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University Students Are Unable to Read a Whole Book
Breitbart ^ | 17 April 2016 | Donna Rachel Edmunds

Posted on 04/18/2016 3:18:12 PM PDT by daisy12

University students are increasingly unable to read a whole book as they simply don’t have the concentration spans required, nor are they able to understand complex, nuanced arguments, academics have said.

Lecturers at leading British universities are having to actively encourage students to read beyond the set texts, and have noticed that students are increasingly unwilling to read whole texts. They say they believe internet culture is to blame, as young people nowadays are used to receiving arguments in the form of 800-1000 word articles. Anything beyond that, they say, is now proving too challenging.

“Incoming undergraduates have had their attention habits fashioned in a totally different world than that of those who are teaching them,” Tamson Pietsch, fellow in history at the University of Sydney told Times Higher Education (THE).

“This can lead to a clash of expectations and also of abilities on both sides of the equation. In many ways, incoming students absorb information quickly, they understand the power of images, and are adept at moving between different types of sources and platforms. They are perhaps less used to concentrating for long periods of time and working through the nuances of an argument developed over the course of many pages.”

Jenny Pickerill, professor in environmental geography at the University of Sheffield, said of full length books: “students struggle with them, saying the language or concepts are too hard.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: bookreading; concentration; education; highereducation; literacy; literature; trends
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To: dfwgator
The world needs ditch diggers, too.

Kids growing up on this kind of crap, no wonder they don't like to read.

 photo I-Am-Jazz-Jennings_zpss1eixvet.jpg photo 81UTye1YWHL_zpsyvda2bmu.jpg photo Heather-Has-Two-Mommies_zpshumxylj1.jpg

41 posted on 04/18/2016 3:52:55 PM PDT by dragonblustar
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To: GenXteacher

YOU HAVE DIED OF DYSENTERY


42 posted on 04/18/2016 3:53:10 PM PDT by dinodino
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To: LoneStarGI

That’s because if you looked closely 9 times out of 10 the book was
1) written by the professor
2) the newer edition had maybe a chapter enhancement when stacked against the prior version (money scandal scheme to further enrich professors
3) or said professor was a key contributor to the book
$$$$$$$


43 posted on 04/18/2016 3:54:04 PM PDT by Jarhead9297
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To: daisy12

Starting at age 6, I inhaled books and my parents would take a laundry basket to the library for the books I would get every 2 weeks.

Our country has fallen. I still remember the thrill I had reading about Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and Laura Ingalls Wilder. I SO wanted to be an Indian!!!


44 posted on 04/18/2016 3:54:50 PM PDT by Cowgirl of Justice
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When I was in second grade, I read through the shelf of biographies in the children’s section. I don’t remember, but they were probably the Hallmark or similar series. When my kids were young, I read biographies to them (those people were REAL action heroes). Once when my son was around 4 or 5 (about 30 years ago) he was visiting my parents when my West Point graduate brother visited. My brother called me and asked how my son knew who Baron von Steuben was. My brother said probably not 1 in 10 people would know that. I think my brother was being optimistic, even back then. It’s astounding to me that today there are kids in college who don’t know who the first American president was.


45 posted on 04/18/2016 3:55:45 PM PDT by Kipp
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To: dragonblustar


46 posted on 04/18/2016 3:56:35 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: thoughtomator

I discovered Science Fiction in the Third Grade.


47 posted on 04/18/2016 3:56:42 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
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To: dinodino

Many times :)


48 posted on 04/18/2016 4:00:41 PM PDT by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: thoughtomator
Farmer Giles of Ham was my first Tolkien.
49 posted on 04/18/2016 4:00:46 PM PDT by ASA Vet (Jus Soli + Jus Sanguinis = NBC)
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To: nascarnation

I bet Bill Clinton has a pop-up book!


50 posted on 04/18/2016 4:01:48 PM PDT by dragonblustar
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To: dragonblustar
Well played!


51 posted on 04/18/2016 4:03:49 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

I invented Science Fiction.


52 posted on 04/18/2016 4:08:11 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: Kipp

Favorite homeschool quote from my years homeschooling my children.

Dauther age 9 : This is my new teddy bear Scipio Africanus!

Homeschool neighbor boy age 9: You named your bear after a Roman general?


53 posted on 04/18/2016 4:08:54 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftist totalitarian governments are the biggest killer of citizens in the world.)
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To: El Cid

Well, to be fair, I almost never read an entire post/article on the Freerepublic. Just zip down to the comments and add my uninformed two-bits.

______________

People read posts here?


54 posted on 04/18/2016 4:10:11 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftist totalitarian governments are the biggest killer of citizens in the world.)
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To: daisy12

The Videogame generation....


55 posted on 04/18/2016 4:11:33 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: daisy12

A): This ain’t gonna end well

AND

B):It’s gonna not end well SOON.


56 posted on 04/18/2016 4:12:05 PM PDT by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job....)
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To: thoughtomator
I was reading Tolkien in elementary school.

My sixth grade class read The Count of Monte Cristo. Most of us tested at 12th grade reading level.

57 posted on 04/18/2016 4:14:43 PM PDT by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Mississippi! My vote is going to Cruz.)
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To: daisy12

Doonesbury had this covered back in the nineties with a Sunday strip showing a professor giving an introductory lecture from a dais, in the form of a lament at the decline of reading skills, and the subsequent reduction in requirements. He comes down to the end and says, “... so this semester our reading list is just three books ...”

Cut to the last frame showing a kid seated in the hall, making a “T” sign, “Whoa, time out!”


58 posted on 04/18/2016 4:15:10 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: wally_bert

In Jr HS, I read every book the library had, on WWII


59 posted on 04/18/2016 4:20:05 PM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: Cowgirl of Justice
I still remember the thrill I had reading about Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and Laura Ingalls Wilder.
I SO wanted to be an Indian!!!

Elizabeth Warren, is that you???

60 posted on 04/18/2016 4:23:44 PM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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