Areas for futher research

Research consistently falls short in reporting theoretical frameworks which in turn increases the gap between research and practice. It further increases the difficulty teachers face in matching interventions with student needs (Hodges et al., 2016).

 They recommend three areas for further research:

  1. a clarification of the differences between sociocultural and socio-cognitive theories of learning to read
  2. an emphasis on the mutual impact of reading and writing
  3. a need to diversify theories used for reading and writing instruction.

Reference

Hodges, T.S., Feng, L., Kuo, L-J., &  McTigue, E. (2016) Discovering the literacy gap: A systematic review of reading and writing theories in research, Cogent Education, 3:1  on-line

Other areas where there are gaps are:

The impact of digital text on children’s reading

Links between reading and writing

Whole family literacy and reading

Reading and the impact on disadvantaged learners

Reading interventions for pupils below age expectations

Schools progressive reading curriculum