Why do boys and girls perform differently on PISA Reading in Finland? The effects of reading fluency, achievement behaviour, leisure reading and homework activity

Abstract

The present study examined gender gap in Program for International St udentAssessment (PISA) Reading and mediators of the gender gap in a Finnish sample(n = 1,309). We examined whether the gender gap in PISA Reading performancecan be understood via the effects of reading fl uency, achievement behaviour (masteryorientation and task-avoidant behaviour) or the amount of time spent with leisurereading and homework. Girls outperformed boys in all measures except forachievement behaviour. The models explaining PISA Reading were not different:For boys and girls, reading fluency, mastery orientation, leisure book reading andhomework explained the variance in PISA Reading scores. The gender effect on PISAReading was, however, for the most part mediated by differences in reading fluency.These findings suggest that while mastery orientati on, homework activity and leisurebook reading are concurrent predicto rs of PISA Reading over and above readingfluency, they do not explain gender difference.