SoTL Commons Conference Presenters
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14.2 – Room 1908
Student Perception of Educational Purpose and Academic Reading Habits in Introductory Literature Courses (pr-1)
Stephen Raynie (Gordon College): sraynie@gdn.edu
Stephen Powers (Gordon College): spowers@gdn.edu
Stephen Birkerts may be right that “people are finding it much less natural—and harder—to engage books […] with full concentration, sequentially, slowly,” but the link to student use of technology is not at all clear and may, in fact, be overstated. Other factors may play a more prominent role in how students approach reading in literature courses. This study surveys student perceptions of educational purpose and academic reading habits in introductory literature courses. We hypothesize a correlation between student academic reading habits and the students' perceived purpose for college enrollment. We suspect that there will be a difference between the reading habits of those who view college as job training and those who see it in terms of some broader intellectual development. We anticipate that early identification of less motivated readers will enable success by assigning students to individualized study teams.