Overview of PIRLS 2016 Curriculum Questionnaire Results
Years of Schooling
In general, the PIRLS 2016 countries provided preprimary schooling for children age 3 or older and 12 years of primary and secondary schooling. Typically, the students started school when they were 6 years old, but some countries began formal schooling at age 5 and others at age 7. The tendency was toward automatic promotion in Grade 1 through 4.
The Language/Reading Curriculum in Grades 1 to 4
The preprimary curriculum for children 3 or older included reading and literacy skills in most countries. Most PIRLS 2016 countries had a national curriculum for language/reading in the primary grades that included goals and objectives, with separate curricula for reading being relatively rare. Approximately half the countries were revising their language/reading curriculum.
Typically, the participants’ language/reading curricula placed major or at least some emphasis on a variety of comprehension processes (e.g., locating and retrieving details, identifying main ideas, describing overall messages, comparing within and across texts, describing the style/structure of texts). The language/reading curricula also emphasized reading for a variety of purposes.
The percentage of instructional time to be devoted to the language/reading curriculum was not available for all countries. However, approximately half reported that the curriculum specified 25 percent or more of instructional time to be devoted to language/reading. A number of countries made available lists of materials that were approved as suitable for teaching the curriculum.
Most countries encourage the use of technology across the curriculum. However, countries indicated that digital reading per se typically received “some” rather than “major” emphasis in the language/reading curricula.
Most countries reported more than one method for evaluating how well the curriculum was implemented. Visits by inspectors, school self-evaluations, and national examinations were the most common methods, each used in a majority of the countries. However, national examinations with consequences were relatively infrequent in the primary grades and did not occur until Grades 4 to 6.
Teachers’ and Principals’ Education
In most of the PIRLS 2016 countries, teachers were required to have at least a bachelor’s degree from a university program and adhere to some additional criteria, such as passing a qualifying examination or completing a probationary or mentoring/induction program. Principals of schools with fourth grade students primarily came from the teaching ranks, and in about half the countries had also completed some type of school leadership training program.