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chapter 1: international student achievement in reading
What Are the Gender Differences in Achievement for the
Reading Processes?
Exhibit 1.13 shows (in alphabetical order) average achievement for girls and
boys for the retrieval and straightforward inferencing processes and the
interpreting, integrating, and evaluating processes. Mirroring the results
overall and for the literary and informational purposes, girls typically had
higher achievement than boys. Notably, several countries did not have
statistically significant differences for the text-based processes, including,
Hungary, Iran, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Spain. However, in
the remaining countries and provinces, girls had significantly higher average
achievement than boys. For interpreting, integrating, and evaluating, girls
had higher achievement than boys in all the participating countries and
provinces except Hungary and Iran.
To indicate the pattern internationally, Exhibit 1.13 provides the
international average for girls and boys for the two processes, based on the
average achievement across the PIRLS 2006 countries, excluding the five
Canadian provinces. On average, the advantage for girls was 15 points for
the retrieving and straightforward inferencing processes, compared to 17
points for interpreting, integrating, and evaluating.
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