We’re increasingly using digital devices for our written communications, but researchers from Edith Cowan University here in Australia have recently highlighted the ongoing importance of explicitly teaching both handwriting and keyboarding skills to students, starting in the primary years. Lead researcher Dr Anabela Malpique joins us for today’s episode of The Research Files. She’s a Senior Lecturer in Literacy at the School of Education at ECU, and we’ll be chatting about the findings of a meta-analysis comparing the effects of writing by hand or keyboarding on primary students’ writing performance, and a follow-up study with grade 2 students in Western Australia. She’ll also be sharing some tips for how teachers in the classroom, and in collaboration with families, can help students become hybrid writers.

Host: Jo Earp

Guest: Dr Anabela Malpique

Sponsor: Teachers Mutual Bank