Reading & Learning


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Reading & Learning

Some Reflections on Reading and Learning

Reading and Learning

To begin our consideration of reading and learning, we need to start with some definitions. When we learn, we take new information and absorb it into preexisting patterns of thought. Students need to actively engage in that process of absorption.
Successful students are like sponges, soaking up the material and expanding their horizons. Unsuccessful students approach learning passively, like robots, assuming they can learn simply by sitting down and memorizing "everything" in the book. To truly learn new material, the student must work with it, must give it some structure that, in some way, becomes meaningful. Reading, like learning, needs to be understood. On one level, reading can be defined as "receiving or taking in the sense (as letters and symbols) by scanning. Reading, however, is a more complex activity. The successful student must go beyond recognition of the meaning of the "words" to "interpreting the meaning or significance" of those words.

Reading as Learning

As alert readers, you should immediately have noted the slight change in the heading of this section. The change was a simple one from "and" to "as." However, the change of that one word is significant because to speak of "reading and learning" implies that the two activities are separate; i.e., the student reads, then learns. To talk of "reading as learning" emphasizes the interdependence of the two activities. Reading is the FIRST STEP in acquiring knowledge. To make the reading a part of "the learning" reflect on the following:

One of the most basic principles of becoming a better reader is to read, and to read, and to read! It is perhaps trite, but true, that we become better readers by reading.
Good readers do not rely on gimmicks to get through the reading. Good readers have a clear sense of the organization of a text and use that sense to determine what is important.
Much of our understanding of what we read depends on matching the new information to what is already known. In this sense, as reader you create the meaning of the text.
Reading, for the good reader, is a process of prediction. If a story begins "once upon a time" most readers will immediately know (i.e., predict) that the text is a fairy tale.
Reading is an interactive process. Consider the meaning of the word process. Process can be defined in many ways. One definition of process says that it is "a natural phenomenon marked by gradual changes that lead to a particular
result." That result, for the reader, is meaning. If one accepts the notion of reading as process, one must also accept that reading is active not passive.

What Kind of Reader Are You?

In general, readers can be divided into categories depending on the principal level of behavior demonstrated during reading.
Readers can fall into four categories:

The compulsive hardworking student
The passive student
The "timid defeatist"
The "big-mouthed extemporizer"

These descriptive phrases present categories that represent extremes in behavior. No one reader fits exactly into each category. There is considerable crossover; however, many readers can identify more strongly with one than with another.

The Compulsive Hardworking Student: Although one would hope that all students are "hardworking," adding the adjective "compulsive" injects a negative note. The compulsive, hardworking student generally exhibits the following
reading behavior. He/she reads and rereads the material to arrive at meaning. (If once is good, twice is better, etc.). He/she also equates reading with cramming for a test and spends hours on impersonal, tedious, and unrewarding work.
In class discussion, this type of student will focus on detail and refrain from entering in to a more personal, searching assessment of the text. He/she focuses on the author's "words" not on the "meaning" or "message."
The Passive Reader: Reading, like learning, is not a "spectator sport." To arrive at meaning, the reader must get involved actively in the process. The passive reader/learner expects that 100% of the responsibility for arriving at meaning lies elsewhere. He/she never confronts the text unless he/she perceives a "practical" use for the material. (is it going to be on the test?) The passive reader places no value on the speculative, the essentially human issues. In class discussion, the passive reader usually just sits there and rejects involvement or commitment. The passive reader, if he/she speaks up generally speaks up to complain that the material is too hard, too abstract, or not relevant.
The Timid Defeatist: This student shares many qualities with the Passive Reader. Like the Passive Reader, the Timid Defeatist never confronts the work. The Timid Defeatist wants his/her "intellectual food" made easy. He/she wants the
professor or the editor to tell him/her what he/she must know. In class discussion, this student is usually in the grip of emotion. He/she fears to "enter the waters of learning." (If I say something, I'll look stupid.) He/she also is angry with the "fates that force contact of tender youth with complex concerns."
The Big-mouthed Extemporizer: It is perhaps, a contradiction, to speak of this student's "reading behavior: since he/she has none because he/she never reads anything. Why read and "clutter up the mind with the excess baggage of the past?" This student enters class discussion cold; however, after students who have done the reading have developed a basis for discussion, this student will pounce on something said and lead the discussion away from the text.

Exploring the Textbook

Readers can maximize their reading experience if they utilize all the help that the writer of the text provides. Successful students start by exploring the textbook. What information is provided by the parts of the textbook?

The Title Page

Is the title descriptive?
Is it meaningful?

The Copyright Page

What is the date of publication?
Is it important to be able to date the material?
Is currency of information equally important for the humanities, the social sciences, the sciences?

Table of Contents

Does it provide an outline of topics?
If an outline is provided, how detailed is it?
Are there sub-topics?

Foreword and Introduction

What does the author say about his/her purpose in writing the book?
What does the author say about his/her choice to organize the text in a specific way?
How does knowing the author's intent and direction, help the reader to discover meaning?

Reading for the Academic Disciplines

The Academic Disciplines are differentiated not so much by content (i.e., subject matter) by perspective (approach to the subject matter). The academic disciplines reflect the different ways that any subject can be perceived. There are three basic
divisions in the disciplines: humanities, sciences, social sciences.

Humanities: The humanities deal with the feelings, dispositions and sympathies of humanity through the study of art, literature, music, philosophy, and religion.
Sciences: The sciences deal with the accumulation of knowledge through study, observation, and classification of facts and with the establishment of verifiable general laws or truths.
Social Sciences: The social sciences look at "superorganisms"--an entire culture, an entire economy, an entire political system--to find out why they behave as they do, what makes them work, and what makes them break down.

Academic Problems related to the Academic Disciplines:

Suppose that you are a television producer who wants to put together a panel discussion on the environmental impact of oil spills. For your purposes, you want to have a number of experts on the panel who have expertise in a particular field. You
choose to put together a panel consisting of experts in the following disciplines: biology, history, political science, philosophy, sociology. What might each expert add to the discussion that would reflect not a general reaction to the problem but a reaction
based on the particular field of expertise?

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking and reading require the ability to interpret, analyze, and synthesize the writer's thoughts with one's own ideas and experiences.

Critical thinking abilities

The ability to define the problem
The ability to select pertinent information for a solution to a problem
The ability to recognize stated and unstated assumptions
The ability to formulate and select relevant and promising hypotheses
The ability to draw conclusions validly and to judge the validity of inferences

Aspects of Critical Thinking: Some Definitions

INFERENCE: involves the ability to discriminate the degree of truth and falsity of conclusions drawn from given data
RECOGNITION OF ASSUMPTIONS: involves an awareness of unstated presuppositions which are taken for granted in given statements as assertions
DEDUCTION: reasoning from a known principle to an unknown, from the general to the specific, from a premise to its logical conclusion involves the recognition of the implication between propositions and the determination of the real or necessary connections with a given premise
INTERPRETATION: involves the ability to weigh evidence in order to distinguish between warranted and unwarranted conclusions based on given data
EVALUATION OF ARGUMENTS: involves the recognition of strong and irrelevant argument

Assistance Available through the First Year of Studies

The information included here is by no means intended to be all inclusive. For specific assistance in the area of reading contact Dr. Harmatiuk.

Sandra J. Harmatiuk
Director, Learning Strategies Program
First Year of Studies
227 Coleman-Morse Center
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(219) 631-6578

E-mail: Sandra.J.Harmatiuk.1@nd.edu

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