Teacher training decisive for reading scores

When it comes to reading, it’s what teachers know, not how long kids sit in class, that has the biggest effect on their grades

Better teaching, not more classroom hours, is decisive in improving children’s reading ability, according to a report released ahead of today’s highly-anticipated announcement of PISA international student evaluation results. 

The report, compiled by the national school assessment agency EVA, was based on the 2012 PISA test scores and found that the students who improved most were primarily those taught by teachers who had received additional training in how to teach readers. 

The study comes after observations that new teachers appeared to be better at helping students improve their reading scores than experienced teachers. It found that two factors were important: whether the teacher had learned the latest teaching methods and whether teachers could improve reading comprehension, not just reading speed. 

The results found that teacher experience was important, but they seemed to indicate that teacher training had more of an effect.

Even though previous have indicated there was no connection between the number of classroom hours and reading scores, the Education Ministry in its recent school reform chose to add more hours to the school day.

The PISA results will be released at 11am.




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