Sarah McGeown
Biographic Data
| ID | 5706239 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sarah McGeown |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sarah |
| FAMILY NAME | McGeown |
| SIGNATURE | MCGEOWN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4877-8204 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
‘The more connections I can make with it, the more I enjoy it’
Given low levels of writing motivation among primary school-aged pupils (Bonafede, F., C. Clark, A. Cole, and I. Picton. 2025. Children and Young People's Writing in School in 2025. National Literacy Trust), understanding pupils’ perspectives and experiences of writing within school is essential. This study drew on self-determination theory and used semi-structured interviews with 24 pupils aged 9–11 from three English primary schools to gain in-…
Fiction Book Reading and Wellbeing
Background The relationship between book reading and psychological wellbeing is gaining interest among those working in research, policy and practice, as we seek to better understand whether, and how, reading can support wellbeing. Yet, wellbeing has historically been poorly defined within reading research, and we lack a nuanced understanding of the ways in which children's book reading may support their psychological wellbeing. Methods Twenty‐fo…
Reading Fiction and Psychological Well‐being During Older Adulthood
The relationship between reading and well‐being is gaining increasing interest among those working in research, policy and practice, as we seek to better understand if, and how, reading books supports wellbeing. To date, the majority of research has focused on children and young people, neglecting to consider the well‐being benefits that reading books may have later in life. Drawing upon in‐depth interviews with 15 older adults (aged 63–83) from …
Research‐practice partnerships in education
BACKGROUND: Research-practice partnerships reflect collaborations between researchers and practice-based professionals to co-produce new research knowledge and are often cited as one way to narrow the widely recognized gap between research and practice. Within the context of education, research-practice partnerships draw upon the knowledge, expertise and experience of researchers and practice professionals with the aim of co-producing methodologi…
Using participatory approaches with children and young people to research volitional reading
Children and young people’s volitional book reading has declined consistently over the last two decades, and research efforts to reverse this trajectory would benefit considerably from the input and insights of children and young people. Meanwhile, the expanding and intensifying role of technology in many children and young people’s daily lives makes it difficult for adult reading researchers to stay informed and up-to-date on how technology is s…
Working with a young people's advisory panel to conduct educational research
Participatory Action Research (PAR) with young people aims to centre their knowledge and experience in research which is meaningful to them. In recent years, there has been an increase in PAR approaches within education, yet there is still a need for greater methodological insight into this approach. In this project, which explored adolescents’ reading motivation and engagement, a young people's advisory panel was convened to ensure the perspecti…
How can place support pedagogy? Application of the concept of cognitive affordances in research and design of outdoor learning environments
This paper adopts an ecological approach to describe the opportunities offered by school landscape for children’s curricular learning. The approach is based on Gibson’s concept of affordances which refers to the opportunities offered by an environment to its users. The research conducted in school grounds in two different contexts – Scotland and Bangladesh drew on this theory to examine the relationship between the school landscape and children’s…
Approaches for supporting adolescents’ reading motivation
Research has consistently demonstrated declines in reading motivation and engagement from childhood to adolescence, with current levels of reading enjoyment and engagement among adolescents at an all-time low. This has led to increased interest in approaches for supporting adolescents’ reading motivation. To date, efforts to support adolescent reading motivation have utilized a variety of approaches, yet there is currently no review which synthes…
Working at the intersection of research and practice
There is growing interest in the use of research-practice partnerships in education, in an attempt to narrow the widely recognized gap between educational research and practice. However, there is a tendency for partnership research to be weighted towards first-person accounts and the majority of literature comes from the US. This article describes the process of researcher-teacher collaboration to co-design an educational program, and teachers’ e…
A special issue on language and literacy
Understanding reading motivation across different text types
Background Primary school children engage in a wide range of reading activities, yet we lack insights into why children choose to read different text types. Furthermore, recent studies of reading motivation have been dominated by quantitative research; however, qualitative research is necessary to ensure that children's voices are represented when we study their motivations to read. Methods Thirty‐three children (aged 9–11) from a single school i…
Reading During Adolescence
The authors explored adolescents’ reasons for reading or not reading books. In individual interviews with 39 adolescents (ages 15 and 16) in the United Kingdom, they reported that reading books offered an opportunity to relax, learn, escape the real world, and become immersed; was exciting, developed their empathy skills, and provided a form of social capital. However, challenges to book reading included a lack of time; that it was too effortful;…
Exploring the relationship between foreign language motivation and achievement among primary school students learning English in China
Designing an outdoor learning environment for and with a primary school community
In Bangladesh, school grounds are usually barren areas devoid of any designed features. This study explored children’s, teachers’ and parents’ views of what would constitute an effective school ground for learning, socialising and playing at primary schools in rural Bangladesh. Working within the theory of behaviour settings to design school grounds, several methods were applied: focus groups with children, teachers and parents, a drawing session…
There is no better way to study science than to collect and analyse data in your own yard’
The design and use of outdoor spaces for primary school teaching and learning has been given little consideration in the present context. The existing evidence base is mostly from western perspectives. In this study, an outdoor classroom was designed and built in a primary school in Bangladesh and used to teach children (n = 30) their science curriculum. Multiple methods were used to investigate the impact of the outdoor classroom on students’ le…
Adolescent reading skill and engagement with digital and traditional literacies as predictors of reading comprehension
This study investigates the concurrent predictors of adolescent reading comprehension (literal, inferential) for fiction and non-fiction texts. Predictors were examined from the cognitive (word identification, reading fluency), psychological (gender), and ecological (print exposure) domains. Print exposure to traditional and digital texts was surveyed using a diary method of reading habits. A cross-sectional sample of 312 students in early (11-13…
Exploring the relationship between foreign language motivation and achievement among primary school students learning English in China
Adolescent reading skill and engagement with digital and traditional literacies as predictors of reading comprehension
This study investigates the concurrent predictors of adolescent reading comprehension (literal, inferential) for fiction and non-fiction texts. Predictors were examined from the cognitive (word identification, reading fluency), psychological (gender), and ecological (print exposure) domains. Print exposure to traditional and digital texts was surveyed using a diary method of reading habits. A cross-sectional sample of 312 students in early (11-13…
Designing an outdoor learning environment for and with a primary school community
In Bangladesh, school grounds are usually barren areas devoid of any designed features. This study explored children’s, teachers’ and parents’ views of what would constitute an effective school ground for learning, socialising and playing at primary schools in rural Bangladesh. Working within the theory of behaviour settings to design school grounds, several methods were applied: focus groups with children, teachers and parents, a drawing session…
There is no better way to study science than to collect and analyse data in your own yard’
The design and use of outdoor spaces for primary school teaching and learning has been given little consideration in the present context. The existing evidence base is mostly from western perspectives. In this study, an outdoor classroom was designed and built in a primary school in Bangladesh and used to teach children (n = 30) their science curriculum. Multiple methods were used to investigate the impact of the outdoor classroom on students’ le…
Adolescent reading skill and engagement with digital and traditional literacies as predictors of reading comprehension
This study investigates the concurrent predictors of adolescent reading comprehension (literal, inferential) for fiction and non-fiction texts. Predictors were examined from the cognitive (word identification, reading fluency), psychological (gender), and ecological (print exposure) domains. Print exposure to traditional and digital texts was surveyed using a diary method of reading habits. A cross-sectional sample of 312 students in early (11-13…
There is no better way to study science than to collect and analyse data in your own yard’
The design and use of outdoor spaces for primary school teaching and learning has been given little consideration in the present context. The existing evidence base is mostly from western perspectives. In this study, an outdoor classroom was designed and built in a primary school in Bangladesh and used to teach children (n = 30) their science curriculum. Multiple methods were used to investigate the impact of the outdoor classroom on students’ le…
Understanding reading motivation across different text types
Background Primary school children engage in a wide range of reading activities, yet we lack insights into why children choose to read different text types. Furthermore, recent studies of reading motivation have been dominated by quantitative research; however, qualitative research is necessary to ensure that children's voices are represented when we study their motivations to read. Methods Thirty‐three children (aged 9–11) from a single school i…
Reading During Adolescence
The authors explored adolescents’ reasons for reading or not reading books. In individual interviews with 39 adolescents (ages 15 and 16) in the United Kingdom, they reported that reading books offered an opportunity to relax, learn, escape the real world, and become immersed; was exciting, developed their empathy skills, and provided a form of social capital. However, challenges to book reading included a lack of time; that it was too effortful;…
Exploring the relationship between foreign language motivation and achievement among primary school students learning English in China
Designing an outdoor learning environment for and with a primary school community
In Bangladesh, school grounds are usually barren areas devoid of any designed features. This study explored children’s, teachers’ and parents’ views of what would constitute an effective school ground for learning, socialising and playing at primary schools in rural Bangladesh. Working within the theory of behaviour settings to design school grounds, several methods were applied: focus groups with children, teachers and parents, a drawing session…
A special issue on language and literacy
Approaches for supporting adolescents’ reading motivation
Research has consistently demonstrated declines in reading motivation and engagement from childhood to adolescence, with current levels of reading enjoyment and engagement among adolescents at an all-time low. This has led to increased interest in approaches for supporting adolescents’ reading motivation. To date, efforts to support adolescent reading motivation have utilized a variety of approaches, yet there is currently no review which synthes…
Working at the intersection of research and practice
There is growing interest in the use of research-practice partnerships in education, in an attempt to narrow the widely recognized gap between educational research and practice. However, there is a tendency for partnership research to be weighted towards first-person accounts and the majority of literature comes from the US. This article describes the process of researcher-teacher collaboration to co-design an educational program, and teachers’ e…
Using participatory approaches with children and young people to research volitional reading
Children and young people’s volitional book reading has declined consistently over the last two decades, and research efforts to reverse this trajectory would benefit considerably from the input and insights of children and young people. Meanwhile, the expanding and intensifying role of technology in many children and young people’s daily lives makes it difficult for adult reading researchers to stay informed and up-to-date on how technology is s…
Working with a young people's advisory panel to conduct educational research
Participatory Action Research (PAR) with young people aims to centre their knowledge and experience in research which is meaningful to them. In recent years, there has been an increase in PAR approaches within education, yet there is still a need for greater methodological insight into this approach. In this project, which explored adolescents’ reading motivation and engagement, a young people's advisory panel was convened to ensure the perspecti…
How can place support pedagogy? Application of the concept of cognitive affordances in research and design of outdoor learning environments
This paper adopts an ecological approach to describe the opportunities offered by school landscape for children’s curricular learning. The approach is based on Gibson’s concept of affordances which refers to the opportunities offered by an environment to its users. The research conducted in school grounds in two different contexts – Scotland and Bangladesh drew on this theory to examine the relationship between the school landscape and children’s…
Reading Fiction and Psychological Well‐being During Older Adulthood
The relationship between reading and well‐being is gaining increasing interest among those working in research, policy and practice, as we seek to better understand if, and how, reading books supports wellbeing. To date, the majority of research has focused on children and young people, neglecting to consider the well‐being benefits that reading books may have later in life. Drawing upon in‐depth interviews with 15 older adults (aged 63–83) from …
Research‐practice partnerships in education
BACKGROUND: Research-practice partnerships reflect collaborations between researchers and practice-based professionals to co-produce new research knowledge and are often cited as one way to narrow the widely recognized gap between research and practice. Within the context of education, research-practice partnerships draw upon the knowledge, expertise and experience of researchers and practice professionals with the aim of co-producing methodologi…
‘The more connections I can make with it, the more I enjoy it’
Given low levels of writing motivation among primary school-aged pupils (Bonafede, F., C. Clark, A. Cole, and I. Picton. 2025. Children and Young People's Writing in School in 2025. National Literacy Trust), understanding pupils’ perspectives and experiences of writing within school is essential. This study drew on self-determination theory and used semi-structured interviews with 24 pupils aged 9–11 from three English primary schools to gain in-…
Fiction Book Reading and Wellbeing
Background The relationship between book reading and psychological wellbeing is gaining interest among those working in research, policy and practice, as we seek to better understand whether, and how, reading can support wellbeing. Yet, wellbeing has historically been poorly defined within reading research, and we lack a nuanced understanding of the ways in which children's book reading may support their psychological wellbeing. Methods Twenty‐fo…
Psychology (14 works) · Pedagogy (10 works) · Mathematics education (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Developmental psychology (5 works) · Linguistics (5 works) · Literacy (5 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (5 works) · Child Development and Digital Technology (4 works)