To Read or not to Read (and Why)

While most studies on undergraduate completion of reading before class have centered on the idea and goal of students’ “compliance,” a few studies have approached the problem from a different angle and instead investigated students’ own perspectives. This study contributes to the small but growing conversation on what students themselves say about their experiences of and motivations for reading (or not reading). We started from the question: Which reasons do students give for reading or not reading before class? To investigate this question, we distributed a brief survey to 287 undergraduate students three times over the course of one semester. We gathered a total of 589 usable responses, which we analyzed through a grounded process of inductive, iterative coding. We arrived at eight categories that captured the range of students’ self-reported reasons for reading (in order of frequency): to be prepared for class; to do well in the class; the reading was interesting; the reading was assigned; to understand; out of a sense of diligence; the reading was short and/or easy; and other. We arrived at seven categories that captured the range of students’ self-reported reasons for not reading (in order of frequency): it was not a priority; there was a more efficient alternative; the reading was long and/or hard; lack of organization; the reading was unnecessary; the reading was not interesting; and other. Our findings suggest that instructors can substantially increase the chances that their undergraduate students will complete (more of) the reading before class by clearly making it necessary to read to prepare for in-class activities and participation in the community that is built during class time as well as clearly tying readings to specific assignments that carry significant weight in the assessment structure for the class.