This paper seeks to identify threshold concepts in academic reading. It builds on existing research on the subject by working in collaboration with three groups of academic readers (1: academic staff and subject lecturers; 2: learning developers and librarians; 3: students) to co-identify a list of potential threshold concepts of academic reading.…

As school districts adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS), content area teachers were expected to incorporate disciplinary literacy skills into their lessons. The problem for this study was that secondary school science and social studies teachers struggle to teach students how to read and understand informational text. The purpose of this…

In an effort to improve an understanding of content area vocabulary instruction and how to support teacher-educators, in this study I sought to determine which vocabulary instructional practices were selected from the corpus and applied in instruction. I examined the knowledge and beliefs held by the participants about vocabulary instruction in…

In this study, middle school language arts teachers engaged in focus group interviews and shared their perceptions of content literacy, experiential learning, assessment data, and refined practice prior to and after participating in a sustained content literacy professional development. Findings based on these perceptions demonstrate a need for…

Museums have long played an important role in the support of learning, yet less is known about the role of museums in supporting preservice teacher learning in the field of literacy education. In this qualitative study, the authors' report on how a partnership with a local art museum, as a space of hybridity, extended preservice teacher's learning…

The Common Core State Standards recommend that all educators equip students with the literacy skills needed for college and careers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine middle-level content-area teachers' perspectives on a district-led literacy professional development program and their implementation of the literacy…

Becoming well read, especially in academia, is key to being part of the university -- and of society. Academic reading is 'tricky business' especially for those widening participation students not necessarily familiar with the forms and processes of Higher Education. To foster these students' academic literacies and practice, rather than the…

This study examined the teaching-learning issues related to the language in the biology classroom. It has explored the main issues of biological language that encounter students and teachers in the teaching-learning processes. The objectives of the study were to explore the perceptions and experiences of secondary school teachers about language…

Reading comprehension of informational texts has been largely debated and introduced at all levels of education across western countries. However, it has not received enough attention in developing countries including Vietnam. This paper aims to investigate the procedure of reading and comprehension of informational texts in high schools in…

This article argues that for disciplinary literacy to be addressed successfully by subject-area teachers and students, it needs to choose a different path than the one it has been on. It explains how the road disciplinary literacy has traveled to date has been marked by justifiable subject-area teacher resistance to requirements to infuse literacy…

The advancement of college reading abilities from novice to expert is not an automatic outcome of an undergraduate education. Faculty play a large role in the undergraduate academic reading experience through course curricula and in-class instruction. However, descriptions of faculty beliefs about collegiate academic reading and pedagogical…

Literacy across the content areas has often signified a focus on helping future teachers navigate nonfiction texts and promote command of textual features and literary terms, yet these teachers also need to model critical insight that invites students to question information and purported facts that define their realities. Following a brief review…

Analytical reading and writing are embedded in a disciplinary approach to history instruction and present opportunities to extend students' literacy practices. U.S. educators and researchers have come to rely on the Document-Based Question (DBQ) to assess and develop students' historical knowledge and argument writing. However, this task has been…

This article shares findings from the implementation of an ongoing National Professional Development (NPD) project that advances second language literacy and biliteracy in secondary content areas. The project is part of a research-practice partnership between a large public university and two school districts in south Texas that engages in-service…

Research indicates that there has been a decline in college reading over the past decades, yet few studies have been conducted at community colleges. The aim of this exploratory study was to gain a broad view of what reading across the curriculum looks like at one urban community college from the perspectives of students and faculty. A survey was…