Project report

The final project report from the programme development phase (2021-2023) provides a summary of the entire process, from the development of the Love to Read programme, to its first evaluation.   You can access it here: Love to Read Main Project Report

Academic articles

This paper shares children’s perspectives and experiences of common reading for pleasure practices at school, specifically independent reading, teacher read-aloud, book-talk, reading diaries, book provision, the use of technology, annual celebratory events and the use of rewards:

Oxley, E., & McGeown, S.  (2023).  Reading for pleasure practices in school: children’s perspectives and experiences.  Educational Research: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131881.2023.2236123

This paper describes the methodological approach underpinning the Love to Read project and development of the programme: research-practice partnership and teacher-researcher co-design.  It discusses why this way of working is so important, and shares teachers’ experiences of being involved in the co-design of the programme:

McGeown, S., Oxley, E., Love to Read Practice Partners, Ricketts, J., & Shapiro, L.  (2023). Working at the intersection of research and practice: The Love to Read project.  International Journal of Educational Research: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883035522002075

This article describes the ‘Reading Engagement Scale’ a measure created to assess children’s reading engagement, and highlights the multidimensional nature of reading engagement: behavioural, cognitive, affective and social.

McGeown, S., & Conradi-Smith, K (2023).  Reading Engagement Matters! A new scale to measure and support children’s engagement with books.  The Reading Teacher, 77, 462-472. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/trtr.2267

This paper describes the theoretical and empirical research underpinning the Love to Read programme and the results from the initial evaluation.  The programme evaluation had a dual focus on both implementation and assessing early evidence of effectiveness (using a mixed methods approach).

McGeown, S., Oxley, E., McBreen, M., Shapiro, L., & Ricketts, J. (2026). The Development and an Acceptability and Feasibility Study of a Program to Support Children’s Reading Motivation and Engagement.  Reading Psychology, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02702711.2026.2644962#abstract

Recorded talks:

Reading for Pleasure: Examining the Evidence and Children’s Perspectives:

https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/Supporting+reading+for+pleasure+in+primary+schools%3A+Examining+the+evidence/1_iqvz1eq2

Increasing Children’s Motivation to Read and Reading  Engagement:

https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/Increasing+children%27s+motivation+to+read+and+reading+engagement-20241029_153145-Meeting+Recording/1_syt1tui3