Difficulties students encounter in learning through reading

Most undergraduate students do not have a reading problem per se: their difficulty is rather coping with the amount of reading they are expected to do, according to learning skills advisors in UWA Student Support Services¹ .

Enthusiastic and committed teachers who want students to gain a deep appreciation and understanding of the subject often provide extensive reading lists and encourage their students to ‘read widely’. While this approach is, in many ways, commendable, the students’ total reading load also needs to be considered. One way of estimating the reading time available to students is to assume a 10 to 12-hour study week per unit and subtract the time required for lectures, tutorials, labs and assignments. If what remains is the amount of time most students are able to spend reading in the unit you teach, how would you suggest they best use the time available? For example, how much pre-tutorial reading would you assign your students each week?

A common teaching practice which students find helpful is to identify reading as ‘essential’, ‘recommended’ and ‘optional’. Other categories useful in providing direction to students might include particular topics, schools of thought and techniques.

In addition to coping with the volume of reading, students may be unsure of the purpose of the assigned reading. Is it to flesh out for themselves what was presented in the lecture, critique the work, identify inadequacies in the research, analyse the language of the text, identify main points of the argument, or summarise? Providing students with a purpose for their reading, encouraging them to ask themselves questions about the reading, and asking them to produce something concrete but not overly time consuming can help students to manage their reading time well and to learn more effectively.

Students are often intimidated or frustrated by reading that is both extensive and very dense, containing complex ideas, unfamiliar terminology or subject matter, or a lot of detail. Particularly in the first years of an undergraduate degree, they will often feel inadequate or frustrated by the complexity and volume of reading. How might you assist your students in ‘tackling’ reading? How did you learn to cope? What do you do currently when you encounter challenging material or a difficult style? Can you ‘model’ it for them?

¹ Dr Geoff Cooper is acknowledged for his contributions to this piece.