The Implications of Reading Preferences of Future Educators

A study was initiated to gauge the reading preferences of students enrolled in teacher preparation courses. The purpose of the study was to build a profile of what future educators were reading and to compare those preferences in terms of genre. The reading selections of future educators may impact their performance in the classroom. Reading preferences of teachers may create bias and alter the teaching and scoring of assignments for students or it may inspire teachers to incorporate new methods or ideas into their lessons. The study was conducted over a period of eight years. Two hundred and forty-seven titles were included. The findings suggest that the majority of students in the teacher preparation course read fiction books (46%). Further research could be conducted in this area to determine if a student's teaching field has an influence upon genre preference, or how reading preferences of current educators influences their classroom.  While literacy takes center stage in classrooms across the country with federal grants such as No Child Left Behind, classroom teachers in all subject areas are responsible for encouraging students to become readers. But what, if anything, are these educators reading? Cooper, Evans, and Robertson (1985) assert that "critical reading is an acquired ability that can--and should--be the goal of any class that gives students the opportunity to read" (3). This study will explore the question of the reading preferences of future educators using data taken over an eight-year period in The University of Montevallo's College of Education. Undergraduates and Alternative Fifth-Year students were informally surveyed in classes from 1994 until 2002, and their responses have been broken into subject area genres. These include: fiction (realistic, historical, folklore, fantasy, science), nonfiction (informational), nonfiction (biography, autobiography), and poetry. Research has treaded softly around issues of reading for college students. Reedy (1992) discussed the value of including within the core curriculum a course on understanding contemporary books and magazines. Kingston (1986) stated, "All lecturers make assumptions about their students' reading habits before coming to decisions about their reading needs for a particular course or topic. These assumptions relate to the speed and efficacy of the reading, the recognition and appreciation of the significance of the material to be read, as well as the availability of that material" (172). Kingston went on to say he noticed reading rates of students had slowed over the time that he had been a lecturer in the College of Arts and Sci ences. Similarly, Atlas (1990) cites the director of Harvard's Expository Writing Program, Richard Marius. Atlas quotes from Marius' book Teaching Literature: What is Needed Now: This generation does not read ... They are strangers not only to those points of reference that might help them navigate the literary sea, but also to the underlying cadences that have governed the development of written English. They cannot write because they have not read and they cannot hear.  In addition, Valeri-Gold (1996) studied the perceptions of developmental studies on students as readers and writers. Valeri-Gold found that during the first week of study, students were not conscious of themselves as readers and writers. By the tenth week, however, students were more aware of themselves as readers and hoped to meet the reading requirements they would face during college by sheer determination. Even as early as 1928, the study of readers was taking shape. Jenkins lumped readers into three groups: the sponge reader (absorbing what he reads), the sieve reader (reads best sellers constantly in order to impress others), and the duck-back reader (reads to keep busy; usually chooses newspapers and magazines). From our study of college students and their reading preferences, this has changed little in 75 years. …

Field of study: Education