Mystery of why boy readers fail to digest books
ANYONE with a young son will know how difficult it can be to get them interested in books.
But even boys who read regularly often do not challenge themselves with their choice of text, or do not fully understand it, according to a leading academic.
Keith Topping, a professor of educational and social research, found that while boys prefer non-fiction – despite the popularity of book series such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid – they do ‘not read as thoroughly’ as girls.
The reason reading habits differ remains ‘a bit of a mystery’.
Professor Topping, from the University of Dundee, said boys took less time to process words, skipped sections or pages, or chose books that were too easy.
He drew the conclusions after two major studies. The research was based on data from computer software used in schools across Britain which analyses the progress of pupils’ reading.
Professor Topping said: ‘Socioeconomic status was not related. This is somewhat different to a number of previous studies on reading where they tend to find that socio-economic status is quite a big influence.
‘Boys may be assuming, “I like to read non-fiction, I like to read magazines, websites or the instructions to video games”. But this study shows they aren’t any better at that than fiction.’
The Accelerated Reader system scans texts for average sentence length, the difficulty of words and size of the particular title, and aims to motivate students to make progress with reading skills. It is the bedrock of Professor Topping’s annual What Kids Are Reading study.
This year it drew upon data from 725,369 children in 3,306 schools. After children finish reading a book, they take a computerised quiz of five to 20 questions, depending on its length.
The pupil and teacher receive immediate feedback on the child’s level of comprehension.
Professor Topping said: ‘The males were significantly worse on the outcome measures, didn’t gain as much in performance on reading tests and their average percentage correct in the tests was low.’
He told The Observer the study suggested boys of all ages tended to miss sections or pages – a trait less pronounced in girls.
His second, smaller study – published last year – of 150,220 children in 967 schools examined whether comprehension level changed according to whether a book was fiction or non-fiction.
Professor Topping said: ‘Although boys tended to choose non-fiction more than girls, particularly at secondary level, they still didn’t read it better.
‘They were choosing nonfiction but they were not reading it as thoroughly and correctly as girls reading non-fiction.’
Roald Dahl was the most popular children’s author across the age groups, his research found.
Dirk Foch, managing director of Renaissance Learning, which provided the software for the Accelerated Reader programme, said: ‘We must work to ensure student literacy development continues to be followed.
‘This could mean ensuring that students are guided to a more challenging selection of books and dedicated reading time is introduced into the curriculum.’
A National Literacy Trust report last year found girls were quicker to embrace digital literacy such as email and boys preferred print media like comics.