Pre-service teachers as engaged readers?

This paper reports on a recent study that focused on the reading characteristics of preservice teachers. The study is based on the work of Stalpers (2005, 2006), who investigated the reading characteristics of high school adolescents. Besides reading habits, five variables that appear to be related to reading frequency were investigated: i) reading motivation, ii) personality (fantasy proneness and need for cognition), iii) self-efficacy in reading proficiency, iv) reading climate (peers, parents, school) and v) perceived opportunity. A group of 350 students from the first, second, third and fourth year of one pre-service teaching program filled in an elaborate questionnaire. The results replicated Stalpers’ findings in that the aforementioned five variables were also related to reading frequency of pre-service teachers. In addition, it was found that training year played an important role within the variable reading climate with respect to peers and school. These findings will inform transitions towards a curriculum in which pre-service teachers are optimally supported in their development towards engaged readers and reading promoters