Enhancing digital reading comprehension through feedback messages: A large and long-term dynamic approach with secondary school students

Many high school students struggle to efficiently read complex digital documents that require different self-regulating processes, such as identifying main ideas or integrating multiple documents. To foster these processes, we designed and tested a long-term dynamic approach in which 700 students from grades 7 to 10 answered adjunct comprehension questions and received immediate feedback either about the performance (corrective) or about different processes and strategies to answer the questions (elaborated). Surprisingly, the effect of feedback on comprehension scores varied across samples. Elaborated feedback had a positive impact on 7th–8th grade students' self-regulation and comprehension scores, whereas Corrective Feedback yielded greater improvements in these domains for 9th–10th grade students. The effects were partially mediated by students' reviewing time in both samples. We discuss the need to adapt dynamic assessment interventions to students' educational level. In today's digital age, high school students face significant challenges in self-regulating their reading comprehension process. Addressing this particular concern, the current study examines how answering questions and receiving feedback while reading digital texts can enhance self-regulation and comprehension in high school students. Of particular relevance for instruction was the fact that different types of feedback had opposing effects depending on students grade level. Providing elaborated information aimed at guiding text processing to solve a comprehension question (e.g., “It is important to combine the information in the text with your own knowledge”) supported students in their early years of high school, while simply stating whether the response was correct or incorrect worked better for those in the final years of high school. These results can help educators make informed decisions about designing feedback in digital environments to promote self-regulation and comprehension. • Secondary student's digital reading literacy can be enhanced by providing feedback with a dynamic approach. • Elaborated process-focused feedback enhanced comprehension and self-regulation only among younger secondary students. • Those effects were partially mediated by students' reviewing time in both samples.