blogs

Improving reading across Europe: More reading! More talking!

20/04/2025

An Elinet Blog by Colin Harrison
First published on the European School Education Platform, April 10 2025, by European Commission. We have permission to publish this article also as an ELINET blog post

Reading scores were down in almost every European nation that participated in the PISA 2022 tests – often by the largest margin ever. How can this trend be reversed?

Preschool child reading a picture book with simple words
Lina Kivaka / Pexels

This decline in international reading test scores is not new: in most nations reading scores had already been declining for more than a decade.

In response to this, the European Commission asked an international group of literacy experts to put together a report that would, drawing upon on the latest evidence-based research, provide guidance for policymakers and teachers on how reading should be taught.… Read the rest

Framing Reading Literacy as a Public Health Crisis in South Africa

18/02/2025 Comments 0 Comment

William G.Brozo. Emeritus Professor of Literacy, George Mason University, USA
Gail Andrews. Past Chief Operating Officer, National Department of Health, Cape Town, South Africa

An Elinet blog.

The connection between literacy and health has been recognized by the medical and public health professions for several decades (Dewalt, Berkman, Sheridan, Lohr, & Pignone, 2004).

This connection came into stark relief for the two of us—a career South African public health policy expert and an American literacy professional—when the most recent Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) scores were published in 2023, showing once again the rock-bottom reading levels of South African children. At the same time, the persistence of diseases and other serious health challenges largely eradicated in other regions of the globe (Achoki, 2022) alerted us to take a closer look at the comorbidity of these conditions in South Africa.… Read the rest

Toddlers, Tech and Talk

19/12/2024 Comments 0 Comment

Toddlers, Tech and Talk – Very young children’s language and literacy learning at home in a postdigital age

A Blog by Rosie Flewitt

The cross-disciplinary Toddlers, Tech and Talk project investigated how digital technologies intersect with the home lives of very young children and their families across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Led by Professor Rosie Flewitt at Manchester Metropolitan University, working with Co-Is and research teams at the Universities of Lancaster, Swansea, Strathclyde and QUB, its core objective was to develop a robust body of empirical evidence in the under-researched field of 0-36-month-old children’s digital technology use at home, how families mediate child tech use and how tech use at home may be shaping early talk and literacy. The study also contributes to posthuman theorisation of the contemporary, postdigital Home Literacy Environment.… Read the rest

Critical Internet literacy and teleological epistemology: where are we heading?

02/05/2024 Comments 0 Comment

A blog by Colin Harrison, University of Nottingham

Has the World Wide Web changed the nature of knowledge? Yes!
But if so, what are the implications for teachers?
If ‘knowledge’ is now an epistemological battleground, what weapons do we have? And can philosophy help us?

The demands of digital literacy are changing, as navigating the Internet and creating content become ever-more complex for both teachers and students. As the Internet has evolved, so the concepts of truth and of knowledge in relation to the Internet have evolved.

Julie Coiro’s diagram helpfully demonstrates some of these changes (Coiro, 2023). In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee set up the World Wide Web with the intention of creating a platform for the free and worldwide exchange of information, and this had profound epistemological implications.… Read the rest

Reflections through Blogs. Update: New guidelines available

09/02/2024 Comments 0 Comment

ELINET has published updated guidelines for the ELINET blog. See and download the guidelines here

ELINET wants to share reflections with you. Take a look and consider sharing your thoughts or work on literacy with others via the blog! Go to the Blogs Tab in the menu or Click here

The authors of the Blogs are Elinet members or invited guests. If you want to share your wisdom, related to Literacy, contact ELINET.

Blog #9 Get Readers on the Wavelength of Emotions (GROWE) project

21/10/2022 Comments 0 Comment

Two birds with one stone

By Ariana-Stanca Vacaretu and Maria Kovacs, Asociatia LSDGC Romania

In this blog, we first describe how we built on our experiences and partnerships to develop a European project called Get Readers on the Wavelength of Emotions (GROWE). Next, we share the conceptual model that underpins the GROWE project, and some findings about the impact of the GROWE teacher training program.

When we first thought of the GROWE project, our motivation was to collaborate with European partners to work out a way for the secondary classroom to tackle disciplinary literacy and social-emotional learning simultaneously. We had had the experience of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) program, and that of the EUMOSCHOOL project to build on. And we had a clear picture of who would be good European partners in this project.… Read the rest

Blog #7: Finland’s first book gifting program

02/03/2022 Comments 2 comments

Finland’s first book gifting program supported early reading with success

Emmi Jäkkö, Development director, The Finnish Reading Centre

Two thirds of the families that received one of the book gift program’s Lukulahja lapselle book bags at a maternal and child health care clinic are reading more than before, according to the impact survey. All the public health nurses involved believe that the book bags encourage families to read. The goal of the book gift program was to ensure equal opportunities for reading in all families with babies and to support children’s language development by encouraging parents to read regularly to their children.

The book gift program Lukulahja lapselle distributed book bags to all children in Finland born between 2019–2021 via maternal and child health care clinics.… Read the rest