John Odwar Agak

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Reading literacy in relation to patterns of academic achievement in Kenya

I "READING LITERACY in relation to patterns of academic achievement in Kenya" utforskar John Odwar Agak sambandet mellan läsfärdighet och akademiska prestationer bland 14-åriga studenter i Kenya. Boken, som publicerades under en period av ökad fokus på utbildningskvalitet, tar upp centrala frågor kring hur läsfärdighet påverkar elevernas resultat i olika ämnen.

Studien baseras på IEA Reading Literacy Test för att mäta läsfärdighet och Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) för att bedöma akademiska prestationer. Agak undersöker hur bakgrundsfaktorer och frivillig läsning påverkar resultaten. Hypotesen är att det finns variationer i sambandet mellan läsfärdighet och de ämnesområden som eleverna väljer vid KCPE.

Boken presenterar en analys av läsfärdighet som kan delas in i latenta variabler, däribland en allmän läsförmåga och en dokumentär faktor. Resultaten visar att den valda mätmodellen endast lyckas fånga två latenta variabler, vilket ger insikter om hur dessa faktorer relaterar till akademiska prestationer. En tydlig koppling mellan allmän resonemangsförmåga och ämnen med sammanhängande texter framträder.

Vidare undersöks frivillig läsning, där en effektiv mätmodell identifieras som omfattar olika typer av läsmaterial. Agak finner signifikanta samband mellan frivillig läsning, läsfärdighet och akademiska resultat. Bakgrundsfaktorer visar sig ha en betydande inverkan på studenternas prestationer, vilket understryker vikten av att beakta dessa aspekter i utbildningssammanhang.

Sammanfattningsvis bidrar "Reading literacy in relation to patterns of academic achievement in Kenya" med värdefulla insikter om hur läsfärdighet och akademiska prestationer samverkar. Boken riktar sig till forskare, pedagoger och beslutsfattare som intresserar sig för utbildningsfrågor i Kenya och liknande kontexter. Genom att belysa dessa samband erbjuder Agak en grund för vidare diskussioner kring förbättringar inom utbildningssystemet.

How is reading literacy related to academic achievement among 14 year old students in Kenya? This was the main issue in focus for the present study.

The IEA Reading Literacy Test was used for measuring reading literacy and the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) was used for measuring academic achievement. It was hypothesized that there are degrees of variation in correlation between reading literacy and each subject areas a student opts for at KCPE. It was also hypothesized that there is a variation in performance on reading literacy due to influences caused by background factors (literacy interaction) and voluntary reading processes.

Reading literacy was assumed to be decomposable into latent variables including: a general reading ability factor, a document reading factor and specific passage factors. However, such a measurement model was not successful. The selected measurement model constituted only two latent variables: a general reading ability factor which covers most of the items with very few exceptions and a documentary factor which entails those items related to identification, location and association of information in brief documents. There was also a clear evidence that the postulated components of academic achievement, namely: general reasoning and verbal abilities were present in this study. General reasoning ability was connected to the subjects loaded mainly with connected texts to be comprehended.

When voluntary reading was explored, a good measurement model was obtained. The measurement model for voluntary reading encompassed seven different types of voluntary reading topical readings from books, magazines and newspapers. Significant relationships between voluntary reading and both reading literacy and academic achievement were observed. An examination of the background factors in the study indicated that they have an impact on students' performance on reading literacy and academic achievement. A strong relationship between reading literacy and academic achievement was noted especially when latent variables were used. This relationship remained even when the background factors were controlled. The measurement model for reading literacy and academic achievement turned out the be the same. However, there were some differences in terms of performance on reading literacy and academic achievement location wise.