National Literacy Trust
The impact of ebooks on children’s
reading motivation and skills
Forthcoming research from the National
Literacy Trust and RM books
Irene Picton
National Literacy Trust
25 September 2014
Children’s Bookseller Conference
www.literacytrust.org.uk
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Support schools
We campaign to make literacy a priority
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Research and analysiswww.literacytrust.org.uk
Why look at the impact of ebooks
on children’s reading motivation
and skills?
 Children and young people are increasingly
using screens for reading outside school, and
preferring screen reading to reading on paper
 Schools are recognising the popularity of
electronic devices and introducing ebooks on
an intuitive basis, without knowing how they
may be used most effectively
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Why look at the impact of ebooks
on children’s reading motivation
and skills?
 UK educationalists are keen to encourage and
improve children’s and young people’s reading and
need recent, reliable evidence on which to base
interventions
 Studies to date have shown mixed results in relation
to the impact of ebooks on reading skills and there is
a lack of published, large-scale research of their use
with a range of pupil groups in schools across the UK
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Why partner with RM books?
 One of the leading ebook platforms designed
specifically for schools
 Provide ebooks that can be rented for flexible time
periods and viewed on almost any device (e.g. PC,
laptop, any tablet, smartphone, games console etc.)
and works with IoS, Windows or Android
 ‘Anywhere, anytime’ access that allows pupils to
access titles at school and at home
 A good range of quality titles suitable for a wide
range of interests and reading ability levels
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Children’s reading on screen and
on paper: a rapid literature review
In our 2012 annual literacy survey of more than
34,000 children and young people aged 8-18:
 68.7% reported reading on a computer, phone
or tablet outside school
 61.8% reported reading on paper
This was the first time respondents to the survey
reported reading more on screen than on paper.
www.literacytrust.org.uk
In addition:
 52.4% said they would rather read using
electronic devices
 32% said they’d rather read on paper
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Ownership of devices 2012-13
70%
70%
65%
60%
50%
38%
38%
40%
30%
2012
2013
30%
20%
20%
10%
0%
Ereader
Tablet
Smartphone
Source: National Literacy Trust annual literacy surveys 2012, 2013
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Ownership of devices 2012-13
 Tablet use by children aged 5-15 almost
tripled, from 14% to 42%, between 2012
and 2013
Source: Ofcom: Children and Parents Media Use and Attitudes report (UK 2012, 2013)
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Kids and Family Reading Report
(Scholastic, US, 2012)
 46% of [approx 1000] children surveyed had
read an ebook (compared to 25% in 2010)
 49% felt that ebooks would have a positive
effect on their motivation to read (compared
33% in 2010)
 Of those who’d read an ebook, 26% of boys
and 16% of girls said they were now reading
more books as a result
www.literacytrust.org.uk
“
“
…the e-book presence hinders
recall of assimilated information
whilst the presence of the paper
support tends to facilitate it.”
Wästlund, E., Reinikka, H., Norlander, T. and Archer. T. (2004) Effects of VDT and paper presentation on consumption
and production of information: Psychological and physiological factors, Sweden: University of Karlstad.
Screen reading and comprehension
 The most influential factor was seeing pages in
their entirety - the effort required to drag a
mouse or swipe a finger required an investment
of attention higher than flipping a page
 Text flowing up and down a page disrupts the
reader’s visual attention, forcing eyes to search
for a new starting point and re-focus.
Quoted by B Keim at@ www.wired.com/2014/05/reading-on-screen-versus-paper,
05.01.14,last accessed September 2014
www.literacytrust.org.uk
“
“
…The ease with which you can find
…your progress in the text [on
paper], might be some way of
making it less taxing cognitively, so
you have more free capacity for
comprehension…
Mangen, A. (2013) quoted by F Jabr:
www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens
Evolution of reading in the age of
digitisation (E-READ)
 European study funded November 2014 –
May 2018
 Aims to “…assess the impact of digitisation on
reading …to enable the development of
evidence-based knowledge of paper and screen
reading, and provide guidance for practitioners,
policy makers, publishers and designers.”
http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/isch/Actions/IS1404
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Screen reading and comprehension
 2011 study found “…when students preferred screen
reading, they learned less when required to read from
paper and vice versa.”
(B Keim www.wired.com/2014/05/reading-on-screen-versus-paper, 05.01.14,last accessed September 2014, referring to
Metacognitive regulation of text learning: On screen versus on paper. Ackerman, Rakefet; Goldsmith, Morris Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol 17(1), Mar 2011, 18-32).
 2013 US study found no difference in students’ reading
on paper, computers or ereaders, concluding:
“It’s really a matter of personal preference.”
B Margolin, S.J, Driscoll, C., Michael J. Toland, Jennifer Little Kegler (2013) 'E-readers, Computer Screens, or Paper: Does Reading
Comprehension Change Across Media Platforms?', Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27(4), pp. 512-519
.
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Screen reading and gender
In our 2012 annual literacy survey:
 Boys were significantly more likely to say that they
read on screen than in print outside school
(65.7% vs. 55.4%)
 The difference in the proportion of boys and girls
reading in print outside school (55.4% vs. 68.3%)
narrowed significantly in relation to reading on screen
(65.7% vs. 72.2%)
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Screen reading and gender
OECD analysis of PISA 2009 found that, although the
‘gender gap’ was still in evidence in both the digital and
print reading of 15 year-olds across 19 countries, it was
narrower for digital reading. Researchers suggested that:
“Boys’ interest and abilities in digital reading could be
exploited to …lead to greater enjoyment of reading and
better proficiency in print reading, as well.”
OECD (2011), PISA 2009 Results: Students On Line: Digital Technologies and Performance (Volume VI)
PISA IN FOCUS 2012/01 (January) – © OECD 2012
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Reading in print or screen and
socio-economic background
Our survey showed that the gap between more and less
advantaged children was narrower for screen than print
reading :
 54.8% of children eligible for free school meals read
in print outside school compared to 64.1% of their
more advantaged peers, however…
 66.8% of children eligible for free school meals said
that they read on screen, compared to 67.4% of
their more advantaged peers
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Manchester Academy case study
85% of pupils reading at below the level expected of
their age. They selected 24 white British FSM pupils to
offer RM books to over 5 months:
 On average, students made 9 months 23 days
progress in 5 months
 1 in 3 of participating pupils made more than
1 year’s progress in 5 months
 2 of the 24 made more than 2 years’ progress.
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Less keen and able readers
 2012 study of 36 struggling KS3 readers in
Neath and Port Talbot found “…substantial
gains in both accuracy and comprehension.”
Unpublished study, cited by G Brooks (2013) What works for children and young people with literacy
difficulties?, Fourth edition: University of Sheffield
 2013 study of 103 US high school students
dyslexia found students offered texts on an
iPod touch improved reading speed and
comprehension.
Schneps MH, Thomson JM, Chen C, Sonnert G, Pomplun M (2013)
E-Readers Are More Effective than Paper for Some
with Dyslexia
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Omnivorous readers are happier,
better readers
In our 2012 survey:
 Children who included some print reading daily
reported slightly higher reading enjoyment than
those who read in print only, and much higher than
those that read on screen only (51.3% vs. 11.8%)
 Nearly twice as many including some print read at
above the expected level for their age compared to
screen-only readers (26.1% vs. 15.5%)
www.literacytrust.org.uk
It is what you read, not the way
that you read it
“
…although students who read fiction are more
likely to achieve high scores, it is students who read
a wide variety of material who perform particularly
well in reading. Also, students who are extensively
engaged in online reading activities …are generally
more proficient readers than students who do little
online reading.
“
OECD (2010), PISA 2009 Results: Executive Summary
Fiction reading by format and
gender
(source: National Literacy Trust Annual Literacy Survey 2012; N = 34,910)
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Impact of ebooks research project

September 2014 – July 2015
 Approximately 100 schools across the UK working
with groups, classes or whole school
 Mixture of primary and secondary schools
 Most schools new to using ebooks/RM books
platform, some more experienced schools
 Aims to provide educationalists with evidence base
for best use of ebooks as a reading intervention for
different groups and sub-groups of children
www.literacytrust.org.uk
The impact of ebooks on the reading motivation
and reading skills of children and young people
Expressions of interest invited from June 2014 – early 2015
Sept - Oct: school project outline
September
2014 – July
2015
Pre-project attitudinal and attainment surveys
Ebooks purchased and assigned
Post-projectattitudinal
attitudinaland
andattainment
attainmentsurveys
survey
Post-project
Project coordinator post-project survey
Final report - October 2015
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Choice and interest
 What we know really motivates children to read for
pleasure is being able to choose what they want to
read for themselves from a range of titles that reflect
their personal interests and abilities
 If children and young people continue to read more
on screens than on paper outside school, and to
prefer reading on screen, we need to give them the
best access to a range of good quality titles in a range
of formats
www.literacytrust.org.uk
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Thank you
Irene Picton
Project Manager
irene.picton@literacytrust.org.uk