Executive Summary

PISA results show that mastering strategies that assist learning, such as methods to remember and understand or summarise texts and reading widely, are essential if students are to become proficient readers. Practicing reading by reading for enjoyment is most closely associated with better outcomes when it is accompanied by high levels of critical thinking and strategic learning. Across OECD countries, students who have low levels of awareness about which strategies are most effective for understanding, remembering and summarising information are less proficient readers than those who have high levels of awareness about these strategies, regardless of their reading habits.