How can teachers stimulate interest in reading? Recent PISA studies found that Swiss and German students did not have as high a reading literacy level as might have been expected – in response education research and policy has focussed on reading competence in everyday life. Does this come at the cost of an encompassing literary education? We spoke to Professor Andrea Bertschi-Kaufmann about her and her collegues work in this area.
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Figure 1: Emphasis on literature and reading comprehension
Number of classes
The 2000 PISA study found that Swiss and German children did not have as high a literacy level as might have been expected in developed countries with wellestablished education systems, findings that were backed up by subsequent editions of the study. This prompted intense scrutiny of reading competence related to everyday and non-fiction texts. However, there is concern that the question of how students deal with literature is neglected – a topic that Professor Andrea Bertschi-Kaufmann and her colleagues are addressing in the TAMoLi (Texts, Activities and Motivations in Literature Education) research project. With their new interdisciplinary study combining quantitative and qualitative research, the TAMoLi team is building an evidence base in this area. “One of the questions we asked in our study was, what are the priorities of individual teachers?” Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann says. “Are they aiming primarily to improve reading competence, and to help students read effectively in everyday life? Or are they concerned more with giving them an education in literature?” The initial findings show that the answer to this depends to a significant degree on the students’ academic abilities. In Switzerland, secondary school students are separated into three streams (A, B and C) according to ability. While teachers in all three streams facilitate access to literature, the balance between training reading competence and literary reading varies according to the streams and academic level of their students. “Teachers of students in level C primarily focus on training reading competence. In level B, more teachers give attention to literary reading, but training reading competence still
Access to Literature
Both areas are equally important
Promotion of reading comprehension of everyday texts Figure 1 shows teachers’ answers to the question how they weight access to literature on the one hand and promotion of reading comprehension on the other, for school types A, B and C for Switzerland and Germany combined. In type A (progymnasium and gymnasium) literary education is more pronounced compared to a sole focus on reading comprehension of everyday texts and than literary education in types B and C. Teachers in type A schools also most frequently balance both goals. In type B and C schools, literature is not prioritized. In type C, which primarily develops basic competences, reading comprehension of everyday texts clearly outweighs the focus on literary education as well as the balanced weighting of literary education and reading comprehension of everyday texts.
dominates. In level A teachers mostly treat both goals equally: they promote literary reading as well as train students’ competence to read,” explains Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. “One can interpret this strong emphasis on reading competence as an effect of PISA, which has however not resulted in a complete eclipse of literature.” A survey of the types of texts that teachers select for their classes clearly shows that, although the distribution is uneven, literary texts do play some role in all the streams and a considerable part of the learning time is devoted to them (see Figure 2). “From the perspective of literature education, this is a gratifying result, as in literature you find the big ideas, the language and concepts that help you form your worldview,” points out Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann.
Improving reading motivation This research centres on students in the eighth and ninth grade, an age group that is of interest for several reasons. On the one hand, adolescents are at a critical reading age, as they begin to engage in shared activities with peers, which may crowd out reading. On the other hand, this period towards the end of compulsory schooling is an opportunity to offer students from all three streams access to reading and literature education. “It’s crucial to know if students access literature during their education. And how that access is linked to their reading motivation,” says Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. A student’s reading ability is closely linked to their motivation, and their perception of their own progress. “There is a clear connection between reading activities and reading interests on the
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one hand and the concept of one’s abilities on the other. Do I believe that I am a good reader and that I have access to attractive and culturally interesting texts?” acknowledges Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. The relationships between, on the one side, reading promotion at school and on the other, motivation and individual aptitude, is a major topic of interest in the project. It has been known for a long time that a student’s home environment is an important factor in this respect, the foundation on
A key part of this research is based on the use of questionnaires, tests that determine cognitive and reading competence, and documentation of texts provided in lessons. In addition, qualitative methods are being used to analyse interviews with teachers and students and videodata to identifiy their priorities. “It’s a mixed methods study. We gave questionnaires to 58 teachers and 1,118 students in Switzerland,” outlines Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. “A comparable sample has also been analysed in Lower Saxony.”
What are the priorities of individual teachers? Are they aiming primarily to improve reading competence, and to help students read effectively in everyday life? Or are they concerned more with giving them an education in literature? which students develop their school career. “There’s a very strong social link between reading competence and reading motivation. A family’s social background, the parents’ educational level and the number of books in the home, are known to be major factors behind reading motivation and competence,” outlines Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. The role of teachers and schools in improving reading motivation is, however, a matter of debate; Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann hopes to help identify how teachers can effectively encourage students to develop their own literary interests. “We’re looking at the link between teachers’ actions and students’ reading motivation, to try and identify those features with a positive effect that can be developed in schools,” she continues.
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In order to capture the perspectives of both the teachers and the students, the questionnaires given to teachers and students included a number of parallel topics. These questions included the extent to which teachers leaned towards either reading comprehension or literary education, whether the emphasis was on the learners or the texts, how literary texts were taught, and the criteria by which texts were selected. The TAMoLi team has gained some clear insights from this work: “When we ask teachers, they report that their main criterion for text selection is to share literature that – they think – interests their students,” Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann continues. “But when we look at their actual selection, we see that they also pursue additional goals. One
goal in reading and literature education is to promote reading motivation. Yet another goal is cultural education and exposing students to socially important texts.” The nation’s linguistic diversity is an important consideration in this respect. Switzerland has four national languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh; Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann and her colleagues are gathering evidence from German-speaking cantons. “Each Swiss region has its own cultural orientation,” she explains. This diversity is one of the main reasons why there is no tradition of a common national literary canon in Switzerland, so Swiss teachers have a considerable degree of autonomy when choosing texts. Researchers are looking at how this affects the construction of the canon, compared to countries where there historically was an established canon. “Germany, in contrast, for a long time adhered to fairly strict rules around literature selection. In Switzerland, this traditional lack of a common canon imposed on schools means that we have never had such clear directives, which is why the comparison to Germany was also interesting,” says Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. In Switzerland teachers have traditionally chosen texts they find interesting and believe will stimulate their students, drawing on their own past experience and their colleagues’ knowledge. While this leads to the creation of something of a de facto canon, teachers have still always enjoyed a level of freedom to make their own choices. “There are a number of classics in Swiss literature from the 19th century for example, and some more modern authors are also read in schools. But they are
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TAMoLi
Figure 2: Learning time converted per text for literary and non-literary texts in lessons (of 45 minutes)
Project Objectives
Since PISA, the attention of the public and researchers has focused strongly on general reading competence. There is some critical discussion as to whether and to what extent this focus is at the expense of literary education. The TAMoLi project examined literature teaching practice at lower secondary level in German-speaking Switzerland and, in a parallel study, in Germany. The aim was to capture the perspectives of both the teachers and the students.
Percentage of the different text types
Texts activities and motivations in literature education at the lower secondary level
Project Funding
The Swiss TAMoLi-study was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and conducted at the School of Education of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (PH FHNW) in cooperation with the German universities of Potsdam and Hildesheim. The German study was funded by the “Niedersächsisches Vorab” programme of the Volkswagen Foundation and the Ministry for Science and Culture of the German State of Lower Saxony.
Contact Details
Prof. Dr. Andrea Bertschi-Kaufmann Campus Brugg-Windisch Bahnhofstrasse 6 5210 Windisch T: +41 61 851 16 66 E: andrea.bertschi@unibas.ch W: http://www.literaturunterricht.ch Andrea Bertschi-Kaufmann, Dr. phil. Andrea Bertschi-Kaufmann, Dr. phil., is Professor Emeritus of Reading Research and Literature Learning and Teaching at the School of Education of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and Lecturer at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Her work focuses on literacy and literary learning and its development in children and adults. andrea.bertschi@unibas.ch Katrin Böhme, Dr. phil., is Professor for Inclusive Education with Emphasis on Language at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Her work focuses on L1 and L2 language learning and instruction in diverse classrooms, easy language in education, accessible language testing, and educational research. katrin.boehme@uni-potsdam.de Irene Pieper, Dr. phil. is Professor of Literary Studies and Literature Education at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. Her research focuses on literary development and practices in the literature classroom. Current projects explore metaphoric understanding in lower secondary school students and forms of verbal interaction in literature education. pieperi@uni-hildesheim.de
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Time spent on text (in number of lessons) Literary texts
not set because the state prescribes them,” stresses Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. Similar results were detected in the German sample, which means that the differences in traditional canon construction in the two countries seems to play a relatively insignificant role in how teachers select texts nowadays. While classic novels are central to literary education, it’s important that students also read material relevant to the world they live in now, which is a major consideration for teachers when selecting texts. “We found that teachers select several texts about the problems facing young people, or politically important situations,” says Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. Despite teachers’ efforts to find engaging material, the study nevertheless revealed significant differences between teachers’ text selections and students’ interests. Analysis of students’ responses to the questionnaire leads to further insights. “We asked students what they liked to read in their leisure time, along with what they would like to read in school. Reading interests vary a lot, especially along gender lines,” outlines Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. Andrea Bertschi-Kaufmann, Dr. phil.
Non-literary texts
The wider goal of the study is to help teachers identify how they can engage their students more effectively and encourage a deeper interest in literature. “One of our main interests was in investigating the relationship between teachers’ actions – their goals, their text selection, their methodologies – and the level of motivation of students,” says Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. The relationship is complex, but multi-level analysis did lead to some revealing insights. “When students perceive and understand teachers’ goals and the ideas behind their actions, their motivation is higher,” continues Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann. When teachers’ goals are clear, in particular when students notice that these goals are more learner centered rather than text centred, researchers see that students respond with higher levels of motivation. This is central to raising their educational prospects. “Students’ perception of their teachers, of their skills and goals, in particular of goals that foreground learners, is an important factor in levels of motivation. That’s a very interesting point for us,” says Professor Bertschi-Kaufmann.
Katrin Böhme, Dr. phil.
Irene Pieper, Dr. phil.
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