Profiling poor readers and their support: PROREAD

Profiling poor readers and their support: PROREAD

SOCRATES PROGRAMME, Observation and Innovation, Action 6.1.2 and 6.2. (2006-2798-001-001 SO2 610BGE)

The results of the Pisa study point to a large population of young poor readers and to large differences in reading achievement between countries. Recent reports however indicate that the differences within countries probably are larger than these between countries. Percentages of poor readers in countries are persistently high, relatively independent of their Pisa status. This means that improving educational programs in and by itself will not necessarily lead to a decrease of poor reading. Thus a closer look at poor readers is imperative. Although knowledge about individual cognitive abilities of poor readers and their support systems are key elements for empirical insights in poor reading, they are almost non-existent in educational approaches. The borrowing of existing databases of rich cognitive information on poor and normal reading individuals from neuropsychological domains is a unique opportunity for an in-depth educational analysis. To fill the informational gap on poor reader support systems a comparative survey is developed. The combination of two approaches from traditionally separated fields of research not only goes well beyond anything yet done, but is potentially very powerful, because it creates insights at an educational system level that is based on directly measured individual cognitive profiles of poor readers. Coordinated by Leo Blomert (Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University) (SÓCRATES programme, January de 2007).