Running Head: DOMAIN B – LIT REVIEW 1

TPE Domain B – Literature Review

Week 4

By

Caryn Wander

TED 690 – Capstone

Professor Weintraub

National University

May 4, 2019
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ABSTRACT

This is a review of The School Age Gender Gap in Reading Achievement: Examining the

Influences of Item Format and Intrinsic Reading Motivation by Franziska Schwabe, Nele

Mcelvany, and Matthias Trendtel (2015). This paper is a reading approach that looks at the need

to understand gender gaps on reading achievements. This research shows distinct advantages in

reading comprehension on constructed responses in comparing boys of the same age group. Two

samples were taken in Germany on these research criteria for ages 10- and 15-years old students.

A greater gap was seen in the 15-years old study between girls and boys than in the 10-years old.
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LITERATURE REVIEW

School studies consistently show higher levels of reading performance in basic reading

skills in female students over male students. Reading is essential for both interaction in society

and academic success. The lower performance of male students is an issue for teachers,

administration and intervention methods of education. Besides the girl’s advantages in reading

in general they also exhibit significant superiority in comprehension on reading tests.

With constructed-responses (CR) outweighing multiple-choice (MC) items on newly

developed assessments because of the response to Common Core Standards and Smarter Balance

testing in the United States it is imperative for intervention in males supporting their reading

competency so it will not impede testing assessments. The difference between MC and CR

format is that CR not only requires personal responses but effective language skills.

Reading comprehension is actively pulling information and then formulating the meaning

of various types of texts. Reading motivation is one way to enhance comprehension. This can

be defined by finding ways for students to find an internal purpose to read. Possibly for

pleasure, personal goals, or satisfying their curiosity on a subject or specific topic could be a few

of the ways to engage students. However, with research it is shown that boys do not seem to be

intrinsically motivated as much as girls are to read in the age group of 15-years old. This may be

a contributing factor on why boys test lower than girls at this age when answering constructed-

responses on an assessment.

Comparing the two formats of reading assessments CR and MC, MC seems to be the

favored method of testing because it is more efficient when giving the test and scoring the test.

Those favoring CR argue that these types of question require a deeper understanding than can be
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measured. The argument is that CR questions do have restrictions namely scoring is more time

consuming, and subjective therefore it reduces the validity of the test. Other concerns are that,

for these questions, students may have difficulty writing an answer especially at elementary

school grade level. Also, students in secondary grade school level find it problematic to respond

to the question in their own words. These types of questions additionally require a greater

amount of time to answer.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this study explored 10- and 15-years old students, their gender and their

responses to both item formats CR and MC. The findings show that both 10- and 15-years old

girls outperformed the boys in CR questions which reflect girl’s higher reading achievements

and greater motivational factors to read in general.

The results were measured from a total of 4,979 students, boys being the majority of 51

percent. Out of these students 65.1% of both boys and girls stated that the test was the same

language that was spoken at home. Final finding showed that there were higher levels of

intrinsic reading motivation but overall it did not explain their advantage in responding to CR

questions better than the boys.

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REFERENCES

Schwabe, F., Mcelvany, N., & Trendtel, M. (2015). The School Age Gender Gap in Reading

Achievement: Examining the Influences of Item Format and Intrinsic Reading

Motivation. Reading Research Quarterly, 50(2), 219–232. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.92