It is a time of increasing scrutiny on secondary school reading in England. The Department for Education (2025) has declared the need for a new assessment at age 13 which they say will raise standards. This is against a backdrop of the National Literacy Trust (2024) warning of the risk of children leaving education without the necessary reading ability for daily life in modern Britain. Dyslexic pupils begin to underachieve at key stage two and this continues throughout the rest of their academic journey (Sheppard, 2009). Technology could support dyslexic student’s learning but evidence for specific interventions is too weak (Luckin et al., 2020). 

This presentation will detail a proposed research project to understand the utility of multimedia in supporting dyslexic pupil’s reading. An explanatory sequential design will be used to answer the following research questions in a manner that considers the perspectives of dyslexic pupils and the effect of such stances on their learning. 

1. Does Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML) hold for supporting reading comprehension in key stage three pupils with dyslexia? 

1. How do key stage three pupils with dyslexia respond emotionally to reading activities in a lesson context? 

1. Do key stage three pupils with dyslexia think multimedia learning supports their reading comprehension? 

Reading comprehension performance of key stage three pupils with a dyslexia diagnosis under varying conditions: unsupported, supported by human voice, supported by synthetic voice and supported by imagery will be assessed and statistically significant differences between approaches identified. Following this, semi-structured interviews with pupils will be carried out to collect data about their experiences reading at school and their views as to how helpful technology is to them when reading. A phenomenological interview approach has been chosen to enable the exploration of pupil experience (O’Reilly and Dogra, 2017) and the employment of Giorgi’s (2009) approach to analysis will minimise the impact of researcher bias during the interpretation of the data (Phillips-Pula, Strunk and Pickler, 2011).     

The findings will be disseminated to classroom practitioners and other researcher’s institutions. Whilst it may be adequate to utilise conferences and journals to share findings with academics, an alternative approach is likely to reach more classroom teachers. Social media is the most popular way to engage with research among classroom teachers whilst journals and conferences only approach similar levels of popularity amongst teachers with management level responsibilities (Madgwick et al., 2024). The dissemination process will therefore involve traditional conference and journal approaches being complemented with the creation of assets for use on social media. 

Discovering whether there could be a benefit to the reading comprehension of dyslexic pupils from utilising multimedia interventions, even if it is not manifest in current pupils, can form part of the evidence base for the design of the inclusive mainstream education system the has been called for (Education Committee, 2025) to address the increasing need for education health and care plans. The insights into how dyslexic pupils experience schooling will be beneficial in and of themselves as they can be used to advocate for a cultural change towards how dyslexia is seen, particularly by education professionals, too many of whom possess a deficit view of their dyslexic pupils (Glazzard, 2010). These findings will also be beneficial to the pedagogical practice of those working with the dyslexic pupils of today since the effectiveness of potential supports will depend in part on the pupil and their judgements as to its effectiveness for them (Carpenter and Sanchez, 2025). 

References 

Carpenter, S.K. and Sanchez, C.A. (2025) ‘A closer look at students’ knowledge of effective learning strategies, where they learn about them, and why they do not use them’, Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 10(1), p. 83. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-025-00693-8. 

Department for Education (2025) Focus on reading in secondary years to drive up standards, GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/focus-on-reading-in-secondary-years-to-drive-up-standards (Accessed: 22 February 2026). 

Education Committee (2025) Solving the SEND crisis: report calls for culture shift and funding to make mainstream education genuinely inclusive, UK Parliament. Available at: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-committee/news/209313/solving-the-send-crisis-report-calls-for-culture-shift-and-funding-to-make-mainstream-education-genuinely-inclusive/ (Accessed: 22 February 2026). 

Giorgi, A. (2009) The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: a modified Husserlian approach. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. 

Glazzard, J. (2010) ‘The impact of dyslexia on pupils’ self‐esteem’, Support for Learning, 25(2), pp. 63–69. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9604.2010.01442.x. 

Luckin, R. et al. (2020) Technology-led interventions for SpLDs. Evidence Review. Government Office for Science and Council for Science and Technology. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/specific-learning-difficulties-current-understanding-support-systems-and-technology-led-interventions (Accessed: 19 February 2026). 

Madgwick, H. et al. (2024) Engaging with Evidence: A Survey of Teachers and Leaders. London: Education Endowment Foundation. Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/more-resources-and-support/using-research-evidence/engaging-with-evidence. 

National Literacy Trust (2024) Reading in secondary students: What do we know? Available at: https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/reading-in-secondary-students-what-do-we-know/ (Accessed: 22 February 2026). 

O’Reilly, M. and Dogra, N. (2017) Interviewing Children and Young People for Research. 1 Oliver’s Yard, 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP: SAGE Publications Ltd. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526419439. 

Phillips-Pula, L., Strunk, J. and Pickler, R.H. (2011) ‘Understanding Phenomenological Approaches to Data Analysis’, Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 25(1), pp. 67–71. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2010.09.004. 

Sheppard, A.L.S. (2009) The Effects of Dyslexia on Student Achievement in Secondary Education. University of Warwick. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/37143866_The_effects_of_dyslexia_on_student_achievement_in_secondary_education (Accessed: 22 February 2026).