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Reading and comprehension
Paper or screen, phonics, and the knowledge that makes text make sense.
3 claims in this area.
Claims here
- C3 Paper vs screen, deep readingPast early primary, paper often edges screens for timed deep reading.Challenged 7 times, still holds in a narrower form ·
- C12 Systematic phonicsTeaching letter–sound links step by step helps struggling beginners decode; comprehension gains unshown.Challenged 2 times, still holds in a narrower form · 1 attack left it unchanged (3 needed) ·
- C17 Background knowledgeKnowing a topic helps you understand texts on it; teaching it doesn't always lift scores.Challenged 5 times, still holds in a narrower form · 1 attack left it unchanged (3 needed) ·
Open questions nearby
Open question 4With self-paced reading, is C3’s remaining paper advantage explained by medium preference — Ackerman & Goldsmith 2011 found screen inferiority under free study time among strongly paper-preferring students, while Delgado & Salmerón 2021 and Ackerman & Lauterman 2012 found equal scores — and does screen overconfidence persist when readers set their own pace (present in Ackerman & Lauterman 2012 Exp 2, absent in Exp 1 and in Delgado & Salmerón 2021)?Open question 16Against reading teaching that already covers letter–sound links now and then (as "balanced" approaches and Reading Recovery do), how much does a planned phonics sequence add to at-risk beginners' decoding?Open question 25Does the decoding edge that systematic phonics gives at-risk beginning readers last after the teaching ends?Open question 18Do weak readers who know a topic well really understand a text on it as well as strong readers who know little, once the text is an ordinary school text rather than a baseball play-by-play?