New research: Learning via computer and phone is less effective than paper books

Around the world , many primary and secondary schools now use electronic devices such as computers, phones, and tablets for teaching. However, this can have a negative impact on students' reading comprehension, according to a meta-analysis published on December 12.

Accordingly, researchers from the University of Valencia (Spain) analyzed more than 20 studies on reading comprehension published between 2000 and 2022. These studies involved nearly 470,000 people.

The results showed that primary and secondary school students who read paper documents for a long time can improve their reading comprehension ability 6-8 times compared to electronic documents. For high school and bachelor's students, although learning through electronic devices has a positive impact, it is still much less effective than paper documents.

World - New research: Learning via computer and phone is less effective than paper books — *New research shows that learning from paper books is 6-8 times more effective than learning through electronic devices such as phones and computers. Illustration: The Guardian*

“The correlation between the frequency of digital reading for pleasure and text comprehension is close to zero,” said Professor Ladislao Salmerón, co-author of the study.

This is likely because, he points out, “the linguistic quality of digital texts tends to be lower than the traditional linguistic quality of printed texts.” For example, social media posts are often conversational, lacking complex grammatical and argumentative structures.

If the quality of electronic documents increases, will reading comprehension increase? Ms. Lidia Altamura, co-author of the study, asserts that nothing has changed. "We expected that going online for informational purposes, such as reading Wikipedia or online newspapers, would have a more positive relationship with reading comprehension. But the actual data do not reflect that," Ms. Altamura said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Salmerón added, “reading mindset” with digital text also tends to be shallower than with paper books, in which scanning becomes more common.

This can mean that readers “are not fully immersed in the story or do not fully grasp the complex relationships in an informational text.” Additionally, electronic devices are more likely to distract students.

Young children who read digital books regularly may also learn less academic vocabulary “during the critical period when they transition from learning to read to reading to learn,” the authors said.

Emphasizing that the researchers are not against reading on digital devices, Ms. Lidia Altamura said: "Based on what we found, the habit of reading digital books does not bring as many benefits as reading paper books. That is why when promoting reading activities, schools and school leaders should emphasize reading paper books over reading books on electronic devices, especially for young readers."

A 2016 study from Carnegie Mellon University (USA) also showed that students who read paper books answered abstract questions that required reasoning better than those who read e-books. Experts from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) also confirmed that reading online makes students distracted, tired eyes and forms the habit of scanning more instead of reading from beginning to end like with printed books.

Responding to Education Week , Ms. Maryanne Wolf, director of a research center at the School of Education and Information Studies, University of California at Los Angeles (USA), said that for young children, paper books are the top choice when teaching, followed by audio and third is tablets. "Paper documents bring more advantages to students than electronic screens," Ms. Wolf noted.

Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician, says that when children enter virtual spaces, they have access to countless platforms and websites. This makes it hard for them to resist opening other tabs. "Kids can tell when the classroom is getting noisy, and we want them to know the same thing in virtual spaces," Radesky notes.

Minh Hoa (reported by Lao Dong and Thanh Nien)

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