Scripted Lessons as a Didactic Device for Reading Instruction: Prescribed Structure, Teacher Activity and Pupil Engagement

Abstract

Scripted lessons have become a defining feature of large-scale reading reforms across the developing world, their adoption typically justified by evidence drawn from randomised controlled trials in sub-Saharan Africa (Piper et al., 2018). Yet how these scripts reshape teacher professional activity — and what they mean for the quality of pupils' engagement with texts — remains poorly understood, especially in Francophone reform settings. This study takes up that gap. Drawing on Morocco's Pioneer Schools reform (Roadmap 2022–2026), it investigates how scripted lessons, as a prescriptive didactic device, configure reading instruction, constrain or enable teacher stances, and reshape participation dynamics at classroom level. An intra-subject comparative design was implemented across two pioneer schools in Fès, involving four teachers and sixteen observed lessons, each teacher working under two contrasted conditions. Condition A called for spontaneous delivery based on the official pedagogical guide; Condition B required strict script fidelity. Three theoretical lenses guided analysis: the double semiotization framework (Schneuwly & Dolz, 2009), Bucheton and Soulé's (2009) multi-agenda model of professional stances, and the prescribed/enacted work distinction (Goigoux, 2007). A structured observation grid coded question types (closed vs. open), interactional schemas (IRE, IRF, open exchange), teacher stance (piloting, accompanying, releasing, teaching, motivating), and pupil engagement (literal vs. interpretive). Findings converge strikingly across all four teacher pairs. Condition B systematically elicits a dominant piloting stance, locks interaction into a closed IRE schema, and narrows pupils' engagement to the literal level. Spaces of professional indeterminacy persist, most visibly during vocabulary mediation, where teachers exercise situated judgement and partially reconfigure the device. Implications are discussed in relation to ongoing debates about structured pedagogy, teacher autonomy, and the tension between instructional standardisation and authentic literacy development.