The Chronicle of Higher Education site has an interesting article entitled, “Choosing and Using Textbooks.” This article describes some studies that examined how students interacted with “pedagogical features” within textbooks (such as bold face terms, glossaries, outlines, discussion questions, and self-tests). Sadly, a study of psychology students (presumably undergrads) found that only 27% of the students read the assigned readings before the class period while 70% of them read the readings before the test–which I assume means that 30% didn’t read it at all.
I’d love to do a study like this with my students. I have a feeling that while not everyone reads my assignments, many of the students do because I structure at least part of many of my sessions along the lines of a seminar instead of a straight lecture–I get the discussion going and then expect the class to join in with their reflections from the readings. Also, about a quarter of the students’ final grade is participation which specifically includes their activity within the discussions.
Another aspect of the study that I found interesting was that the students read and valued supplemental materials if the professor emphasized them. At the end of the day if you want the students to read the course materials and truly engage with them I think the instructor has to instill an internal motivation in the student–a passion for the subject–not merely an external motivator of the fear of failing the class. A couple years ago I wrote a little electronic document for ChangeThis in which I talk about some tips on how to accomplish this and as we go into the summer break and start thinking of our classes next semester (in the spare bits of time in between our feverish efforts to churn out publications) it might be a good thing to think about how we can be even better teachers for the next year. Any suggestions?
These issues are ones I am wrestling with right now as I think about structuring my first class of about 60 undergrads taking Intro to Christian Scriptures. I am using Hauer and Young’s Intro textbook (7th edition), and the New Oxford Annotated Bible.
I have been terribly underwhelmed by the motivation of such large groups of freshmen, and also by their writing. That said, I want to emphasize the reading of the biblical text, in conjunction with H & Y, manageable yet fair tests, a brief writing assignment or two, etc. I am a bit of a hard-nose in terms of expectations . . . I am not a fan of coddling (my word) undergrads. I often see reviews of students that complain about the amount of reading for a course, and there is only one textbook! My intro to religion had 7 books, and we read them all. I don’t understand this complaint at all. But I am trying to figure out how to have the course be what I want it to be, to be fair, and also not to coddle.
We shall see what I come up with.
I’ve always liked journaling about readings. Grading class participation so heavily often scared me because it’s not always easy for me to get my voice into the discussion, and some professors deliberately didn’t call on me. Part of me has considered not grading class participation when I become a teacher, but that’s problematic, since classroom discussion may be some students’ strengths, whereas writing may not be.
Charles, we (meaning people who make textbooks, my colleagues and I) also find that students use supplemental materials WHEN REQUIRED. I agree with you that internal motivation is an ideal, but this is not the reality among undergraduates, especially outside their primary field of study (and even in it, as I have seen in focus groups). The question then becomes, as you’ve put it, how to facilitate internal motivation. Nothing wrong with a little required work to help that along.
James, I hear you that students have different strengths and weaknesses. I look at this issue from a professional development standpoint. In order to be a successful professor, you have to be able to engage in public (whether in the classroom or at conferences) and you have to be able to write. Granted, no one is going to be equally stellar at both, and most people have weaknesses in one area or another. But grad school is (or ought to be) in part about acquiring the skills needed to be professionally successful. So I think it’s appropriate for professors to ask students to move beyond their comfort zones in both areas. I’m not sure grading class participation is the best way to do this. I’m personally in favor of more structured exercises like class presentations, question-and-answer sessions, etc. But it is a start, if only because it gives students an incentive to move beyond that comfort zone.
An approach to this problem that I have used in past teaching, one that I adopted from a professor of mine, was to combine the required reading with a set of ~10 questions that would guide the students through the most important points of the reading. These assignments would be checked every class session through a brief quiz (first 10 minutes of class) that would randomly choose 3-5 of the homework questions for recall. Each question was worth one point, so half of the quiz was essentially credit for being a regular attender of the class (which these days is not something to take for granted!), but lack of preparation for the questions would eventually catch up to some students. I have found that this is an easy way to regularly reward (or punish!) students for keeping up with the reading, without staking too much of their grade on any one particular set of readings. What do you think about this?
I actually ditched one textbook half way through my Intro to OT classes this past semester. I was reluctant since the students had already forked out the cash for the book. But, it got to be too much for the intro level. I also used reading reports – but won’t next go ’round. Too much reading for me (120+ students) and didn’t REALLY adequately measure their comprehension. I like Carl’s suggestion of a reading guide and I know of others who have used that approach. It gives the students specific info to focus on. I know we’d like them to know it ALL, and if we tell them to focus on A, they’ll ignore B. But, it probably does help them retain the most important stuff.
I forgot to mention that for another course I had 2 textbooks. For one textbook, the students had about 7 questions pertaining to the text. The questions were geared such that they required a pretty good understanding of all the material, but focused on specific applications of that material. For the other textbook I made a list of about 25 vocab items. The students had to define the terms as defined by the author, indicating every page in which the term appearred.
Looking forward to hearing other ideas from everyone.
I like the suggestions, however, I remember that when I was a student having to do reading comprehension quizzes and reports deflated my desire to read the material–it just turned it into mindless busy work and drudgery. I do agree that students need some external motivators as well as internal. Maybe this could be accomplished if there were a few essay questions on tests and the instructor announced ahead of time that the students were expected to integrate their reading into the questions–maybe even give the essay questions at the beginning of the unit?
Charles,
Keep in mind the fact that for some students, reading is by itself mindless drudgery – at least they can be focused on what counts!