-----Original Message-----
From: Alison Green 
Sent: 28 February 2007 10:57
To: 'Dr Tracy Johnson'; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: Motivating students to read


Dear All,

A digression: I have just been asked whether this group has a journal.
Does anyone else think this would be a brilliant idea?

Alison

-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dr Tracy Johnson
Sent: 28 February 2007 10:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Motivating students to read


Further to Martin's point about modelling critical reading, I agree that

students really benefit from getting help with basic critical thinking 
techniques.  I encountered a very motivated history undergraduate in a 
workshop I was running last week on reading skills.  He reads everything

required for seminar preparation but feels that he isn't sure how to get

the best out of it.  Fundamentally, he felt that he didn't know 'how' to

read in a critical way that would help him make more of a contribution
to 
discussions.  I spent a lot of time in that workshop getting students to

work out what it means to read analytically and critically, and how to
go 
about doing this (asking questions, breaking points down, making 
comparisons, summarising arguments in their own words etc.).  One
younger 
student then complained that I sounded like 'Supernanny' (!) in that I
was 
asking them to devise a method for critical reading and be disciplined 
about how they went about their studies, but the history student said
that 
he'd realised it was a question of taking a more thorough approach and
that 
there was no 'magic bullet', as he put it.

I see a lot of students in these general study skills workshops who
think 
there is some 'mystery' involved in deciphering academic work, and who
seem 
to lack the basic tools for the job. However, while they need to be 
supported in developing a critical approach to study, they do also need
to 
develop a more positive attitude towards putting in the work needed to
be 
properly analytical.  In my previous role as a lecturer in English 
Literature, I was very taken aback by a student who had reached the
final 
year of her degree who confessed to me at the end of a seminar that she
had 
enjoyed the work despite the fact that she 'really wasn't much of a 
reader'...

Tracy Johnson

--On 27 February 2007 18:17 +0000 Martin Hampton 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I too quite agree with the points in your sample answer, Kate. Some
> students might also be motivated by:
>
> a) (as part, as you said, of making the prep "necessary and
> purposeful")  having an explicit mini-task associated with the reading
> i.e. not just 'read this' but 'read this and come to the seminar with 
> three words describing how it made you feel / a bare-bones summary of 
> not more than 25 words / a visual summary / something you'd ask the 
> writer if you met them / an object that in some way represents 
> something from the text (and if you don't bring one you have to choose

> from a mystery lucky dip and relate it to the article on the spot!) 
> etc etc etc
>
> b) (especially for new students) having seminar activity (when there
> has clearly been pre-reading) modelled (e.g. in a short video), so 
> that expectations are clear (and, hopefully, the value of prepared 
> participation is also clear)
>
> c) having (critical) reading modelled, especially in a way that
> demonstrates that it need not be dull and arduous, but that it can be 
> done in small chunks, and actively, and using skimming and scanning 
> techniques
>
> d) encouraging consideration of the wider and longer-term personal and
> professional benefits of this kind of preparation e.g. how will 
> developing the skill of efficient prep impact on job chances? what 
> explicit 'CV' skills does this kind of prep relate to? what kinds of 
> personal development can doing this kind of prep facilitate? As with 
> all curriculum requirements, clear links to PDP seem to motivate some 
> students (though probably a small minority) more effectively than 
> course-related incentives.
>
> Lastly: have tutors considered requiring much less preparatory
> reading? 'Too few students do it!" must be an extremely widespread and

> longstanding complaint, I reckon. If you were trying to knock nails 
> into bricks, and in thousands of attempts it hadn't really worked 
> (even though you'd like it to), you'd reach for a drill. On the whole,

> students are not evil, lazy so-and-sos intent on wrecking our 
> teaching, just as the nails are not trying to frustrate the 
> hammer-wielder. If too many don't do the reading, perhaps a different 
> tool needs to be used.
>
> That's quite enough of that dodgy analogy!
>
> Martin Hampton
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>>> Kate Smith <[log in to unmask]> 27/02/2007 16:22 >>>
> Dear All
>
>
>
> One issue that lecturers have brought up several times at our PG Cert.
> in Learning and Teaching in HE sessions and in informal discussion is 
> the difficulty in getting some students to 'do the reading' before 
> they attend seminars and how their failure to do this impacts on their
> ability/willingness to participate.  We would like to focus on this
> issue in next week's session with lecturers.  I have pasted below an
> example of the kind of advice that I have given and would be
> interested
> in your comments and further suggestions, including references of any
> articles or books that tackle this issue well.
>
>
>
> "My suggestions would be to design the seminar activity so that
> students need to have completed the reading to be able to take part.  
> You might randomly select individuals to present a 1 min summary of 
> their corporate report so that they need to do the preparation - this
> experience would be enough to encourage some students to do the work
> to
> avoid having to 'wing it' again. Students generally don't like to be
> seen to be letting each other down so if they were working in groups
> and
> some hadn't done the prep necessary to complete the group task this
> might serve to highlight that they are letting fellow students down.
> These interventions aren't intended to humiliate individuals, just
> make
> the prep necessary and purposeful. If it isn't, why do it? It may put
> some students off coming to the seminar if they haven't prepared, but
> that is a different issue.
>
>
>
> Also, are you sure that they know what is expected and are able to
> carry out the task? You might ask them to check. You might also 
> re-state the expectations of the seminar/module or negotiate what they

> need to prepare in order for you to run a useful session and establish

> a contract letting them know that this prep is their responsibility.
> Have
> you asked the group in general why they haven't done the prep? E.g.
> "It's clear that some of you haven't prepared for this session by....
> I'm interested to know why that is."  Then negotiate accordingly, if
> at
> all.
>
>
>
> Finally, do those who have done the work feel their effort is valued,
> are they thanked for their contribution? If the session is sabotaged 
> by those (majority or minority?) that haven't done the prep, those 
> that have won't bother in future, unless you make their effort 
> worthwhile by
> rewarding them with a session that allows them to make use of their
> prep."
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
> Kate
>
> Kate Smith
> Education Development Projects Manager
> Learning and Teaching Development Unit
> Ext. 65801
> http://intranet.brunel.ac.uk/ltdu/
>
>



----------------------
Dr Tracy Johnson
Teaching Support Unit
University of Bristol
[log in to unmask]
0117 331 7168 (x17168)