Student connections with academic texts: a phenomenographic study of reading

Concerns about the ability of post-secondary students to read scholarly materials are well documented in the literature. A key aspect of reading at the deeper level expected of these students is connecting new information to prior knowledge. This study is based on an activity where students were exp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Teaching in higher education 2014-01, Vol.19 (8), p.943-954
Main Author: MacMillan, Margy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Associative Learning
Canada
Class Activities
connections
Content Area Reading
Foreign Countries
phenomenography
Phenomenology
Postsecondary Education
prior knowledge
Prior Learning
Reader Text Relationship
reading
Reading Comprehension
Reading Instruction
Reading Strategies
scholarly articles
Students
Workshops
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Summary:Concerns about the ability of post-secondary students to read scholarly materials are well documented in the literature. A key aspect of reading at the deeper level expected of these students is connecting new information to prior knowledge. This study is based on an activity where students were explicitly required to make such connections as part of an in-class workshop on reading. Phenomenographic analysis of these connections showed that students could establish links between the scholarly article and their personal and academic knowledge. It also showed that students read at both surface and deep levels, making connections to the words in the text or on a deeper level, to the meaning of the text. These insights suggest ways of encouraging students to deepen their engagement with academic texts.
ISSN:1356-2517
1470-1294
DOI:10.1080/13562517.2014.934345