Title
"What Does Our Feedback Tell Young Readers? A Design Research Journey in Early Reading Assessment"
Wednesday, 21 October, 2026
15:00 (CET), 14:00 (UK)
Abstract
When a young child reads aloud to a teacher, the teacher’s response may seem like a small, ordinary act. Yet this everyday feedback shapes children’s reading skills, their motivation, sense of agency, and self-image as readers. In this webinar, I will tell the story of a research journey that began with a problem from my own classroom practice and followed an educational design research approach (McKenney & Reeves, 2019).
In my research, I have used systematic reviews as my way of mapping and understanding assessment and feedback in the context of early reading instruction (Grønli et al., 2024, 2026a). The reviews revealed that feedback in early reading is often concentrated on technical correction, that it tends to narrow most for the students who may need rich feedback the most, and that reading research has made surprisingly little use of contemporary feedback and assessment theory. Each of these insights, in turn, shaped the next methodological step: co-designing and testing a research-based tool that helped teachers broaden their assessment focus and feedback repertoire (Grønli et al., 2025, 2026b). The tool is now made available to Norwegian primary schools through a national reading initiative.
Alongside the findings, I will reflect on the research journey itself — how an everyday classroom problem became a coherent thesis (Grønli, 2025), and the choices and challenges along the way. The webinar concludes with reflections and practical advice from my own journey into research, which I hope will be useful for early career researchers building their own paths.
References
Grønli, K. M. (2025). Teacher feedback on early readers’ oral reading: Two systematic reviews and a checklist intervention [Doctoral dissertation, University of Stavanger]. Nasjonalt vitenarkiv. https://nva.sikt.no/registration/019904daf6dd-93cfd61e-310d-4f9b-a3fa-cfcbdb43c19f
Grønli, K. M., Walgermo, B. R., McTigue, E. M., & Uppstad, P. H. (2024). Teachers’ feedback on oral reading: A critical review of its effects and the use of theory in research. Educational Psychology Review, 36(4), Article 121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09957-z
Grønli, K. M., Walgermo, B. R., McTigue, E. M., & Uppstad, P. H. (2026a). Feedback practices on young students’ oral reading: A systematic review. Review of Educational Research, 96(2), 391–434. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543241306070
Grønli, K. M., Walgermo, B. R., McTigue, E. M., & Uppstad, P. H. (2026b). Systematic reading assessment and motivating feedback through the Read to Me Checklist. The Reading Teacher, 80(1), Article e70065. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.70065
Grønli, K. M., Walgermo, B. R., Uppstad, P. H., & McTigue, E. M. (2025). Transforming teacher feedback: A checklist for assessing and supporting reading skills, motivation and student agency in oral reading. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 82, Article 102377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2025.102377
McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2019). Conducting educational design research (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315105642
SIG webinar participation is not restricted to AEAE members: please forward to anyone you think might be interested in this event.
Presenter
Karianne Megard Grønli
University of Stavanger
Karianne Megard Grønli is an associate professor at the Norwegian Reading Centre, University of Stavanger. Before completing her PhD in 2025, she worked for more than twenty years as a primary teacher and as a mentor and advisor for teachers and school leaders. Her research examines teacher feedback, assessment and student agency in early reading instruction, and her doctoral work — published in Review of Educational Research, Educational Psychology Review and Contemporary Educational Psychology — combined systematic reviews with design research to develop the Read To Me checklist. She is the recipient of the AEA-Europe Kathleen Tattersall New Assessment Researcher Award 2026.
Postgraduate Student and Early Career Researcher Network
This special interest group (SIG) connects postgraduate students (both taught and research) and early career researchers in the field of educational assessment. It aims to develop a collaborative learning community, to provide a forum for discussion and a platform to present research in progress, and to encourage and facilitate the involvement of postgraduate students and early career researchers in the wider AEA-Europe organisation. It organises events at the AEA-E annual conference, webinars, and regular opportunities for members to get together online to share experiences and offer support.