The Chinese government has been promoting reading education recently, as previous studies showed reading improves students' academic performance. More citizens with higher academic achievement could contribute more to developing more advanced technology. Thus, the National Reading Plan is established to give guidelines for school libraries to cooperate with NGOs in setting up reading programs. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a reading curriculum in increasing the intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivations of disadvantaged students in rural areas and selects Reading Dreams Foundation, a charity funding from Hong Kong to serve rural China, as the case. This study uses the concepts of the 6C's of motivation (i.e., choice, challenge, control, collaboration, construction meaning, and consequences) for evaluation. Traditional and technological means are reviewed in the core reading lessons, library, and afterschool activities. A technology-enhanced reading curriculum integrated with the ideas of 6 C is designed and proposed for funding to enhance students' motivations further.
TopIntroduction
During the Thirteenth Five-year Plan implementation, China has emphasized science and technology development (Aglietta & Bai, 2016). The government has established plenty of medium- and long-term educational plans to meet the intense need for talent. The National Development Plan for Reading (2016) has provided clear guidelines for school libraries to cooperate with public libraries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in setting up reading programs (Leung et al., 2020). It is widely affirmed that better reading skills could improve academic performance (Kim & Quinn, 2013; Kong et al., 2018; Lo et al., 2015; Tse et al., 2022). Hence, the government expects to boost students’ foundational literacy skills and reduce educational inequality between urban and rural residents through those reading programs. Ultimately, this approach strengthens citizens’ independent innovation ability, and rural citizens and disadvantaged communities may contribute to future technology (Fung, 2013; Tse et al., 2022).
Recent research from Gao, Wang, Mo, Shi, Kenny, & Rozelle (2018) found that reading programs could improve students’ reading skills and academic performance in rural China. They have further made two highlights: (1) rural students show a low level of reading achievement; (2) Encouraging reading and providing instructions are essential for reading programs. Their study implies present reading programs should be more diversified to stimulate rural students’ motivation in reading. Moreover, apart from hardware support, educators should inspire students to exhibit a love of reading (Tse et al., 2022). To make reading promotion successful, educators should deploy both traditional and digital services to enhance students’ reading motivation (Jones & Brown, 2011; Sung & Chiu, 2022; Tse et al., 2022). In short, it is vital to investigate some methods that could motivate students to read.
Background of Reading Dreams Foundation
Reading Dreams Foundation (RDF) was selected to be the target of the study. It is a charity funding in Hong Kong that functions as an NGO in China. RDF particularly assists schools in operating libraries and aims to construct a high-efficiency campus culture, especially in rural schools (2018 Annual Report of the Reading Dreams Foundation, 2019). RDF aims to rebuild school libraries for better learning environments and provides training to teachers and parents to promote and assist students in reading. Thus, cultivating students’ reading habits and interests is the primary mission. The 10th Anniversary Souvenir Book of RDF (2019) pointed out that RDF’s extended objectives in the next few years are to further improve rural students’ literacy skills and academic performance and design a curriculum combining physical collections and e-reading materials. RDF has built around 380 libraries since 2008, benefiting more than 220,000 students from 20 countries in the Hunan, Ningxia, and Fujian provinces. As RDF is an outstanding organization that promotes reading education successfully in rural regions, its reading programs are worth exploring.