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 dont 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 ...
The world needs ditch diggers, too.
I KNOW freeper women were reading Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Nancy Drew, Little Women, etc like I was back in elementary school.
Guess those days are gone.
No surprise when admission standards are “Do you have a checkbook or know someone who does?” Students have turned into business clients, hence the need to admit, then keep them around and enrolled for 4-7 years.
What if its written with chalk?
I never had a problem with reading a college book. What I had a problem with was that every term, I was ‘required’ to purchase the newest edition of a textbook, often at ridiculously high prices (sometimes several hundred dollars each) and then the professor either using less then 50% or none of the book at all during class.
Kind of explains odumbo, doesn’t it?
....or cursive?
They had no idea, of how to turn it on.
I was reading Tolkien in elementary school
Los ANgeles Unified School District publicly admits that 76% of HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES can not read or write above a 3rd grade level, math is 2nd grade.
Having these pc departments and pc majors are part of the problem.
ALWAYS LAG BEHIND.
Bullshiite
Todays young people can't deal with 140 characters. Their attention span is STRETCHED at Yahoo or Youtube.
The very reason Obama and other Dems speak in short...bite...sized...sentences.
Sound bites.
Anything beyond a sound bite and they are confused.
University students are increasingly unable to read a whole book as they simply dont have the concentration spans required, nor are they able to understand complex, nuanced arguments, academics have said.
__________________________________________
I wonder how many University student would read this paragraph and get stalled at the word ‘nuanced’.
“New-antsd”? umm... “Nwaunced”??
Anyone who cannot do calculus and also cannot read “a whole book” has no business in college. The degree earned by that person will not support any useful contribution to society. College is not for everybody.
Tom Jones for the Oxford and Cambridge types.
They need to update books for modern times, like C.S. Lewis’s classic The Screwtape Blog.
I was writing Tolkien in elementary school.
I wasn’t kidding. I had completed the entire Lord of the Rings series including The Hobbit in 3rd grade.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.