Students Like Reading
Considerable research indicates that positive attitudes toward reading and high achievement are related, and in a bidirectional way. That is, because better readers enjoy reading more than poorer readers, they may read more often than poorer readers, and thereby develop more advanced comprehension skills and strategies. Exhibit 10.2 presents the results for PIRLS 2016 Students Like Reading scale. On average, 43 percent of the fourth grade students reported that they liked to read Very Much and another 41 percent reported that they liked it Somewhat, although 16 percent reported they Do Not Like reading. On average and in almost every country, students who liked reading Very Much had higher average reading achievement (523) than those who only Somewhat liked reading (507); and in particular, those students who reported they Do Not Like reading had the lowest average reading achievement (486). Students who Very Much Like to read had a 37-point advantage compared to students who Do Not Like reading.
