The recent decline in children's reading skills creates challenges for traditional text-based learning. At the same time, teachers increasingly use videos in primary instruction. Despite these developments, limited research exists on how children's reading skills influence learning from videos versus illustrated texts in primary school classrooms.
This study, to be published in the December 2025 issue of Learning and Instruction, investigated the roles of decoding ability and reading comprehension when learning from videos versus illustrated texts among 109 fifth and sixth graders at three primary schools. All participants studied both illustrated texts and videos on two science topics. Their performance was measured through pre-, post-, and delayed tests. They examined how different ways of learning and reading impact how well students learn and how much mental effort they need to use.
The children performed significantly better when they learned from videos instead of illustrated texts. They remembered more information later and found it easier to understand. There was no difference in how well the children remembered or transferred (applied the knowledge to a new or different context) what they learned. In addition, the researchers found that the ability to understand and decode text positively predicted learning outcomes and the children with lower reading skills benefited more from videos than those with higher reading skills. They concluded that videos are beneficial to most children across reading skill levels, especially for struggling readers, and suggest that incorporating videos into primary school science instruction supports diverse learning needs.
StepUp Note
Movement creates space for language. As we watch a video, we see the movements, not just the objects, that tell the story of what we are learning. We can visualize how the story works. Reading comprehension depends on visualization of the “what” and “when” sequence of events. StepUp to Learn exercises use rhythmic movement to create space for language, to help children “visualize” seeing number sets and seeing letters as words. In every exercise children are also visualizing the "what" and "when" connections of learning.
Note by Nancy W. Rowe, MS, CCC/A