4 Literacy Learning Contexts

A considerable range in the literacy achievements of students in Years 3 and 5 was observed in the data. To investigate some of the factors associated with differences in achievement, a series of analyses was designed and conducted.

These analyses explored the relationship between literacy achievements and student background factors such as socio-economic background, language background and gender; teacher and school characteristics such as use of a library and computers; and student activities such as the frequency of reading books at home or doing homework. The analyses also investigated the extent to which variations in individual student achievement reflected average differences between schools.

Some of the analyses made use of the separate achievement measures on each strand, but other analyses made use of a global literacy measure for each student. This was because the relationships between students' achievement levels and the background variables were very similar for the literacy measures for each of the five strands. Consequently, the five measures were combined to form a global 'literacy' measure, for each student, which was used in both the multilevel analysis and the analysis of sources of variation.

The first set of analyses investigated the association between student background, as well as school differences, and global achievement in literacy. Overall these analyses showed:

The reason that these percentages add to more than 100 is that some of the variation arises from overlapping sources.

The contribution arising from individual differences in factors other than school attended and the identified aspects of student background indicates the scope for investigations of achievements in literacy.

4.1 Factors Associated with Achievement

A series of analyses was undertaken to identify in greater detail school and student characteristics associated with literacy achievement. The first step was to examine the correlations between achievement measures in writing, reading, viewing, speaking and listening and a range of student and school or teacher variables. The second step was to include both student and school or teacher variables in a two-level analysis.

STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS

The student information sheet (completed by teachers) and the student questionnaire (completed by the students themselves) provided a wide range of information about the students who participated in the Survey (see pages 297-298). From this information a number of variables were developed. The strength of the associations between these variables and achievements in literacy was estimated by correlation coefficients. These coefficients were calculated separately for each strand and separately for Year 3 and Year 5. Correlation coefficients can range from 0 (no association) to 1 (perfect correspondence between the two variables).

As the samples were fairly large, even small correlation coefficients were statistically significant and so attention was focused on those of larger magnitude. A guiding rule in these circumstances is to give attention to those coefficients that are greater than 0.1 and therefore associated with at least 1% of the variation in achievement. Some of the larger correlation coefficients representing the association between student variables and achievement measures are shown in Table 4.1.

STUDENT BACKGROUND

In terms of student background it can be seen that gender, parents' occupational status and other than English- speaking background were associated with achievement.

Table 4.1Correlations between literacy achievement measures and student background variables

STUDENT LITERACY - RELATED ACTIVITIES

Table 4.1 also records the larger correlation coefficients between variables representing students' activities and dispositions and their achievements in literacy.

STUDENT ENJOYMENT OF LITERACY ACTIVITIES

Student enjoyment of reading in class was associated with achievement in reading (the correlation coefficients were 0.31 at Year 5 and 0.23 at Year 3) as well as with their achievements in other aspects of literacy to a smaller extent. This suggests a moderate level of association although it does not establish the direction of causation. It could be that enjoyment facilitates the development of reading skills, or it could be that the achievement of competence in reading helps to make that activity more enjoyable.

There was also a moderate association between enjoyment of telling things in class and achievement in speaking (0.19 at Year 5 and 0.15 at Year 3). Student enjoyment of other activities in class such as writing, looking at videos and films, and listening to stories being told were not associated with achievements to any appreciable extent.

SCHOOL AND TEACHER FACTORS

Information about characteristics of the teachers of these students and their schools was obtained from questionnaires completed by the teachers and the principals of the schools (see pages 297-298). A preliminary investigation of the associations between school or teacher factors was based on the correlation coefficients between those factors and the mean achievement scores for the class(es) involved at each school. Table 4.2 records some of the larger correlations between teacher and school variables and the achievements of the students.

Table 4.2Correlations between literacy achievement measures and teacher/school variables

Multilevel Analysis

In addition to using correlation coefficients as simple measures of association, the investigation also used multivariate-multilevel analyses.

The multilevel analyses used for this section incorporated multivariate procedures. Three procedures were invoked in the multilevel analyses to ensure that results were stable.

SCHOOL OR TEACHER VARIABLES

There were several school and teacher variables that had significant effects on achievements in literacy.

Table 4.3Significant teacher/school and student variables in the two-level mode

STUDENT VARIABLES

Achievements in literacy were related to a number of student variables. These variables reflected student background as well as their activities and dispositions. The results in Table 4.3 show that gender, parents' occupational status and other than English-speaking background were associated with achievement after controlling for any effects of other factors in the analysis.

In addition to the effects of these background variables there were other factors concerned with what students did and enjoyed that were linked to achievement in literacy.

The analysis also indicated that students who had a 'general learning difficulty' performed less well than other students and that the difference in achievement between these two groups was large (117 scale points).

A number of variables were not included in the final model because they were notassociated with achievement at a level that was statistically significant. These variables included the following:

The following sections provide a detailed summary of students', teachers' and principals' responses to a number of questions asked in the Survey. These questions were constructed to collect answers to such questions as:What kinds of literacy activities do students engage in, both during school hours and outside of school? What training have their teachers had in literacy programs? What kinds of literacy activities do teachers emphasise in their classrooms? What resources do schools have to support literacy learning?

4.2 Students

The Year 3 and Year 5 student samples were made up of slightly more girls than boys. At both Year levels, approximately 48.5% of students in the Survey were male, and 51.5% of students were female. (These are consistent with the percentages of males and females in primary schools as reported in the National Report on Schooling in Australia, MCEETYA, 1994). Approximately 3% of students in Years 3 and 5 identified themselves as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background. Approximately 94% of Year 3 students and 93% of Year 5 students were born in Australia. Only 2.5% of Year 3 students and 1.6% of Year 5 students had arrived in Australia within the previous three years.

Even though there was no evidence that movement between schools was associated with lower literacy achievement, the survey provided information about the extent of movement between schools. By the end of Year 3, approximately 31% of students had attended more than one primary school, and 8% of students had attended more than two schools. By Year 5 these percentages increased, with 43% of students having attended more than one primary school, and 15% having attended more than two.

Teachers described the majority of students (about 80%) at each Year level as having no learning difficulty. They described 12% of Year 3 students and 13% of Year 5 students as having a general learning difficulty, and 8% of Year 3 students and 7% of Year 5 students as having a specific literacy learning difficulty.

Even though the Survey is concerned with English literacy skills it is important to remember that a significant number of Year 3 and Year 5 students (about 17% of all students) have some competence in a language other than English. Most of these students are able to speak this other language but are unable to read or write in that language.

The majority of students at each Year level (66% of Year 3 and 70% of Year 5 students) do homework nearly every day. Six per cent of Year 3 students and 4% of Year 5 students hardly ever or never do homework. The results of the analysis reported earlier in this chapter indicate that doing homework does make a contribution to the achievement of literacy skills.

READING EXPERIENCES

A number of research studies have suggested that good readers read a wide variety of material, and that attitudes to reading at school and at home are correlated with reading achievements. The National School English Literacy Survey collected data on the kinds of reading students do outside school and on their attitudes to reading in school. Students at Years 3 and 5 report reading books at home more often than reading magazines, newspapers or comics. Most students read books at home almost every day, although the percentage of students reading books at home almost every day declines between Year 3 (73%) and Year 5 (67%). Approximately 5% of students hardly ever or never read books at home.

Students read newspapers much less frequently than they read books at home, although 27% of Year 3 students and 43% of Year 5 students read newspapers at least once a week. The percentage of students reading newspapers increases significantly between Year 3 and Year 5.

Students read magazines slightly more often than they read newspapers. By Year 5, at least two-thirds of students read magazines at least once a month.

More than 50% of Year 3 and Year 5 students read comics at least once a month. Approximately 18% of Year 3 students and 14% of Year 5 students read comics almost every day.

More than 50% of students read to family and/or friends at least once a week. The percentage of students reading to family and friends every day declines between Year 3 (35.2%) and Year 5 (22.1%). Approximately 20% of students say they never or hardly ever read to family and friends. About 35% of students shop from lists (and therefore are involved in reading the list) more than once per week.

Enjoyment of reading was found to be associated with higher achievement in reading at both Year 3 and Year 5. More than 60% of students like reading things in class, although the percentage of students who enjoy reading in class declines between Year 3 (47.7%) and Year 5 (36.7%). About 7% of students do not like reading things in class at all.

WRITING

Three questions explored the contexts in which students write: How often do you write down telephone messages? How often do you use a computer to write / word process? How much do you like writing in class?

About 50% of Year 3 students write telephone messages. By Year 5 this percentage has increased to 79%. 51% of Year 5 students write telephone messages at least once a week, and 25% write messages once a day. The majority of students use a computer (either at home or at school) to write/word process at least once a month. Over 30% of Year 3 and Year 5 students use a computer for this purpose at least once a week. The percentage of students using computers to write/word process increases slightly from Year 3 to Year 5. Approximately 40% of Year 3 and 30% of Year 5 students never or hardly ever use computers for this purpose.

The majority of students (about 70%) say they like writing in class. However, as for reading, by Year 5, students' enjoyment of writing in class has declined (44% at Year 3 to 30% at Year 5).

LISTENING

Year 3 and Year 5 students say they listen to things being told or read by family or friends at almost the same rate: about 44% listen to things being told every day, 25% once a week, and 11% once a month. More Year 3 than Year 5 students never or hardly ever listen to things being told or read. Most students like listening to stories being told or things being read in class. As for reading and writing, however, enjoyment declines between Year 3 and Year 5.

SPEAKING

A number of questions explored the contexts in which students speak, the kinds of speaking they do, the amount of speaking they do outside of school, and how much they like speaking in class. For the majority of students (about 81%) English is the language always spoken at home. About 19% of students speak another language at home some of the time. Only about 3% of students almost always speak another language. The majority of students never or hardly ever translate things for people in their family although the percentage of students who do translate for others increases from Year 3 to Year 5.

Year 3 and Year 5 students spend about the same amount of time talking to family about the things they are doing at school. Approximately 68% of students talk about school activities every day. Slightly more Year 3 students (8%) than Year 5 students (7%) rarely talk about school activities.

A far smaller percentage of students talk with family about things happening in the world outside school or home. The percentage of students who do increases from Year 3 (57%) to Year 5 (68%). Almost 30% of Year 3 students and 18% of Year 5 students rarely talk with family about such matters.

Fewer students like speaking in class than like reading, writing or listening to stories in class. The enjoyment of speaking in class declines from Year 3 (34%) to Year 5 (27%) although the decline is not as marked as for reading, and particularly listening and writing.

VIEWING

Television watching increases from Year 3 to Year 5. A significant percentage of Year 3 (36%) and Year 5 (46%) students watch more than 3 hours of television or videos each weekday. Approximately 13% of Year 3 and 16% of Year 5 watch more than 5 hours each weekday.

4.3 Teachers

The Year 3 and Year 5 teaching populations are made up predominantly of female teachers. The proportion of male teachers increases from Year 3 (16%) to Year 5 (27%). The majority of teachers at Year 3 (67%) and Year 5 (69%) held an initial three- Year primary training qualification. About 23% of teachers had obtained an initial four- Year primary training, or a bachelor degree and a Dip Ed. All teachers who participated in the Survey have obtained additional postgraduate teaching qualifications. About 50% of teachers at each Year level have obtained bachelor degrees, approximately 30% diplomas and approximately 16% certificates. A large number of teachers (37%) had attended specific courses in the teaching of English literacy. These include ELIC, Reading Recovery, First Steps, Canberra Literacy Program, Frameworks (Assessment),

Frameworks (Teaching and Learning) LLIMY, and ESL in the Mainstream. Year 3 teachers have attended these courses more recently than Year 5 teachers.

TEACHER EXPERIENCE

The majority of teachers (60% of Year 3 and 69% of Year 5 teachers) have had more than 11 years teaching experience. About 20% have had more than 21 years experience. Nineteen per cent of Year 3 teachers and 12% of Year 5 teachers have had less than 5 years experience. Teachers of Year 5 students tend to have had more experience than teachers of Year 3 students. Some 79% of Year 3 and 68% of Year 5 teachers have had between 1 and 5 years teaching experience at their current grade level. Fewer than 8% have more than 10 years experience at their current level.

CLASSROOM STRUCTURE

The classroom structure in which most Year 3 (64%) and Year 5 (60%) teachers are working is the single-level class. Slightly more teachers at Year 5 level than Year 3 are teaching in multi-age or composite classes. Classroom structure was not associated with differences in achievement. The majority of teachers (58%) who are working in units comprising more than one class group work with at least one other teacher. Some 24% of Year 3 and 25% of Year 5 teachers work with at least two other teachers.

CLASSROOM PRACTICE

Approximately half the teachers spend most of their time in English literacy classes on integrated activities. Over 30% spend most of their time on reading activities and about 20% spend most of their time on writing activities.

Almost half the teachers (47% at Year 3 and 42% at Year 5) spend the least amount of time in literacy classes on viewing activities.

Use of the library and use of school computers were two factors associated with higher achievement scores. Teachers report that the majority of students make moderate or extensive use of the school library. The time students spend in the library does not increase significantly from Year 3 to Year 5.

Teachers report that the majority of students (63% at Year 3 and 56% at Year 5) make limited or no use of school computers in developing their English literacy skills but that the use of computers increases from Year 3 to Year 5.

4.4 Schools

Most schools provide additional support for developing the English literacy skills of students. In more than 85% of schools, parent volunteers work with students. Specialist support staff and teachers' aides are available in the majority of schools also. About 40% of schools have older student or peer tutor programs.

4.5 Special Indigenous Sample

This section considers the literacy learning contexts in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (largely in rural and remote settings) develop literacy skills. The Special Indigenous Sample in the National School English Literacy Survey was not a representative sample of all Indigenous students in Australia. The sample was drawn only from schools reporting at least five Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students at each of Years 3 and 5. For this reason no comparisons were made between achievements of the Special Indigenous Sample and achievements of the Main Sample. However, the data provide a picture of the literacy learning contexts for the Special Indigenous Sample that can be understood in relation to the Main Sample. The picture provided here is not a picture of literacy learning for allIndigenous students, but a picture of literacy learning contexts for a sub-group of Indigenous students, largely in rural and remote settings. Year 3 and Year 5 students have been combined in the following analyses. Students in the 'Main Sample' are the randomly selected participants in the Survey. Approximately 3% of these students are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students.

MOBILITY AND ABSENCE

There was evidence of greater mobility between schools in the Special Indigenous Sample than among other students. On average (across Years 3 and 5), 47% of Special Indigenous Sample students have attended more than one school, and 21% have attended more than two schools. In comparison, 39% of Main Sample students have attended more than one school and 11% more than two schools.

Indigenous students are absent from school an average of 17.9 days per year (compared with 6.2 days per year in the general student population). There is a much greater range in the number of days that Special Indigenous Sample students are absent compared with Main Sample students.

LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH

A significant number of students (29%) from the Special Indigenous Sample speak a language other than English at home. Approximately 10% of the Indigenous students sampled, hardly ever, or never speak English at home. This compares with 3% of students from the Main Sample.

Many Indigenous students (26%) have some competence in a language other than English. Most of these students (21%) are able to speak this other language but are unable to read or write in this language. This compares with 12% of students from the general student population. It should be noted that, traditionally, Aboriginal languages did not have a written form.

HOMEWORK PATTERNS

When asked how often they do homework, 36% of Special Indigenous Samplestudents report completing homework each day and 26% hardly ever or never doing homework. The majority of students in the Main Sample (68%) report doing homework every school day.

READING

Outside of school, students from the Special Indigenous Sample read less often than students from the Main Sample. This applies to most forms of reading material but the difference is largest for the reading of books. Only 42% of Special Indigenous Sample students read books at home every day and approximately 23% hardly ever or never read books at home. In contrast, about 70% of students from the general population read books every day and only 5% report hardly ever or never reading books at home.

Indigenous students read magazines less often than they read books, but slightly more often than they read newspapers. Thirty-two per cent of Special Indigenous Samplestudents read magazines at home at least once a week (which is only a little lower than the 37% from the main sample) and 57% hardly ever or never read magazines (compared with 44% of Main Sample students.

By the end of Year 5, 27% of Special Indigenous Sample students read newspapers at home at least once a week (compared with 35% of the general student population). However, the majority of Special Indigenous Sample students (63%) hardly ever or never read newspapers at home (compared to 50 per cent of the general student population). In terms of comics there was a small difference in the frequency of reading: 31% of Special Indigenous Sample students read comics at least once a week compared to 36 per cent of the general population.

The majority of Special Indigenous Sample students (68%) read to family and friends at least once a month. This compares with 79% of Main Sample students. Approximately 31% of Indigenous students never or hardly ever read to family and friends. The percentage of students who report reading to family or friends every day is similar for both groups of students.

Sixty-six per cent of students in the Special Indigenous Sample report liking reading most times or a lot. This compares with 75% of students from the Main Sample. Some 9% of Special Indigenous Sample students (compared with 7% of Main Sample students) don't like reading in class at all.

WRIINTING

In response to the questions asked, Indigenous students report that they write less than students from the Main Sample. Fifty-two per cent of Special Indigenous Sample students use a computer to write/word process at least once a month compared with 62% of Main Sample students.

The majority of Indigenous students (60%) hardly ever or never write down telephone messages. Approximately 30% of Special Indigenous Sample students, compared with 43% of students from the general population, write down messages at least once a week.

Some 68% of Special Indigenous Sample students (compared with 74% of Main Sample students) like writing most times or a lot of the time.

LISTENING

The majority of Indigenous students listen to things being told or read by family and friends. Over 60% of students listen at least once a week. Slightly more Special Indigenous Sample students (22%) than Main Sample students (19%) report hardly ever or never listening.

The majority of students from the Special Indigenous Sample (84%) like listening to stories being told or things being read in class. Students prefer listening to reading, writing, and telling things to others in class. More Special Indigenous Sample students like listening a lot than do Main Sample students.

SPEAKING

Most Indigenous students (79%) talk to family about school activities at least once a week but 20% talk about school activities as infrequently as once a month or less. A higher percentage of students in the Main Sample tend to talk to their family about school than Special Indigenous Sample students: the corresponding figures for the Main Sample are 87% and 13%.

Far fewer Indigenous students than students in the Main Sample talk to family about things that are happening in the world outside school or home, rather than talk about school activities. Around 49% of Special Indigenous Sample students talk about world affairs more than once a week (compared with 62% of Main Sample students). Forty per cent of Special Indigenous Sample students hardly ever or never talk about world affairs. There is very little difference between the Special Indigenous Sample and the main sample in the extent to which they translate things for people in the family. Indigenous students like telling things to others in class less than they like to read, write, viewand listen. Some 25% of Special Indigenous Sample students, compared with 14% of Main Sample students, report that they do not like telling things to others in class at all.

VIEWING

A  large majority of Special Indigenous Samplestudents (77%) watch more than two hours of television or videos each weekday. This is a somewhat higher percentage than the corresponding figure of 62%for the general population of Year 3 and Year 5 students in the main sample. At high levels of television viewing the difference was more marked: 21% of students in the Special Indigenous Sample (compared to 14% of the main sample) watch more than five hours of television or videos per day.

Watching videos and films in class is a popular activity among all students in Years 3 and 5. In the main sample 88% of students like this activity most times or a lot. Students from the Special Indigenous Sample were similar in this preference:87% of Indigenous students like this activity most times or a lot. As for the Main Sample, students from the Indigenous Sample prefer to watch videos and films in class rather than to read, write, listen, or tell things to others; but from this sample the gap in preferences is larger.

4.6 In Summary

A number of diverse factors associated with individuals, homes and schools or classrooms are associated with differences in the literacy achievements of primary school students. Student background was associated with achievements in patterns that were consistent with other research literature. It was of interest that differences between girls and boys and differences associated with socio-economic background were evident at an early stage of schooling.

Some literacy-related activities of students outside of school were associated with their achievements. This serves as a reminder that schools are not the only agencies that nurture the development of literacy skills. Communication at home (about school and about other events) was associated with higher achievements, as was reading at home and the frequency of doing homework (especially if done independently). Watching a lot of television had a small negative association with achievement. Even though a number of these factors were linked to other aspects of home background, and did not remain after the multivariate analysis, their presence in the initial analysis of correlations suggests some ways through which home background might be linked to achievement.

Students' enjoyment of literacy activities such as reading was linked to achievement, even after controlling for the influence of other factors. Even though the direction of the link could not be established with these data, the result points to an area that could contribute to an understanding of the development of literacy. The data also show a decline in students' enjoyment of reading, writing and listening (and to a lesser extent speaking) from Year 3 to Year 5.

At school or classroom level there was evidence of higher achievement where teachers were more experienced, and evidence of the benefits of the use of some resources such as the school library and school computers (even though there was not much use of the latter in these Years). It also appeared that achievement was higher in urban than rural areas. However, it is not possible to investigate the influence of interventions such as special literacy programs because they are targeted where the need is greatest. What is required to understand the impact of these factors, and other school and classroom variables such as different approaches to teaching, is longitudinal data through which growth in achievement can be analysed. It would be possible to use these data to identify schools and classrooms where achievement was higher than would have been predicted on the basis of background characteristics, and to undertake detailed investigations of what happens in those environments.

The Survey data also provide descriptive information about the frequency with which students in Years 3 and 5 engage in various literacy activities. It is difficult to summarise this information but an example may illustrate its nature. Reading books at home is a common activity among primary school children although it declines in extensiveness as they move through school:73% of Year 3 students, but only 67% of Year 5 students read books every day. Moreover, while reading books is a common activity, between 8% and 11% of students read books only once per month or less frequently. Descriptive information such as this has been reported in detail to provide an indication of the things that primary school students do, in and out of school, that are potentially related to their development of literacy.

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