In many schools, independent silent reading of self-selected books is used to promote reading. However, self-selection may be insufficient to counter negative reading experiences, particularly when students choose books not attuned to their reading level and interest. Two studies experimentally tested whether personalized expert guidance when…

Numerous neurological, psychological, and transfer studies confirmed the role of learning music in cognitive development and education. However, exploring the long-term impacts of early musical abilities on academic achievement has gained relatively little attention thus far. In a seven-year longitudinal study, we examined the predictive role of…

Using a longitudinal data set, this paper examines to what extent school-entry (N = 553; mean age 6.32 years) early mathematics and literacy skills predict students' later achievement in a lower-middle-income country, Kenya. Controlling for socioeconomic status, intervention status, rural versus urban settings and parental literacy, the findings…

While the relationship between school socioeconomic composition and student academic outcomes is well established, knowledge about differential effects is not extensive. In particular, little is known whether the relationship differs for students with varying levels of academic performance. We examined whether the school socioeconomic composition…

The query on how to teach young learners to succeed in their English learning has been somehow under-explored. Just a few studies investigated the usefulness of the storytelling (ST) technique on English as a foreign language (EFL) young learners' (YLs) in the Vietnamese context. Consequently, this study attempts to examine (1) EFL teachers'…

Based on Honneth's recognition theory, this study aimed at investigating whether students with a migration background reported receiving less recognition from teachers than students without a migration background. Also, we explored whether such a difference contributed to explaining the disparity between the groups in reading achievement. To…

Young students who speak a different language at home than that spoken in school (i.e., a minority home-language) appear to exhibit a biased reading self-concept. Importantly, this biased reading self-concept may correspond with altered causal pathways between reading self-concept and achievement in minority home-language students. To test this…

While numerous studies evaluate the effectiveness of teacher training and textbook distribution programs, few look at the effects of training programs on vulnerable students, those at the lower end of academic performance. Addressing this gap is important to improve the efficiency of student learning and address the equity gaps in early education.…

This paper aims to explore and quantify the reading achievement of primary school students from three different regions in rural China. Using survey data on 23,143 students from Shaanxi, Guizhou, and Jiangxi provinces, we find although gaps in student reading achievement exist among the three sample provinces, all sample students exhibit low…

This study aimed to compare reading strategies and habits regarding reading achievement of selected age-group participants from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 and the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) 2015 within Turkey. A cohort design was utilized because it was assumed that reading literacy…

Background: The educational resources that parents provide at home are crucial to their children's development. In this study, we focused on home reading environment, a key contributor to success rates regarding the mastery of reading skills. We aimed to investigate students' home reading environments and examine its effect on the reading…

Evolving technologies have changed the ways people read and exchange information, whether at home, at school or in the workplace. When PISA assessed 15-year-olds' reading literacy for the first time, in 2000, only in two countries -- Canada and Norway -- did more than 50% of the population use the Internet. In 2009, about 15% of students in OECD…

International and national data continue to identify poor literacy standards among secondary school students. The researchers, in collaboration with a metropolitan secondary school in Perth, Western Australia, elected to use the Direct Instruction Reading Mastery program to improve students' reading skills. Data on reading performance was…

We investigated effects of tracking students into higher, more academic, and lower, less academic, school types immediately after primary school (early tracking) instead of having a comprehensive secondary school system (late tracking) on school gender segregation and gender gaps in achievement outcomes. We assumed that, in early tracking…

Background: Research has shown that teacher feedback is critical for student learning and well-being (Siegle & McCoach, 2007; Wisniewski et al., 2020). However, teachers often provide more positive feedback to students from high socioeconomic backgrounds than to those from low socioeconomic backgrounds (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2000; Tobisch &…