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Teaching the Reading of Primary Texts - Discussion Points
Clare Saunders
Teaching the Reading of Primary Texts - Discussion Points
Clare Saunders
Round-table discussions at the workshop not only addressed the issues surrounding text-based learning and teaching - its importance and its challenges - but also provided a forum for the exchange of ideas regarding effective practices. Although the focus of the presented papers was primarily philosophical, discussion included significant input from colleagues in Theology and Religious Studies, History and Philosophy of Science, and English departments.
One theme was the need to take account of the differences in expectations and experiences between staff and students (and indeed within the student body).
- Lecturers may 'take for granted' their own reading skills, and not articulate to their students the requirements of 'deep reading' - active engagement with, rather than passive perusal of, a text.
- How many times do teachers expect students to read a given text? - again, there may be an unarticulated (and misguided?) assumption that students re-read key texts as a matter of course.
- Students may have very different levels of prior exposure to (and background knowledge relevant to) reading - for example, those with a background of a religious faith based on sacred text(s), in contrast to those more used to the 'sound-bite' culture of advertising.
- Students often start from a position of expecting answers; this culture needs to be challenged in order to encourage (and equip) students to engage with the questions raised by the texts.
A number of potential sources of confusion or misunderstanding, regarding the reading of primary texts, were identified:
- The level of difficulty of language or terminology is not always an indicator of that of the ideas or arguments (and vice versa)
- 'Slow' does not guarantee 'deep' reading
- Relatedly, there is a need for a clear understanding of the distinction between comprehension of, and engagement with, a text - passive cf. active reading
- Texts may be read in different ways for different purposes - for example, in order to acquire information, one may need to read the whole text; in order to engage in 'deep reading' of the text, a focus on key passage(s) may be appropriate.
Various approaches to fostering students' engagement with primary texts were debated:
- Students seek guidance on how best to focus their reading activities - which texts to concentrate upon, for example. It is received wisdom that students tackle only a proportion of the work which lecturers expect (hope); thus carefully constructed reading lists can be crucial in maximising the effectiveness of students' efforts.
- However, there was also a felt need to avoid the impression that text-based learning and teaching is reducible merely to a set of 'instructions' for reading - instead, to understand text-based learning as a disposition to be fostered, rather than simply a skill to be taught.
- Restructuring of course design as appropriate, so that the emphasis on fostering of reading skills is reflected in assessment methods (for example).
- What is/are the 'core' learning and teaching method(s)? - student reading, which is backed up by seminar discussion, which is further supplemented by lectures; or vice versa...
- Students may need a reason to read - it may thus be helpful to encourage the practice of approaching a text with questions 'in mind'.
Specific methodological 'tips' which were shared in discussion included:
- Removing secondary literature from the reading list in order to avoid students' (over-)reliance on others' interpretations of the primary text
- Involving students in the preparation of a guide to reading, for use by future cohorts of students
- When using (passages from) key texts in seminars:
- Displaying the text on a screen, and/or asking a student to read aloud, to facilitate shared focus on the text
- Using directed, 'stepwise' questions to guide students' engagement with the text
- Assessment methods which address students' reading skills:
- Setting the task of annotating a text prompts deeper reading thereof
- 'Gobbet questions', which require students to comment on a given passage - perhaps using an unseen text, and/or setting a series of short questions rather than a single question, in order to circumvent students' tendency to write essay-style responses
In response to feedback from participants at the workshop, the PRS Subject Centre will continue to network practitioners concerned with text-based learning and teaching, with a view to organising further workshop(s) on the topic in future.
This page was originally on the website of The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. It was transfered here following the closure of the Subject Centre at the end of 2011.
