Characteristics of tasks in each of the proficiency levels for reading are used to form a description of each level. These descriptions are given below. Reading: Proficiency Level 6. Tasks at this level typically require the reader to make multiple inferences, comparisons and contrasts that are both detailed and precise. They require demonstration of a full and detailed understanding of one or more texts and may involve integrating information from more than one text. Tasks may require the reader to deal with unfamiliar ideas, in the presence of prominent competing information, and to generate abstract categories for interpretations. Reflect and evaluate tasks may require the reader to hypothesise about or critically evaluate a complex text on an unfamiliar topic, taking into account multiple criteria or perspectives, and applying sophisticated understandings from beyond the text. A salient condition for access and retrieve tasks at this level is precision of analysis and fine attention to detail that is inconspicuous in the texts. Students at Level 6 are highly proficient readers and this is reflected in the fact that only 0.8% of students schooled in the OECD, on average, could perform reading tasks at this level. Malta was estimated to have a total of 0.5% of Level 6 readers in its population. The only other PISA 2009+ country estimated to have any students who can perform Level 6 tasks was the United Arab Emirates, where 0.2% were estimated to be at this level. There are several OECD countries with similar or lower estimated proportions of students performing at Level 6 when compared to Malta and the United Arab Emirates: Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Greece have between 0.8% and 0.6%; Luxembourg, Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark, Hungary and Slovenia, between 0.5% and 0.3%; and Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Chile and Mexico have fewer than 0.3% of students performing at Level 6. Reading: Proficiency Level 5. Tasks at this level that involve retrieving information require the reader to locate and organise several pieces of deeply embedded information, inferring which information in the text is relevant. Reflective tasks require critical evaluation or hypothesis, drawing on specialised knowledge. Both interpretative and reflective tasks require a full and detailed understanding of a text whose content or form is unfamiliar. For all aspects of reading, tasks at this level typically involve dealing with concepts that are contrary to expectations. Across the OECD countries, 7.6% of students, on average, were estimated to be proficient at Level 5 or above. Malta had 4.4% of students in its population estimated at Level 5 or above and the United Arab Emirates had 2.3%. All other PISA 2009+ countries had 1% or fewer students estimated to be performing at these levels. Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Slovenia, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Turkey, Chile and Mexico are all OECD countries with fewer than 5% of students estimated to be performing at Level 5 or above. Reading: Proficiency Level 4. Tasks at this level that involve retrieving information require the reader to locate and organise several pieces of embedded information. Some tasks at this level require interpreting the meaning of nuances of language in a section of text by taking into account the text as a whole. Other interpretative tasks require understanding and applying categories in an unfamiliar context. Reflective tasks at this level require readers to use formal or public knowledge to hypothesise about or critically evaluate a text. Readers must demonstrate an accurate understanding of long or complex texts whose content or form may be unfamiliar. Two examples of Level 4 tasks – tasks that students performing at Level 4 are likely to be able to complete successfully – can be found among the examples of reading tasks from PISA 2009 in the final section of this chapter. The two examples are Balloon, R417Q03 (full credit); and Miser, R433Q05. There are estimated to be 28.3% of students across the OECD who can perform tasks at Level 4 or above. Malta had 18.4% of students estimated as able to perform tasks at Level 4 (or above); the United Arab Emirates had 10.8%; Miranda-Venezuela, 8.3%; Costa Rica, 8.1%; Mauritius, 5.2%; Georgia, 2.6%; Moldova, 2.5%; Tamil Nadu-India, 0.7%; and Himachal Pradesh-India, 0.2%.
PISA Plus 2009
The reading literacy of 15-year-olds | 13