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Preprint
This is the submitted version of a paper presented at The 34th Congress of the Nordic Educational Research Association (NFPF), Örebro, Sweden, March 9-11, 2006.
Citation for the original published paper:
Fredriksson, U., Eklund, M., Taube, K. (2006) Reading and students’ well-being.
In:
N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper.
Permanent link to this version:
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-21090
Reading and students’ well- being
• Ulf Fredriksson
Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning, Ispra, Italy and Mid Sweden University
• Monica Eklund
Mid Sweden University
• Karin Taube
Reading and students’ well- being
• The question
• The studies, population and instruments
• General results from six Swedish municipalities
• Specific results from Härnösand
• Discussions and conclusions
The question
• How does students’ well-being relate to
reading skills and reading habits.
The studies
A number of studies on reading in Swedish municipalities:
• Ekerö, spring 2004
• Nacka, spring 2004
• Sollentuna, spring 2004
• Tyresö, spring 2004
• Kristianstad, autumn 2004
• Härnösand, spring 2005
The population
Students in grade 8
• Ekerö, 371 students
• Nacka, 1133 students
• Sollentuna, 819 students
• Tyresö, 635 students
• Kristianstad, 1069 students
• Härnösand, 364 students
Instruments
• Reading test (a modified version of the test used in the IEA Reading Literacy study in 1991): 9
texts of different character and 40 tasks
• Student questionnaire: questions on language, reading habits, access to books and newspaper at home, teaching in school etc.
• Student list (completed by the teachers): basic information about the students (gender, age, remedial education, mother tongue etc.)
Reading
• Individually related factors (age, gender)
• Family related factors
(resources, education etc.)
• School related factors
(frame factors, teachers, teaching methods,
attitudes)
• Reading (different types of reading)
• Reading habits (how
often, what)
• Attitudes towards reading
Students’ well-being in Ekerö, Nacka, Sollentuna and Tyresö
In my school … not agree / not agree at all agree / agree very much
I feel like an outsider. 86.4 3.4
I feel stupid and badly adjusted. 84.0 4.8
I fell alone. 84.7 4.3
I do not like to be there. 73.6 14.1
I feel bored. 52.8 35.2
I easily get friends. 9.4 79.8
I feel that I belong there. 15.4 73.5
the other students seem to like me 6.8 81.2
Students’ well-being in Kristianstad
In my school … not agree / not agree at all agree / agree very much
I feel like an outsider. 87.2 3.7
I feel stupid and badly adjusted. 84.9 5.3
I fell alone. 85.1 5.7
I do not like to be there. 76.3 13.0
I feel bored. 47.6 37.5
I easily get friends. 13.2 77.4
I feel that I belong there. 17.7 72.3
Students’ well-being in Härnösand
In my school … not agree / not agree at all agree / agree very much
I feel like an outsider. 78.8 3.6
I feel stupid and badly adjusted. 75.8 5.5
I fell alone. 76.6 4.9
I do not like to be there. 68.6 12.7
I feel bored. 44.5 36.8
I easily get friends. 10.4 71.5
I feel that I belong there. 18.4 63.2
the other students seem to like me
7.7 71.4
Conclusions based on data from all six municipalities
• The students generally seems to like to be in school / experience some kind of well-being in school.
• There is no obvious relation between feeling of well-being in school and reading test scores, but those who like school tend to have higher scores on the reading test.
• Among those who do not like school there are also some students with high scores on reading test.
Focus on
• The most recent survey: Härnösand spring 2005
• Well-being index to separate the students in two groups: those who like to be in school and those who do not like to be in school.
• Look at: test scores, gender, foreign
background, socio-economic background and reading habits
Well-being index:
In my school … not agree at all not agree agree agree very much
I feel like an outsider. 4 3 2 1
I feel stupid and badly adjusted.
4 3 2 1
I fell alone. 4 3 2 1
I do not like to be there.
4 3 2 1
I feel bored. 4 3 2 1
I easily get friends. 1 2 3 4
I feel that I belong 1 2 3 4
Well-being index:
0 - 16 those who do not like to be in school.
17 - 32 those who like to be in school
Well-being and scores on reading test (Härnösand)
do like to be in school
do not like to be in school
Level Number of
students
% Number of
students
%
Level 1 (0-21
scores) 36 12.5 5 38.5
Level 2 (22-26
scores) 52 18.0 2 15.4
Nivå 3 (27 -40
scores) 201 69.5 6 46.1
Well-being, gender and reading test scores
(Härnösand)level do like to be in school do not like to be in school
boys girls boys girls
n % n % n % n %
Level 1 (0-21 scores)
25 16.9 13 9.2 1 25 4 44.4
Level 2 (22-26 scores)
24 16.2 29 20.6 1 25 1 11.1
Nivå 3 (27 -40 scores)
99 66.9 99 70.2 2 50 4 44.4
Total
Well-being, foreign background and scores on reading test
(Härnösand)do like to be in school do not like to be in school
total
Number of students
Mean on reading test
Number of students
Mean on reading test
Number of students
Mean on reading test Students who
have lived their whole life in Sweden
274 29.0 11 24.5 285 28.8
Students who have not lived their whole life in Sweden
15 27.0 2 20.5 17 26.2
Total
289 28.9 13 23.9 302 28.7
Well-being, the education of the mothers and scores on reading test (Härnösand)
do like to be in school do not like to be in school total
Number of students
Mean on reading test
Number of students
Mean on reading test
Number of students
Mean on reading test Mother with
tertiary education
161 29.9 4 20.5 165
Mother without tertiary education
81 28.0 6 25.7 87
Missing, mothers education
47 3 50
Total
289 28.9 13 23.9 302 28.7
Well-being, number of books in the students home and scores on reading test (Härnösand)
Number of books at home do like to be in school do not like to be in school
Number of students Mean on reading test
Number of students Mean on reading test
none 0 - 0 -
1 – 10 7 22.6 1 17.0
11 – 50 36 26.0 4 23.3
51 – 100 56 27.8 1 23.0
101 – 250 59 29.8 4 22.0
251 – 500 71 30.1 0 -
More than 500 53 30.5 2 28.5
Well-being, reading novels and scores on reading test
(Härnösand)do like to be in school do not like to be in school
Number of students Mean on reading test Number of students Mean on reading test
Almost never 89 26.3 2 19.0
Less than twice a month
48 29.0 1 23.0
Once or twice a month
34 29.2 2 31.5
About once a week 30 31.1 0 -
Twice or three times a week
33 30.1 3 30.0
Almost every day 45 32.0 1 17.0
missing 10 4
Total n umber of 289 (279) 29.0 13 (9) 25.7
Summing up (1)
Results from all six municipalities
• The students generally seems to like to be in school / experience some kind of well-being.
• There is no obvious relation between feeling of well-being in school and reading test scores, but those who like school tend to have higher scores on the reading test.
• Among those who do not like school there are also some students with high scores on reading test.
Summing up (2)
Results from Härnösand
• More girls than boys are unhappy in school.
• Unhappy girls do not seem to have another
distribution of scores on the reading test than the happy girls.
• Differences in test scores between happy and unhappy students seem to be bigger among students who have not lived their whole life in Sweden than among those who have.
