The purpose of this quasi-experimental quantitative study was to determine whether the supplemental phonics program, Fundations, improved reading skills over time. Ehri's theory of orthographic mapping served as the theoretical framework for this study. Archival data from 254 second grade students who did, or did not, participate in the…

In-person tutoring has been shown to improve academic achievement. Though less well-researched, virtual tutoring has also shown a positive effect on achievement but has only been studied in grade five or above. We present findings from the first randomized controlled trial of virtual tutoring for young children (grades K-2). Students were assigned…

Digital and information literacy skills are necessary to succeed in today's knowledge economy but for the millions of people in the world without internet access, a frustratingCatch-22 exists: How can they develop digital literacy skills without internet access? When they get access, what good is the internet to them if they don't have the skills…

Data from two research projects with adult literacies practitioners based in Scotland are used to illustrate how policies underpinned by ideologies based on Human Capital Theory (HCT) lead to a narrow conceptualisation of the purpose of literacies education. It is argued that HCT ideology permeates international and national policies and thus…

The three of us met in 2014 through our shared interest in adult literacy. We are colleagues as practitioners and as researchers; altogether, we have been in the field of adult literacy in Canada since the 1980s. Our experiences working with learners come from our role as volunteer tutors and paid staff in provincially funded programs and…

Teacher readiness is an important consideration in online teaching and learning (OTL). To achieve successful OTL, teachers should have sufficient hardware, technical skills, and access to the internet. Although many studies have focused on OTL, none has examined teachers' readiness for student outcomes. To fill these gaps, this study aimed to…

Critical media literacy is vital for citizenship in a democracy and visually saturated world. Online media is almost indispensable to contemporary life, exerting increasing influence over real-world events. Therefore, future citizens must be able to evaluate the reliability of online media. I initiated a mixed-method arts-based study examining how…

This literature review examines the significance of Critical Media Literacy (CML) in higher education. The rapid digitalization and globalization have intensified media dissemination, raising critical issues about information authenticity and its societal impacts. CML empowers individuals to critically analyze media, discern between reliable and…

Louisiana's literacy strategy is grounded in a robust set of policies driven by several legislative actions. From the 2022 Regular Legislative Session, Act 520 requires a single universal screener and a report of results for all students in Kindergarten through third grade. Further, Act 517 (2022) requires that all literacy instructional materials…

That writing can support students' learning in science and mathematics has been documented, yet little is known about how empirical findings have been applied in (1) materials designed to support science and math instruction; and (2) informal learning environments mediated by peer instructors. This dissertation examines two relatively unexplored…

This project report describes a community-engaged, extra-institutional, out-of-school Wikipedia editing project focused on the digital literacies of Black girls. The project was located in a systemically under-resourced neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Given the under representation of Black women editing Wikipedia, and continued concerns…

Digital disruption is not a new phenomenon in education; however, it has become more prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic due to school closures and the related emergency remote teaching (ERT) period. Our study aims to explore the different pedagogical strategies that primary school teachers adopted during this period and determine how…

Background: YouTube is widely used for learning about scientific issues in and out of school. However, much of the scientific information on YouTube is inaccurate. Prior studies have mostly focused on how students evaluate textual online information sources and have not yet systematically examined how they evaluate authentic scientific YouTube…

Digital text has become the dominant medium for participation in higher education. Yet little is known about the consequences from the shift to digital text usage on the academic reading practices of specific groups of students. Using a unique data set of higher education students, we analyse differences in digital reading skills, practices,…

Literacy builds a foundation for further learning and necessitates human capital development that creates a knowledge economy. A clear focus on literacy policies is fundamental in achieving national and international socio-economic targets. In Tanzania, adult literacy growth has been slow, inconsistent, and characterized by regional gaps. A review…