Are your students learning as they read?

If a student reads and the process is little more than following with the eye a string of words, not much more has been achieved by the student than photocopying the pages or bookmarking the Web reference. For students to learn as they read, they need to process and make meaning of what they read. How might we advise students to learn as they read? Perhaps the most obvious shortfall in the reading/learning experience is the assumption, sometimes by both student and teacher, that learning will just happen as the reading is occurring. Encouraging the reader to take time to reflect, to make meaning from what is being read, may need explicit mention. When is this reflection best done? Do we encourage students to read the complete text, then reflect? Do we encourage an intermittent read/reflect approach? Probably a mixture of both. Do we advise students to read with a particular purpose, to seek specific answers or to make sense of particular issues that may be illuminated in the text? Is there a point in getting students to record their reflections? How does highlighting text in a photocopied chapter actually help in the process of learning? What sort of notes might be most beneficial for the student? McKeachie encourages students ''to make marginal notes, to write down questions as they go, and to carry on an active dialogue with the author'' (p. 132).

How can we help students to realise what they have learned through reading? Are we seeking to encourage encyclopaedic learning of factual material or are we seeking to develop skills of judgement, of synthesis and analysis? As McKeachie notes ''none of these desired capacities for critical thinking and usefulness for action can be developed without some grounding in essential facts and concepts'' (p. 131). However, without challenging and guiding our students to do more than just glean facts as they read, their learning through reading will be severely limited. Do we leave this more complex level of learning entirely to them or do we provide some direction for their reading? What is suggested here is not 'spoon-feeding' but rather teaching, in context, how best to use the spoon.

• McKeachie, W.J. (1994). Teaching tips: Strategies, research and theory for college and university teachers (9th ed.). Lexington, Mass.: D.C Heath & Co.