Framing the text: understanding emotional barriers to academic reading

Abstract

When students arrive at university there is an expectation that they come already equipped with the skills they need to read academic texts. In contrast, many students have low confidence in their ability to read challenging texts, often experiencing this as a barrier to engaging with academic practices. Recent research has identified the importance of affect in the university context, exploring the impact of emotions around academic practices such as critical thinking and interpreting feedback, but has not looked specifically at reading as one such key practice. This paper draws on this research and reads it alongside data gathered from questionnaires and focus groups conducted with one group of first-year undergraduates. We found that students have a complex relationship with reading for academic study, and that many experience significant negative affects and self-perceptions in relation to their academic reading tasks. We explore some of these encounters, engaging the student voice and using affect theory to unpack some first experiences of reading in higher education.

Academic Literacy as a Component of Complex Thinking in Higher Education: A Scoping Review

“…It is then where academic literacy emerges as an essential component within the contemporary model of higher education; in which case, it is not only enough to train students to read and write better, but also to go further by adapting to the technological realities and new scenarios of communication and understanding of any medium that leads to the transmission of information. In this sense, as shown in Figure 4, from complex thinking, academic literacy, and higher education itself, there must be a synergy that ensures that students not only adapt to the university, but also achieve their ultimate purpose of reaching a series of specific knowledge that will allow them to access the labor market (Goodwyn, Stables, 2004;Dale et al, 2011;Hammer, Green, 2011;Kimberley, Thursby, 2020). Thus, from the logic of complex thinking, it is obvious that within the higher education system, academic literacy and the reforms that are carried out must be effective.…”

Practice assignments improve research comprehension skills and reinforce concept learning.

“…Thus, it is possible that students entered the course with different levels of familiarity with psychology courses. Previous research has indicated that students do not feel confident about their abilities to read research articles (Brownell et al, 2013; Kimberley & Thursby, 2020), and thus students may have different levels of comfort with reading research articles. These variations in background knowledge of psychology and comfort levels with reading research articles differences could have influenced students’ learning gains, so in Study 2 we asked students about these factors.…”

“…Compared to experts, undergraduate students are less likely to utilize strategies such as lowering cognitive load through summarizing and taking notes (Nelms & Segura-Totten, 2019) or to interact with research articles in more complex manners such as critically interpreting data (Hubbard & Dunbar, 2017). It is unsurprising that undergraduate students experience anxiety and report low confidence when it comes to reading journal articles (Brownell et al, 2013; Kimberley & Thursby, 2020). Thus, it is important to understand how instructors can best support students in building the basic skills needed to engage meaningfully with research articles.…”

Academic reading as a social practice in higher education

“…Cowley-Haselden, 2020;Nguyen & Henderson, 2020), as well as extended confidence in academic reading (c.f. Kimberley & Thursby, 2020).…”

“…The first strand focuses on the perception of academic reading from students' and academics' perspectives, pointing at how academic reading is valued because it is often not explicitly taught and students are not often engaged in conversations about the nature of scholarship in their disciplines (Maguire et al, 2020;Miller & Merdian, 2020). Kimberley & Thursby (2020) found a lack of confidence in academic reading and that being an adequate reader is the primary barrier to engagement. They recommend increased support for reading through an organized framing of students' encounters with challenging texts.…”