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Teaching Reading Comprehension in Portuguese Primary and Middle Schools

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Abstract

Reading comprehension is an important skill throughout all stages of education. However, Portuguese pupils still demonstrate difficulties in understanding what they read. In addition to cognitive and psychological factors, it is important to understand how this skill is addressed in textbooks. Here, we examined how reading comprehension is targeted in Portuguese and Science textbooks in Grades 4 and 6. Regarding Portuguese textbooks, we found a higher focus on orality than on reading comprehension in Grade 4 and a more distributed focus regarding literacy-related skills in Grade 6. In both grades, most of the questions related to reading comprehension involved retrieval of factual information using open questions. This pattern was also observed for Science textbooks. These findings seem crucial to shed light on the articulation between the educational system, subjects’ curriculum and educational actors, which is critical to effectively develop pupils’ reading comprehension skills.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by grants from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through grants UID/PSI/00050/2013 and PD/BD/135428/2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Psicologia E de Ciências da Educação, Universidade Do Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-392, Porto, Portugal

    Carolina Cordeiro, Andreia Nunes, São Luís Castro & Teresa Limpo

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  1. Carolina Cordeiro
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  2. Andreia Nunes
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  3. São Luís Castro
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  4. Teresa Limpo
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Correspondence to Teresa Limpo.

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Appendix

Appendix

Grade

Subject

Textbook

Complete reference

4

Portuguese

A

Melo, P. and M. Costa. 2013. A Grande Aventura. Português—4º Ano. [The Great Adventure. Portuguese – Grade 4]. Lisboa: Texto Editores

B

Lima, E., N. Barrigão, N. Pedroso and V. Rocha. 2015. Alfa. Português 4. [Alfa. Portuguese 4]. Porto: Porto Editora

Science

E

Pires, P. and H. Gonçalves. 2013. A Grande Aventura. Estudo do Meio—4º Ano. [The Great Adventure. Science – Grade 4]. Lisboa: Texto Editores

F

Lima, E., N. Barrigão, N. Pedroso and V. Rocha. 2015. Alfa. Estudo do Meio 4. [Alfa. Science 4]. Porto: Porto Editora

6

Portuguese

C

Silva, P., S. Rente and E. Cardoso. 2012. Dito e Feito. Português—6º Ano. [Said and Done. Portuguese – Grade 6]. Porto: Porto Editora

D

Almeida. A. and L. Coelho. 2017. Palavras 6. Português – 6º ano [Words 6. Portuguese – Grade 6]. Porto: Areal Editores

Science

G

Lopes, A., D. Brandão, J. Mendes and S. Vaz. 2017. 100% Vida. Ciências Naturais—6º Ano (Vol. 1–2). [100% Life. Science – Grade 6]. Lisboa: Texto Editores

H

Sales, A., I. Portugal, I. and J. Amorim. 2011. Clube da Terra. Ciências da Natureza—6º Ano. [Earth Club. Science – Grade 6]. Lisboa: Texto Editores

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Cordeiro, C., Nunes, A., Castro, S.L. et al. Teaching Reading Comprehension in Portuguese Primary and Middle Schools. Tech Know Learn 26, 339–354 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-020-09486-y

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