@TeacherToolkit
Ross Morrison McGill founded @TeacherToolkit in 2007, and today, he is one of the ‘most followed educators’on social media in the world. In 2015, he was nominated as one of the ‘500 Most Influential People in Britain’ by The Sunday Times as a result of…
Read more about @TeacherToolkit
Does digital reading improve students’ comprehension skills?
Digital reading does not seem to pay off in terms of reading comprehension, at least, as much as traditional print reading does.
This research, Do New Forms of Reading Pay Off? A Meta-Analysis on the Relationship Between Leisure Digital Reading Habits and Text Comprehension (Altamura et al., 2023) explores the relationship between digital reading for pleasure and reading comprehension across 469,564 students worldwide.
What the research suggests
Leisure digital reading is everywhere: social media, websites, e-books on handheld and desktop devices. But is it helping students learn to understand texts more deeply?
This new meta-analysis, covering 40 studies and nearly half a million students (n = 469,564), finds a small but positive link between digital reading and comprehension (r = .055). But don’t be misled by the numbers—this benefit is significantly weaker than for print reading (r = .36–.41 in earlier research).
What matters most is age. The data shows that digital reading hurts comprehension in primary and middle school, but becomes helpful by the time students reach secondary school and university.
Summary of key results: digital reading and comprehension
| Moderator | Category | Effect Size (r) | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Educational Stage | Primary | -0.095 | Negative impact |
| Middle School | -0.025 | Slight negative | |
| High School | 0.085 | Moderate positive | |
| University | 0.070 | Positive | |
| Type of Digital Reading | Linear-informative (e.g. e-books, articles) | 0.12 | Helpful |
| Social-communicative (e.g. messaging, social media) | 0.03 | Minimal benefit | |
| Overall Mean Effect Size | All participants (n = 469,564) | 0.055 | Small but positive |
Source: Altamura et al. (2023), Do New Forms of Reading Pay Off?
Older students benefit more
The digital world is full of distractions—short videos, emojis, and endless scrolls. For younger students, this environment can disrupt the development of core reading skills like fluency, vocabulary, and sustained focus.
Older students do better. With a stronger foundation, they can engage critically with digital texts and extract information more efficiently. But this is not a given—it requires skill, purpose, and good teaching.
Type matters too. Digital reading that’s linear and informative – like e-books or academic blogs – helps. Social-communicative reading, for example, messaging or TikTok – is not doing the same job.
Make time for uninterrupted reading
In primary classrooms, teachers should double down on printed reading. Use rich texts, model deep reading, and make time for students to read uninterrupted. In secondary schools and colleges, teachers can introduce digital texts, but with structure. Teach students to recognise purpose, check reliability, and manage digital distractions.
Schools should distinguish between types of digital reading. Are students reading e-books or just WhatsApp threads? That distinction could shape comprehension outcomes.
CPD questions for teachers:
- Does your school know what digital reading students are doing outside of school?
- How often are students explicitly taught digital reading strategies?
- Can teachers distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘poor’ digital reading habits?
- Are younger students being protected from cognitive overload online?
- Could secondary students benefit from guided online reading tasks?
- How are reading interventions addressing digital habits?
- Is reading comprehension data being interpreted through the lens of digital use?
- Are teachers modelling the difference between deep and shallow reading?
- Do school policies promote structured leisure reading offline?
- What reading habits are teachers modelling themselves?
Teachers who want to help students become stronger readers must think beyond format. The medium changes the message, especially in the digital age.
The research concludes:
“Leisure digital reading does not seem to pay off in terms of reading comprehension, at least, as much as traditional print reading does.”
Read the full paper here to dig deeper.
Like this:
Like Loading…
