College faculty often struggle with getting their students to read assigned materials. Even if students do read, they may not read closely or critically. Not only does the lack of effective reading undermine understanding, but it also hampers class discussions and engagement. To promote close and critical reading in a required, upper-division…

Although reading homework is common in university courses, compliance rates vary. Using interviews, this study explored how five students responded to reading assignments in their introductory college mathematics classes and how they viewed reading and reading-related activities relative to their academic successes. Qualitative content analysis of…

Social annotation plays a crucial role in nurturing and sustaining a collaborative reading community, offering the potential to enhance students' motivation and performance within socially supportive learning environments. Nonetheless, research on the dynamic changes in student engagement in social annotation remains limited. This study aims to…

This SoTL-driven study used Read Aloud Protocols (RAPs) to explore the question, how do students read assignments? Reading theory suggests that students will draw on schema in order to make sense of what they are reading. This study explored the strategies that students used to read and interpret an assignment and examined the ways that schema…

An important part of college learning is the ability to comprehend complex texts. Research indicates that epistemic beliefs--views about what knowledge is like and how people come to know--may guide readers' goals and behaviors. Metaphor is a tool for uncovering individual's beliefs. This article reports on a study examining 90 beginning…

Course reading completion enhances student learning and helps deepen students' thinking about concepts and ideas presented in class. To better understand the students' reading completion and the factors which impact course reading completion, the researchers engaged in a study with 434 students enrolled in six graduate level literacy courses, or…

Professors and students have contradictory views of course reading. Professors believe that reading outside of the classroom is essential in optimizing learning. However, students often find the readings to be time-consuming, not necessary to pass the class, and an option rather than a requirement. We surveyed 449 undergraduate university students…

The purpose of the study was to examine (a) students' social annotation behaviors and engagement change in an undergraduate course throughout the semester, and (b) which social annotation behaviors impact active engagement time. A total of 91 university students' social annotation behaviors, as well as their active engagement time in readings,…

Microlearning, as an informal learning approach, has gained increasing popularity in both the training industry and professional studies disciplines over the last several years. However, despite the rising interest in microlearning, how to design microlearning activities and what microcontent is reasonable for microlearning activities have rarely…

Journalism stakeholders increasingly believe that they need to better understand the news audience to accomplish their goals. Our study explores the extent to which this "audience turn" has unfolded in the education of future journalists. Drawing on data collected from course syllabi from leading journalism schools throughout the United…

Purpose: Teaching effectiveness is essential to student learning, engagement and success. This study aims to identify the perceived teaching effectiveness attributes from the student's perspective through a pilot study. Design/methodology/approach: A comprehensive literature review identified 6 demographic and 25 teaching effectiveness…

Students possess informal, intuitive ways of reasoning about the world, including biological phenomena. Although useful in some cases, intuitive reasoning can also lead to the development of scientifically inaccurate ideas that conflict with central concepts taught in formal biology education settings, including evolution. Using antibiotic…

This study was conducted to find how teacher candidates at a southwestern regional university understood ableism and empowerment based on their reading and interaction with the campus common reader. This work was important to help future teachers form healthy instructional practices that are inclusive of all students, regardless of ability in…

Many active learning practices highly depend on students' advance preparation for the class. However, reading Calculus can be a challenging task to students. We address this concern by assigning targeted pre-class readings in multiple Calculus courses. We report on our implementations, provide students' feedback, and discuss the lessons learned…

Qualitative data analysis from open-ended comments written by 206 undergraduates illustrates student attitudes, beliefs, and practices that reveal an academic reading paradox. Consistently, undergraduates report that reading is valuable, yet their noncompliance with reading assignments suggests otherwise. Undergraduates report that they achieve…