Reading for pleasure: Exploring the Concept, the causes and consequences

Reading for pleasure is in the ascendant. Increasingly, over the past decade, the vital role of such reading among children and young people has been recognised. International research is burgeoning, and revealing, from different disciplinary perspectives, that volitional reading is associated with better academic outcomes (e.g. Sullivan and Brown, 2015; Torppa et al., 2020), greater engagement in learning (OECD, 2019) and enhanced psychological wellbeing (e.g. Mak and Fancourt, 2020; Sun et al., 2023). Governments around the globe are also paying new attention to the power and potential of the habit of reading, prompting ‘a reading for pleasure turn’ (Cremin and Scholes, 2024: 2) in both policy and practice. Many teachers too are seeking a renewed balance between supporting young people's skills as readers and developing their desire – the will to read (e.g. Reedy and Carvalho, 2019, Vanden Dool and Simpson, 2019). Additionally, literacy charities are directing more time to nurturing a love of reading in childhood, and the International Literacy Association has recognised reading for pleasure as the right of every child (ILA, 2018). The OECD (2021), underscoring this renewed attention to volitional reading, assert that such engagement in reading can help mediate the effects of young people’s socio-economic status, thus positioning such self-directed reading as a matter of social justice. Nonetheless, significant challenges remain. Internationally the number of children and young people who are choosing to read in their own time is declining and negative attitudes abound (OECD, 2019, 2021; Mullis et al., 2023). Furthermore, the concept of reading for pleasure remains somewhat problematic, and tensions and dilemmas persist for those schools and teachers in high accountability cultures who seek to balance the ‘push and pull’ of the performative skills agenda and the wider volitional reading agenda (Cremin and Moss 2018). We examine these challenges briefly before turning to the consequences of being a reader in childhood and the broad range of benefits that are associated with choosing to read and reading frequently. Finally, we introduce the structure and contents of this edited collection, that both surveys the extant research literature in key areas and offers new research insights in order to enrich international understanding of the power, potential and complexity of nurturing reading for pleasure

Moving Towards Whole Life Environmental Sustainability: A case study of social housing projects in Europe

This thesis is written at a time of rapid change for the construction sector as it moves towards a more sustainable future. European standards for the sustainability of construction works were published in 2011 and 2012, and since then the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to measure and reduce whole life environmental impacts of buildings has gradually become more common. New requirements for ‘sustainable’ and ‘low carbon’ or even ‘zero carbon’ developments have been introduced, and recently some nation states have introduced regulation requiring the calculation of whole life, as well as operational, environmental impacts. The aspirations towards more sustainable construction suggested by the changing policies and standards have not, however, necessarily been matched in practice; the picture is also very different in different countries, even within the common European frameworks. This thesis considers what is happening in three contrasting countries of Sweden, Cyprus and the UK, and develops case studies of construction projects to explore how decisions are being made in practice and why. The focus is on social housing projects, as these have relative equivalence across the three countries, and are also a high-volume, low-cost building type. The aim is to understand how to better implement sustainability aspirations and reduce carbon emissions from standard construction projects, rather than just environmental exemplars and high-cost developments. Results show that currently LCA is seldom used in such projects. It is also found that the national context has a significant impact on how decisions are made, and that individuals, tools and artefacts, regulatory requirements, and organisational structures, can all affect the potential outcome of a building project. The thesis concludes that understanding construction projects as part of a complex socio-technical system is essential in order to effectively implement LCA and reduce whole life carbon emission

Noisy deep networks: chaos, multistationarity, and eternal evolution

We study time-recurrent hierarchical networks that model complex systems in biology, economics, and ecology. These networks resemble real-world topologies, with strongly connected hubs (centers) and weakly connected nodes (satellites). Under natural structural assumptions, we develop a mean-field approach that reduces network dynamics to the central nodes alone. Even in the two-layer case, we establish universal dynamical approximation, demonstrating that these networks can replicate virtually any dynamical behavior by tuning center-satellite interactions. In multilayered networks, this property extends further, enabling the approximation of families of structurally stable systems and the emergence of complex bifurcations, such as pitchfork bifurcations under strong inter-satellite interactions. We also show that internal noise within nodes moderates bifurcations, leading to noise-induced phase transitions. A striking effect emerges where central nodes may lose control over satellites, akin to transitions observed in perceptrons studied by E. Gardner-relevant in complex combinatorial problems. Finally, we examine the networks’ responses to stress, demonstrating that increasing complexity during evolution is crucial for long-term viability

Contemporary responses in Africa to the aftermath of death: developments and decolonising challenges

Despite death and bereavement studies being dominated by scholars and empirical material from Europe and North America, death and bereavement studies have often assumed the universality of their knowledge. This limits the epistemic and ontological potential of the field and can result in a misunderstanding of death and bereavement, including in Europe and North America. However, more than this, because of the political power of these centres for the study of death, it has also resulted in the imposition of knowledges and practices about death on populations around the world through colonial rule, aid and development initiatives, neo-colonial practices and global health policies. We advocate for the decolonisation of death studies by which we do not mean a return to a pre-colonial past, but instead the embracing of a plurality of ontologies about death and bereavement, and a recognition of the power embedded in all claims about the meaning and processes of death and its aftermath. We explore these themes through a focus on three case studies in Africa in Senegal, South Sudan and Uganda

Children's Rights and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child; Relevancy of Neuroscience in UK Youth Justice

In General Comment 24, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 2019 recognised the importance of the latest neuroscientific research on adolescent brain development to youth justice. This chapter will frame the UNCRC observations and contentious comments about age and child justice systems by examining the current neuroscientific evidence. The UNCRC advocates for removing developmentally delayed children and those with neurodevelopmental disorders or disabilities from the criminal justice system’s remit, including the abolition of low minimum ages of criminal responsibility. However, there is a conflict between this view adopted by the UNCRC concerning children’s capacity and (im)maturity (with developmental delays, neurodevelopmental disorders, and disabilities) and the responses of state parties in the United Kingdom. This chapter examines the extent to which the UNCRC’s approach is being procedurally implemented in state parties concerning neuroscience and what this means for the relevancy of neuroscience in policy reform

Conclusion and Reflections for Research, Practice and Policy

This book is intended as a key text for researchers, teacher educators and policy-makers interested in understanding and supporting reading for pleasure among children and young people. Consequently, we invited our contributors to share research, practice, and/or policy implications of their substantive area and we reflect on each now, to explore the key messages arising and what we can learn from these to collectively improve the reading experiences and outcomes of children and young people through a focus on reading for pleasure

RV-exoplanet eccentricities: Good, Beta, and Best

We examine the eccentricity distribution(s) of radial velocity detected exoplanets. Previously, the eccentricity distribution was found to be described well by a Beta distribution with shape parameters a = 0.867, b = 3.03. Increasing the sample size by a factor of 2.25, we find that the CDF regression method now prefers a mixture model of Rayleigh + Exponential distributions over the Beta distribution, with an increase in Bayesian evidence of Δln Z ∼ 77 (12.6 σ). Using PDF regression, the eccentricity distribution is best described by a Gamma distribution, with a Rayleigh + Exponential mixture a close second. The mixture model parameters, α = 0.68 ± 0.05, λ = 3.32 ± 0.25, σ = 0.11 ± 0.01, are consistent between methods. We corroborate findings that exoplanet eccentricities are drawn from independent parent distributions when splitting the sample by period, mass, and multiplicity. Systems with a known outer massive companion provide no positive evidence for an eccentricity distribution distinct from those without. We quantitatively show M-dwarf hosted planets share a common eccentricity distribution with those orbiting FGK-type stars. We release our python code, eccentriciPy, which allows bespoke tailoring of the input archive to create more relevant priors for particular problems in RV planet discovery and characterisation. We re-characterised example planets using either traditional Beta, or updated priors, finding differences for recovery of low-amplitude multi-signal systems. We explore the effects of a variety of prior choices. The accurate determination of small but non-zero eccentricity values has wide-ranging implications for modelling the structure and evolution of planets and their atmospheres due to the energy dissipated by tidal flexing

The <i>Herschel</i>-SPIRE Dark Field – II. A <i>P(D)</i> fluctuation analysis of the deepest <i>Herschel</i> image of the submillimetre universe

The Herschel-SPIRE Dark Field is the deepest field produced by the SPIRE instrument pushing down below the galaxy confusion limit in each of the 250, 350, 500 μm bands. Standard source extraction techniques inevitably fail because of this, and we must turn to statistical methods. Here, we present a P(D) – probability of deflection – analysis of a 12' diameter region of uniform coverage at the centre of the Herschel-SPIRE Dark Field. Comparing the distribution of pixel fluxes from our observations to the distributions predicted by current literature models, we find that none of the most recent models can accurately recreate our observations. Using a P(D) analysis, we produce a fitted differential source count spline with a bump in the source counts at faint flux densities, followed by a turnover at fainter fluxes, required to fit the observations. This indicates a possible missing component from the current literature models that could be interpreted perhaps as a new population of galaxies, or a missing aspect of galaxy evolution. Taking our best-fitting results, we also calculate the contribution to the cosmic infrared background (CIB) in each of the bands, which all agree with the Planck CIB measurements in this field

Exploring Preservice Teachers' Translanguaging Practices and Perceptions in Teacher Training: A Global Englishes Perspective

This study explores how preservice English teachers in China perceive and leverage their Chinese and English linguistic repertoires in ELT methodology training, and how a reflective understanding of their use of these repertoires can contribute to their development as teachers. To understand how their practices and conceptualizations of language and teaching are in accord with an orientation toward or away from principles of Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT), we drew on theories of translanguaging space and stance (García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017; Li, 2011) and the GELT framework (Rose & Galloway, 2019) to examine preservice teachers' experiences in teacher training. Through multimodal conversational analysis of lesson recordings, we found that preservice teachers created translanguaging spaces to utilize different languages in the critical negotiation of pedagogies. In addition, they displayed traslanguaging stance by strategically incorporating multimodal and multicultural resources in microteachings. We also carried out semistructured interviews in which the preservice teachers, influenced by factors such as language ideologies and curriculum design, displayed mixed views toward translanguaging practices in teacher training, and the ELT classroom. By investigating the feasibility of GELT in TESOL teacher training in China, this study emphasizes the need to empower preservice teachers as critical agents in terms of assessment design and curriculum delivery for sustainable Global Englishes‐oriented innovations to occur