In the light of Swedish pupils' declining understanding of non-fiction, as well as the abolition of textbook examination, the idea for this study was born. The purpose was to explore two reading comprehension textbooks in the subject of Swedish and compare them to PIRLS reading test from 2011. Furthermore, the overall aim has been to analyze the coherence between them (alignment). The study was focused on highlighting the similarities and differences among the texts and tasks provided in the materials. With particular focus on the text's prose, genre and format, as well as on the reading comprehension strategies that were practiced and tested in the tasks. Through text analysis, theories of alignment (Biggs, 2003) and reading comprehension strategies (Andreassen 2008; Reichenberg 2014; Westlund 2015) the following questions were answered: Which similarities and differences regarding the text's prose form, genre and design can be discerned in the two textbooks compared to PIRLS reading test? Which similarities and differences exist between the reading comprehension strategies that are practiced in the textbooks' tasks compared to those tested in PIRLS reading test? Which preconditions are given the pupils to perform at PIRLS through the work of these two reading comprehension textbooks? The results showed both similarities and differences among all of the materials. The distribution of the text's prose form differed. In one textbook the most common form was fictional prose, whereas in the other book non-fiction occurred more. However the distribution was even in PIRLS reading test. Results also revealed that the extent of the texts was significantly longer in the reading test than in either one of the textbooks. Additionally the results indicated that the tasks, in PIRLS and in the textbooks, require a use of different reading comprehension strategies. In the textbooks multiple strategies were needed to solve the tasks, in contrast to PIRLS, where there were no use of several of them. These findings suggest a lack of alignment between the analyzed materials.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-29076 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Björkman, Teresia |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Lärarutbildningen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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