Leerkracht-leerling relatie, begrijpend leesprestaties en gender op de basisschool

Abstract

Because low literacy has increased in recent years and this has implications for students' academic achievement, this thesis examined longitudinally whether the teacher-student relationship is a predictor of reading comprehension achievement of students in grades two and three. Gender was also included as a moderator. At thirteen elementary schools in the eastern part of the Netherlands, the Teacher-Student Relationship Scale (STRS) was administered by teachers to measure the teacher-student relationship which consisted of proximity and conflict. CITO reading comprehension proficiency scores were used to measure reading comprehension performance in students. Proximity in the teacher-student relationship was not found to be a predictor of reading comprehension. Conflict, on the other hand, was found to be a moderate significant predictor of reading comprehension in grades two and grade three in the simultaneously relationship. However, in the longitudinal correlation after adjustment for reading comprehension in grade two, conflict was no longer found to be a significant predictor for reading comprehension. Nevertheless, previous reading comprehension performance was found to be a strong predictor of later reading comprehension performance. Furthermore, gender was not found to be a significant moderator. Because reading comprehension performance from previous years is very influential for future reading performance, it is important to focus on good reading instruction early so that later academic success can be positively influenced, and low literacy can be minimized.