Arab Educational Information Network

This study investigates the relationship between gender and reading comprehension achievement at college level. This study follows Barrett’s Taxonomy in dividing reading comprehension into several levels (Literal, Inferential, Critical, and Appreciative). It compares the achievement of the two groups of gender (males and females) on each of the four levels of reading comprehension in order to see the relationship between gender and reading comprehension. The participants are 154 students (males and females), and they have to answer twenty open-ended questions. Data analysis is done by SPSS software according to T-test formula. The result of the study shows that there are no statistically significant differences between the two groups of gender on three levels of reading comprehension (literal, inferential, and appreciative), but for the “critical level”, females are outperforming males to a statistically significant level. The study suggests the need for future studies about the relationship between gender and reading comprehension but with larger sample and wider context (more than one context) as well as different methodology especially different test forms. (Published abstract)