Development of Reading Literacy in South Korea from PISA 2000 to PISA 2009

Abstract

This study focuses on the achievement level in the “reading” domain within the framework of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which is conducted by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It aims at evaluating the achievement levels that Korean students reached in terms of reading process/task and question type. In the light of this objective, firstly, information was given about PISA assessment framework and reading literacy scale; and then, the results that South Korea got were studied with their outlines. Finally, the questions which were found to be increasing in 2000–2009 implications were compared by discussing. As the reports, documents and databases were investigated and analyzed in this descriptive study, “the document investigation” method which was among the qualitative research methods. As a result, it was found that Korean students improved particularly in open-ended questions which required high level of reading process in PISA reading literacy scale and this improvement was found to be associated with the developments in educational program.