A Typical Development of Reading Skills in the Italian Primary School: Educational and Technological Perspectives

Abstract

Results of the study on reading skills carried out in the "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA 2012) show that in Europe, on average, about 20% of fifteen-year-old students have very poor reading skills (levels detected in the "PISA TEST"). Italy fits perfectly into this scenario with a national average of about 19.5% of subjects aged fifteen with poor reading skills. The national average rises considerably in some regions such as Sicily, Calabria and Campania. Particularly, in the latter case the percentage of subjects with atypical development of reading skills is 28%. The emergency situation described by the aforementioned study, taking into consideration the cheating phenomenon and the scientific debate on the evaluation in the Italian school system (Ferrer, 2013), led the University of Salerno to carry out a study with the aim of testing the reading levels using alternative standardized tests (MT test) and provide further data. The article presents the research findings conducted in 2015 in the region of Campania on the literacy levels of primary school pupils aged between 7 and 8. The choice of this age group was also induced by the need to verify if this trend is also present at such a young age. The data seem to outline a critical situation regarding the development of reading skills. Results indicate that 32% of the sample requires some form of "immediate intervention" with the aim of levelling their reading skills to the expected standard for this age range. The data seem to be well supported by the results of other tests conducted by other institutions in the same territory2. Moreover, they can be considered predictive of the future trend PISA test results have highlighted.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n4p141