effective instructional indicators in a four-factor structure in the two countries: morality, environment, strategies, and stimulation. The results from hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) indicated that both effective instructional factors and student reading strategies predicted student reading achievement in the United States and China. In particular, morality and stimulation were significant for the Chinese sample and not significant for the US sample. Environment and strategy were significant for both countries. Text-summarize was not significant for both countries. Text-discuss content was not significant for the Chinese sample and significant for the US sample. Text-underline and summary-check paragraph were significant for the US sample only. Summary-write own words was significant for the Chinese sample only. These results were explained from both economic and cultural perspectives. The high-speed economic development in China affected teachers’ beliefs and values about education. From cultural perspectives, some results may have been caused by cultural uniqueness. A typical example was Chinese teachers not advocating text-discuss content associated with Confucian beliefs of learning while the US teachers perceived this as important since they were nurtured in the Western culture. This study also proposed a notion of “cultural free factors” related to teaching and learning that may be important for culture studies.

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