Research project High-Ability Students: Advanced Reading Ability, Enrichment-Based Reading Instruction, and Academic Achievement
This doctoral-research project examines how advanced readers and their teachers experience an enrichment-based and differentiated reading instruction.
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It also examines how high-ability students experience motivation and well-being in school, as well as their attitudes toward learning, and how these factors are associated with their academic achievement. We would like to thank all the students and teachers who participated in the studies!
Schools are expected to provide all students with opportunities to learn and develop. Reading ability among students in the lower and middle grades often spans several grade levels within a single class. However, students who read at a more advanced level than their age peers rarely encounter reading instruction that meets their educational needs.
This doctoral project examines how advanced readers in middle school and their teachers experience a reading instruction model designed to support and stimulate the reading development of both advanced and other students in an inclusive classroom, with a particular focus on advanced readers. The model is based on enriched and differentiated reading instruction.
Socio-emotional factors such as motivation, attitude toward learning, and well-being at school are significant for students’ academic performance. The project also examines how high-ability students’ perceptions of these factors are associated with their academic achievement; this knowledge can be used preventively to reduce the risk of academic achievement lower than what their cognitive abilities indicate.
von Börtzell-Szuch, D., Allodi, M. W., & Szabo, A. (2024). Students with advanced literacy skills and related literacy instruction: a scoping review. Gifted and Talented International, 39(2), 137–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332276.2024.2425847
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15332276.2024.2425847#abstract
von Börtzell-Szuch, D., Allodi, M. W., & Hansen, K. Y. (2026). A latent profile analysis of high-ability middle school students´ motivation, attitudes toward learning, and well-being in school and its relationship with academic achievement. High Ability Studies, 37(1), 79–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/13598139.2026.2652231
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13598139.2026.2652231
von Börtzell-Szuch, D., Westling Allodi, M., & Szabo, A. (2026, March 3-6). Teachers´ experiences of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model-Reading Framework in the Swedish middle school: Case studies in two different contexts [Conference poster]. Courage and Agency in Education for the Present. The Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA), Aarhus, Denmark.
von Börtzell-Szuch, D, Westling Allodi, M, & Szabo, A. (2025,16-18 June). Academic performance, academic self-concept, motivation, and attitudes toward learning among high-ability Grade 6 students in Sweden: Descriptive analyses of data from the Evaluation Through Follow-up database.[Conference poster]. European Council for High Ability (ECHA) conference on inclusion and sustainability, Karlstad, Sweden.
von Börtzell-Szuch, D., Westling Allodi, M., & Szabo, A. (2024, August 28-31). Research on literacy instruction for students with advanced literacy skills: A map of the field. [Conference poster]. 19th European Council for High Ability Conference Expanding Horizons: The Odyssey of Talents and Gifts, Thessaloniki, Greece.
von Börtzell-Szuch, D. (2023, 20-21 August). Strength-Based Support in Reading Literacy Instruction for Students´ Success. [Conference presentation]. 27th Conference of the Junior Researchers of EARLI, Thessaloniki, Greece.