"I don't do books": Reframing emotional barriers to academic reading

Emma Kimberley | University of Northampton


Recent research has identified the importance of working with students’ emotional and affective barriers in Higher Education (Danvers, 2016; Kannan and Miller, 2009; Värlander, 2008) and specifically in Learning Development departments (Gravett and Winstone, 2018). All students have experience of reading, some of which might be negative. Students frequently report that they do not perceive themselves to be readers or are not good at reading; such perceptions of lack of efficacy in relation to academic activities are often couched in personal terms (Gravett and Winstone, 2018). Negative self-perception might stem from a lack of confidence in ability, or from prior experiences interpreted and remembered as failures, but also often comes from a misconception of what a “good” reader is and does. Such negative perceptions have been found to impair reading ability (Lyubomirsky et al, 2011); reframing them can have a substantial effect on student learning.

Reading is not solely an intellectual and individual experience: it has relational, embodied, affective and material components involving choices and decisions of which learning developers can make students aware. Exploring these choices and using reading strategies can challenge negative self-image and create a productive and transitional moment for academic development.


This workshop looks at two framing activities that acknowledge the affective barriers to approaching difficult reading tasks, and at how using reading strategies such as SQ3R can be used to reframe students’ self perceptions as readers as well as providing a positive experience of a reading task and a practical approach to getting reading done.

Presentation Slides (1,568 KB)

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