Dr Sarah McGeown
Co-Deputy Director of Research, Knowledge Exchange and Impact (RKEI) / Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology

- Moray House School of Education and Sport, IECS
- University of Edinburgh
Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)131 651 6121
- Email: s.mcgeown@ed.ac.uk
- Web: Sarah's website
- Sarah's Twitter profile
Address
- Street
-
Moray House School of Education and Sport, SLH 1.14
- City
- University of Edinburgh (Holyrood Campus)
- Post code
- EH8 8AQ
Qualifications
- MA (Hons) Psychology, University of Aberdeen, 2002
- MRes Psychology, University of Aberdeen, 2003
- PhD Psychology, University of Hull, 2008
- Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, 2010
- Higher Education Academy Teaching Fellow, 2011
Responsibilities & affiliations
Membership of Professional Bodies
British Psychological Society and United Kingdom Literacy Association.
Editorial/reviewer activities
- Associate Editor for the Journal of Research in Reading (2018 - present)
- Ad hoc reviewer for: Learning and Individual Differences, Child Development, Educational Psychology, Scientific Studies in Reading, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Learning and Instruction and the British Educational Research Journal.
Undergraduate teaching
Education Studies 2 A (MA Primary)
Children and Young People (MSc TLT)
Cognitive and Social Development in Education (MA Primary)
Postgraduate teaching
Child and Adolescent Development (MSc Education)
Psychology of Learning and Teaching - course organiser (MSc Education)
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
I would be interested in supervising doctoral research students in the areas listed in the research tab.
Current PhD students supervised
- 2018 - : Brendan Kwiatkowski. Thesis title: Canadian adolescent males' masculinities and school experiences: A mixed methods approach
- 2019 - : Jill Steel. Thesis title: Children's emotional wellbeing and reading outcomes: Exploring the impact of reading to dogs.
- 2020 - : Charlotte Webber. Thesis title: Tackling the drop-off: Understanding the teenage reading experience.
Past PhD students supervised
- 2013 - 2016: Jennifer Salfen. Thesis title: Extracurricular activities and positive youth development in adolescence.
- 2014 - 2017: Matluba Kahn. Thesis title: Environment, Engagement and Education: Investigating the relationship between primary school grounds and children's learning: A case study in Bangladesh (with Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture).
- 2014 - 2018: Xiaoyi Hu. Thesis title: Foreign language learning, anxiety and motivation among primary school aged children.
- 2014 - 2018: Thalia Theodoraki. Thesis title: Executive functions and academic attainment among adolescents (with Department of Psychology).
Research summary
My research focuses on children's and adolescents' reading development, with past research examining the effectiveness of different approaches to initial reading instruction and the influence of instruction on children's reading strategies. More recently, I have become interested in understanding children's and adolescents' motivation and engagement in reading, and how to promote this in school.
Project activity
My research projects focus on developing children's and adolescents' reading engagement and reading skills. A common theme across my projects is the collaboration with non-academic experts to connect research and practice.
In 2019, I co-founded LALco: Language and Literacy: Communication, collaboration, co-production (www.lalco.org.uk) with Lynne Duncan at the University of Dundee. This is a multidisciplinary network of individuals with a shared interest to promote attainment and equity in the language and literacy skills of children and young people.
Current project grants
2021- 2023: Nuffield Foundation: Love to Read: A co-designed intervention to motivate and engage child readers. This project will involve researchers, teachers, children and national literacy organisations working together to co-design an intervention to promote reading for pleasure among primary school aged pupils.
2020-2024: Social Graduate School of Social Sciences Collaborative Scheme (PhD studentship): Tackling the drop-off: Understanding the teenage reading experience. This project, in collaboration with Scottish Book Trust, will seek to understand adolescents' reading experiences and identify approaches to promote greater motivation and engagement in reading.
2019-2021: Carnegie UK Engaging Libraries, with Wellcome and The Wolfson Foundation: Sharing Stories - Working with parents to support their child’s language and literacy. This project, in collaboration with Glasgow Life, aims to engage parents with research-informed approaches to promote language and literacy skill and enjoyment with their preschool children.
2019-2021: Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre: Learning about neurodiversity at school. In this project we will co-design and evaluate a resource for children to learn about neurodiversity, with supporting resources for teachers. You can learn more about this project here: http://dart.ed.ac.uk/research/leans/
Past project grants
2018-19: Challenge Investment Fund: Growing Up A Reader. This was an interdisciplinary research project (Education, Psychology, English Literature), in collaboration with Scottish Book Trust, which aimed to understand what it means to be a young reader in the 21st century, through children and adolescents' perspectives. You can learn more about this project on our website: www.growingupareader.education.ed.ac.uk
2017-18: Scottish Universities Insight Institute: Conversations about language and literacy: Promoting equity and attainment through engagement. This grant led to LALco (www.lalco.org.uk), our multidisciplinary network to connect individuals focused on improving attainment and equity in language and literacy.
2016-2017: ESRC Impact Acceleration Account: Improving children's reading: Research informing practice. This project, in collaboration with teachers from 22 primary schools in Scotland, led to the following website: www.readresearch.education.ed.ac.uk which hosts materials aimed at bridging the gap between research and practice.
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Teacher-researcher collaboration in animal-assisted education: Co-designing a reading to dogs intervention
In:
Educational Research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2021.2016061
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
A reflective account of using child-led interviews as a means to promote discussions about reading
In:
Literacy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12278
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Inspiring and sustaining reading for pleasure in children and young people: A guide for teachers and school leaders
Research output: › Book (Published) -
The relationship between cognition and mathematics in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A systematic review
In:
Child Neuropsychology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2021.1985444
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Reading to dogs in schools: An exploratory study of teacher perspectives
In:
Educational Research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2021.1956989
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Foreign language anxiety and achievement: A study of primary school students learning English in China
(22 pages)
In:
Language Teaching Research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688211032332
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Understanding reading motivation across different text types: Qualitative insights from children
In:
Journal of Research in Reading
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12320
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Reading during adolescence: Why adolescents choose (or do not choose) books
In:
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1065
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Growing up a reader: Exploring children’s and adolescents’ perceptions of ‘a reader’
In:
Educational Research, pp. 1-13
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2020.1747361
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Developmental changes in executive functions during adolescence: A study of inhibition, shifting, and working memory
In:
British Journal of Developmental Psychology, vol. 38, pp. 74-89
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12307
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)