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This case study details the impact of pioneering research into reading groups, undertaken by Professor Jenny Hartley and Sarah Turvey. The huge expansion of reading groups and reader development in the UK over the last decade is largely due to their work. Underpinned by that research, their highly successful Prison Reading Groups project (PRG) now supports over 40 groups in more than 30 prisons. The key impacts of their work are:
This study outlines the nationwide impacts of a community reading programme, `Get into Reading', pioneered by The Reader Organisation, which has grown out of research and praxis carried out in the Department of English at Liverpool and Continuing Education (Professor Phil Davis, Dr Josie Billington, Dr Jane Davis).
The Reader Organisation became a spin-out organisation in 2008, continuing its close working collaboration with English staff (Davis, Billington) whose research has continued to underpin its trajectory. It has grown significantly since then, developing a high profile geographic and social reach, employing 78 staff and 125 volunteers, and delivering over 360 groups nationally for shared reading aloud for health and well-being in hospitals, prisons, care homes, GP surgeries, libraries, community and mental health centres, with 30% of its employees being graduates of the Department of English. The Reader Organisation's activities benefit large numbers of care and therapeutic service providers and their client groups: training has been provided to 900 health and social care staff and `Get into Reading' has been delivered to thousands of individual participants in a wide range of settings in the UK, and is also now influencing practice in other countries.
The Beyond the Book project has had impact upon the personal and professional development of practitioners, especially public librarians, but also book event organizers, and publishing professionals. The project has achieved this impact by identifying the pleasures that readers derive from shared reading, the limitations of large-scale reading events for producing social change, and by situating the organization of such events within an international context. The project has also had an impact on graduate students in several nation-states through the generation of new methods for studying contemporary readers and reading practices.
University of Reading research on precocious (young early) readers identified phonemic awareness (the ability to hear, identify and manipulate small units of sound) as being important for success in learning to read words. These findings have impacted on national recommendations about the teaching of phonics in the early years; influenced the development of a series of television programmes for pre-school children; influenced the teaching of reading in English in Malaysia; and led to involvement in the development of a phonics screener for Year 1 children. The work has also had an impact on classroom assessments and the training of teachers.
The Reading Experience Database, 1450-1945 (RED), housed and developed at The Open University (OU) is the world's largest database about reading habits. An online, open-access project with more than 30,000 entries, it has transformed public understanding of the history of reading. RED is democratising scholarship about the history of reading by encouraging members of the public from any location to contribute and use information about readers through history. More than 120 volunteers from outside academia have already contributed some 6,000 entries. RED attracts more than 1500 users each month from more than 135 countries and has inspired and provided expertise for partner projects in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
Durrant's research on the therapeutic potential of literature as a way of working through trauma led to the creation of a unique model of bibliotherapy. The application of this model within three Leeds and Bradford organisations had significant impact on the mental well-being of asylum seekers and refugees and increased the capacity for organisations to provide effective and sustainable therapeutic services. The success of these initiatives led to further public and third-sector collaborations and the model being adopted by a range of health, education, public and charitable organisations both nationally and internationally.
Our research has transformed teachers' understanding of reading, leading to more effective practices. Teachers reconceptualised reading from a solitary to a social and multimedia practice, resulting in improved attitudes to reading amongst pupils. Championed by five English Local Authorities (LAs), one project was implemented in 800 schools (36,000 pupils per year group) with 61% of reading scores rising at twice the average rate. It was later developed in several other LAs. Embedded in the training of national literacy consultants (550) and initial teacher education lecturers (290), this research shaped policy and practice in England. Using new media, the Our Story app has influenced teachers' perceptions and children's reading enjoyment in diverse international settings.
Between September 2006 and January 2009, the Department of English's Gladstone Project was centred on William Ewart Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, North Wales (formerly St Deiniol's Library). It created an online electronic catalogue of the Library's holdings and a separate online catalogue detailing Gladstone's own books, with contextualised details of his annotations in them.
As a direct result, a significant body of work has been preserved and Gladstone's Library has today established itself as a major heritage centre and visitor institution, developing wider public and media interest in Gladstone, his political career and his relationship to nineteenth century literature. Impact has also extended into teaching practice at other HE institutions, through the work of the Gladstone Centre for postgraduates.
This study focuses on a large-scale trial of peer tutoring in reading and mathematics in primary schools. The underpinning theoretical model, the classroom techniques employed and the resources used were all designed or modified by Topping, supported by his research team. The trial took place over a two-year period, with 129 primary schools in Fife. There is evidence of impact in terms of enhanced pupil achievement in reading and mathematics, changes to educational policy as the tutoring techniques were built into the local authority guidelines and changes to practice as schools within Fife continue to employ peer tutoring techniques.
The impact activities described in this document are dedicated to altering cultural perception of the creation, production, and performance of modern literature through re-presentation of the work of the Irish writer Samuel Beckett in a variety of informed contexts. Beckett research at Reading is underpinned by the university's exceptional archival resources, which include manuscripts of his writings alongside rare editions, letters, production notes for his dramas, and intriguing ephemera. Our impact-generating activities around the archive are focused upon the deployment of those resources in ways which enhance understanding of the processes behind the creation of literary works and dramatic performances. This approach to impact has involved researchers in the Department of English in the curation of exhibitions relating to the archive; in giving talks at sites crucial to Beckett's literary development; and also in the digitization of materials relating to Beckett's major works. Out of this has come testimony from a variety of people and organisations to the change that has come about in their attitude and response to a variety of creative phenomena.