Learning to Read Using Computers: A Longitudinal Study from Grade 1 to Grade 3 in Four Swedish Schools

Abstract

The article is based on a longitudinal study in a municipality that decided to organise a project including the use of computers and extra remedial education in initial reading and writing instruction from the first to the third grade. The study may be regarded as quasi-experimental with 110 students in two project schools and 59 students in two control schools. To explore the extent to which the use of computers in reading instruction made a difference, we followed students in the four schools from Grade 1 to Grade 3. The students’ language skills were tested regularly with different test instruments. In addition to the tests, the students answered a questionnaire, and teachers and principals were interviewed. It was not possible to conclude that the teaching methods in the control schools yielded better reading and writing development than the project schools or vice versa. The results were ambiguous, the control schools performed slightly better in one test in grade 3 and the project schools on another test, when accounting for linguistic awareness in grade 1 and other factors.

Keywords

• reading and writing development
• reading instruction
• writing on computers