The present study examines experiences of mentor teachers and their teacher colleagues following three days of professional development training for early literacy instruction and a literacy software program (ABRA). Four Kenyan teacher-mentors were interviewed and 34 teachers were surveyed. Training included program specific and curriculum…

Reading success has a significant impact on social, academic and vocational engagement. While there have been many advances in Brazilian educational policy, and a reduction in rates of absolute illiteracy, low levels of literacy continue to be a significant area of concern. We aimed to scope the literature to identify the types of intervention…

During times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the evaluation of educational programs becomes crucial for making evidence-based decisions. This study aims to validate and pilot an assessment instrument tailored to evaluate an innovative national reading program in Chile, particularly during the critical phase of post-pandemic educational…

RAND Europe evaluated the implementation of a technology-based intervention that made use of the Microsoft Immersive Reader (IR) in UK classrooms for eight- and nine-year-old pupils. This is the first evaluation of this intervention that uses a randomised control trial (RCT) design, following promising findings related to the use of IR from a…

Today, traditional literacy habits are changing with various technological tools in digital environments. Social reading platforms are one of these innovations and changes. These networks are widely used in the world and in Turkey. The application "1000Kitap," the largest book reader network in Turkey, is one of these social networks. In…

Digital mediation strategies are key soft skills to develop amongst students as they prepare to interact in increasingly collaborative settings, socially and professionally. Defined as a set of communication strategies deployed to reach mutual agreement over a dispute, mediation enables students' cooperation in task-based language teaching…

This mixed-methods case study examines how an online extensive reading project impacted the 11 participants' motivation, habits, and linguistic abilities regarding L2 English reading. The participants engaged in extensive reading for one year on Xreading (an online extensive reading website). They were all female Japanese nationals aged between 30…

In some computerized educational systems, there is evidence of students "wheel-spinning," where a student tries and repeatedly fails at an educational task for learning a skill. This may be particularly concerning in low resource settings. Prior research has focused on predicting and modeling wheel-spinning, but there has been little…

Abracadabra (ABRA) is a 20-week online literacy program composed of phonic fluency and comprehension activities based around a series of age-appropriate texts. Four 15-minute sessions per week are delivered by a teaching assistant (TA) to groups of three to five pupils. This report summarizes the findings of a randomized controlled trial assessing…

Teacher change involves the transformation of beliefs, knowledge and practices. While research has highlighted significant facilitative conditions as well as barriers to these changes, insufficient attention has been devoted to examining influences derived from existing practices perpetuated by institutional factors and teachers' personal…

Accelerated Reader (AR) is a whole-group reading management and monitoring program that aims to foster the habit of independent reading among primary and early secondary age pupils. The internet-based software initially screens pupils according to their reading levels, and suggests books that match their reading age and reading interest. Pupils…

Quality education is undoubtedly a global concern, tied closely to preoccupations with economic and social development. Increasingly, the adoption and effective use of current technology tools are being recognized as visible signs of that quality. Scholars are providing increasing evidence of the kinds of empowered teacher identities that will…

Recent initiatives in the United States and United Kingdom have added greatly to the amount and quality of research on the effectiveness of secondary reading programs, especially programs for struggling readers. In this review of the experimental research on secondary reading programs, the authors focused on 69 studies that used random assignment…

Technology can create new opportunities for learning "with" and "from" people of other cultures, not just "about" them. The Global Read Aloud (GRA) offers an example of such learning possibilities. The GRA is a project that connects classrooms via digital technologies to discuss common texts. This research explored…

Current debates on quality standards in education often look to the levels of an increasingly diverse array of literacies as a measure of that standard. At the same time, while mobile technologies are profoundly changing the way we live, communicate and learn in our everyday lives, relatively little seems to be known about their potential to…