Reading Practices and Digital Textbooks in Danish Grade 6 Classrooms – an Exploratory and Review-informed Pilot Study

In Danish primary and lower secondary classrooms, digital textbooks are accessible through several channels and have become widely used, especially in grade 4 through 9. However, students’ reading practices need to be investigated further. In a pilot study (2022–2023), initiated by The National Centre for Reading and Læremiddel.dk, researchers from Danish University Colleges and University of Southern Denmark explore how teaching practices related to reading as well as students’ reading practices take place in grade 6 classrooms. The study pursues two tracks: We conduct a review study, and an exploratory field study. The review study includes research from 2017 and onwards that reports findings related to three questions: What do we know about students' reading of digital textbooks? What do we know about teachers’ introduction of
digital textbooks in classrooms? What do we know about the relationship between students’ reading and digital textbooks’ design? The exploratory field study takes an ethnographically inspired approach and uses observations, informal interviews, video recordings, and screen recordings, to investigate how grade 6 students meet, and interact with, digital textbooks (“fagportaler” in Danish) in L1 Danish, History, Christian Studies, and Natural science/technology.
It is well known that reading practices and reading outcome relate to the medium that presents the text to its readers (Delgado et al., 2018; Støle et al., 2020). Research into digital textbooks shows that these textbooks differ from traditional analogue textbooks in various ways, and that sometimes, teachers let textbooks set the agenda in the classroom. However, less is known about the complex interaction between teaching and learning practices related to reading in digital textbooks.The study aims to provide a basis for further investigations into teaching and learning practices related to reading in digital textbooks. Of special interest is what we may learn from a data collection strategy that involves video recordings of classrooms, screen recordings, observations and interviews.
Keywords: Digital reading, Digital textbooks, Teaching and reading practices