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 ...
Kids growing up on this kind of crap, no wonder they don't like to read.
YOU HAVE DIED OF DYSENTERY
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
$$$$$$$
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!!!
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.
I discovered Science Fiction in the Third Grade.
Many times :)
I bet Bill Clinton has a pop-up book!
I invented Science Fiction.
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?
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?
The Videogame generation....
A): This ain’t gonna end well
AND
B):It’s gonna not end well SOON.
My sixth grade class read The Count of Monte Cristo. Most of us tested at 12th grade reading level.
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!”
In Jr HS, I read every book the library had, on WWII
Elizabeth Warren, is that you???
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.