[I have written a follow-on post where I question the assumptions in this post here (2)]
I’m seeing a lot of high performing schools use the technique of a teacher read-aloud with pupils following along with a ruler. The research calls this Reading while Listening (RwL). The evidence suggests this improves reading fluency – a useful outcome. There’s nothing suggesting it aids comprehension.
In fact, if comprehension is the intended outcome, RwL is surely a bad idea: a clear example of the redundancy split attention (1) effect. If you want your students to think about a text, choose listening or reading, but not both.
I get some push-back from colleagues saying that very high performing schools do it, so we should. The trick is to learn the correct lessons from these schools. This is not the correct lesson.
Notes (2Feb25):
- I initially made an error in this blog, calling the effect ‘split attention’ rather than ‘redundancy’. Thanks to Chris Such for spotting.
- The post prompted a great Bluesky conversation with Chris Such which has made me question my assumptions in this post. Rather than add to this post, I will write a follow-on: .
Many thanks,
Ben
Reading for Learning 