The Development and an Acceptability and Feasibility Study of a Program to Support Children’s Reading Motivation and Engagement

Sarah McGeown; Emily Oxley; Miriam McBreen; Laura Shapiro; Jessie Ricketts

doi:10.1080/02702711.2026.2644962

The Development and an Acceptability and Feasibility Study of a Program to Support Children’s Reading Motivation and Engagement

Sarah McGeown
, Emily Oxley
, Miriam McBreen
, Laura Shapiro
, Jessie Ricketts

School of Psychology

University of Edinburgh
University of Glasgow
University College London
University of London

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This article describes the development and an acceptability and feasibility study of a program co-created by researchers, teachers, other professionals, and with children’s input, to increase children’s (aged 8–11) reading motivation and engagement. Following co-creation, teachers from 4 schools in the UK delivered the program for six-weeks, with data from 425 children and seven teachers collected. While teachers’ perspectives of implementation were positive, no statistically significant increases in reading motivation or engagement were found for entire sample of children participating. There was, however, a statistically significant increase for children starting the program with low reading engagement. Through its close connection between research and education communities throughout, this article makes a novel and significant contribution to methodological knowledge and thinking in relation to the development (researcher-teacher-child co-design), delivery (balance between fidelity and flexibility) and evaluation (importance of acceptability/feasibility) of programs designed to improve children’s reading experiences and outcomes.

Original language	English
Number of pages	23
Journal	Reading Psychology
Early online date	19 Mar 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2026.2644962
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 19 Mar 2026

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

Data Access Statement

Quantitative data is available on the UK Data Service. See: https://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/858039/

Funding

This project was funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Grant number: EDO/FR-000022626.

Funders
Nuffield Foundation

Access to Document

10.1080/02702711.2026.2644962Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The Development and an Acceptability and Feasibility Study of a Program to Support Children s Reading Motivation and Engagement
Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Final published version, 2.21 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Cite this

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abstract = "This article describes the development and an acceptability and feasibility study of a program co-created by researchers, teachers, other professionals, and with children{\textquoteright}s input, to increase children{\textquoteright}s (aged 8–11) reading motivation and engagement. Following co-creation, teachers from 4 schools in the UK delivered the program for six-weeks, with data from 425 children and seven teachers collected. While teachers{\textquoteright} perspectives of implementation were positive, no statistically significant increases in reading motivation or engagement were found for entire sample of children participating. There was, however, a statistically significant increase for children starting the program with low reading engagement. Through its close connection between research and education communities throughout, this article makes a novel and significant contribution to methodological knowledge and thinking in relation to the development (researcher-teacher-child co-design), delivery (balance between fidelity and flexibility) and evaluation (importance of acceptability/feasibility) of programs designed to improve children{\textquoteright}s reading experiences and outcomes.",

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The Development and an Acceptability and Feasibility Study of a Program to Support Children’s Reading Motivation and Engagement

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Access Statement

Funding

Access to Document

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