King Wo Chow

Reading engagement is a multidimensional construct encompassing motivational, behavioural, and cognitive dimensions, each characterized by distinct features. Although prior research has identified associations among some of these features, few studies have examined them simultaneously or explored their interactions and joint relationships with reading comprehension. This gap limits our understanding of how multiple engagement-related variables may operate together to support reading. Thus, using psychometric network analysis to represent the intricate psychological constructs withinteractions among the variables, this study analysed student questionnaire and reading test data from Hong Kong participants in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2021. The sample included 3830 fourth grade students with 49% boys and 51% girls. The findings indicate that intrinsic motivation emerged as a central bridging component within the engagement network, connecting cognitive and behavioural engagement and organizing their relations with reading achievement. Self-efficacy was most strongly connected to reading achievement, with which negative need for cognition and boredom show negative associations. Extrinsic motivation formed a distinct cluster, negatively linked to reading achievement and weakly connected to other engagement dimensions. The findings underscore the associations between reading engagement features and reading achievement, suggesting that educators should consider the interconnected and mutually reinforcing relationships among reading engagement features.

The use of more digital devices in learning has motivated the transition from paper-based to computer-based formats in large-scale international assessments, with typewriting as the prevalent input method in such educational studies. However, there remains limited exploration on whether differences arising from varied encoding systems in keyboarding methods impact on students’ literacy performance. The current study, utilizing Item Response Theory, aims to investigate whether the use of different keyboarding methods has an effect on students’ reading performance based on the 2021 digital Progress of International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), with a particular focus on the constructive response items. The participating countries were divided into three groups based on the consistency between their test language’s writing system and its representations on the keyboard—with Group 1 having the highest consistency and Group 3 (Chinese is the only language in this group) the lowest. Results revealed that a significant keyboard effect exists for students with higher-than-average reading ability. Specifically, Group 3 scored lower than Groups 1 and 2, while Groups 1 and 2 did not exhibit significant differences in their reading performance. This suggests that for students with similar higher-than-average reading ability, typing in Chinese appears to be at a disadvantage compared to other input methods. This study emphasizes the importance of considering keyboard effects when designing and scoring future large-scale assessments in order to improve the overall validity of the tests.