The research-to-practice gap in teaching reading with digital texts: Results from a survey of US elementary teachers

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital texts for reading instruction, and research identities both potential advantages and drawbacks for using digital texts for reading instruction. Methods: This paper presents the results of a quantitative survey of a representative sample of US elementary-grade teachers (n = 468) describing how they used digital texts for reading instruction during the 2020–2021 school year. Survey development included a literature review, pilot testing (n = 38), cognitive interviews (n = 8) and expert review. Results: Results indicated that 99.6% of respondents used digital texts for reading instruction, most frequently levelled texts (90.9% using them at least once a week), decodable texts (85.2%), informational texts (84.7%) and passages for fluency practice (82.5%). Read-aloud mode was the most frequently used text feature regardless of the text type or literacy goals. Teachers used digital texts mainly as substitutes for print texts, and few received training (28.8%) or resources (17.1%) to support using digital texts. Conclusions: The findings indicate a misalignment between the research evidence on the affordances of digital texts for reading instruction and how these tools are used in classrooms. They highlight the need for future research and professional development to support teachers' Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) and classroom use of digital texts.