Assessment of Reading Speed and Comprehension in STEM Students at Georgia Gwinnett College
Conference Tracks
About SoTL – Analysis, synthesis, reflection, and discussion
Abstract
Faculty colleagues frequently assert that students have difficulty reading; students fail to read exam questions or lab instructions correctly. Additionally, students frequently report to faculty that college level texts are too hard to read. To investigate the scope of this problem, reading comprehension across the biology program was assessed. Students were asked to read a passage and mark their position when the time limit was called; students were then asked to answer a few questions and summarize the reading passage. These student reading comprehension scores are analyzed with regard to academic (e.g. GPA, college hours completed) and social metrics (e.g. English as a second language, first generation college student) to determine if correlations exist with student success and persistence. Data indicating the progress of reading comprehension through the degree program and data documenting the insufficiencies of student reading comprehension and speed will be presented. Since successful science students must understand and interpret literature that uses technical language appropriate to the field, we hope to document correlations between reading speed and comprehension and student success to better understand difficulties GGC STEM students encounter. Future studies may address remediation however this study is limited to assessing the problem.
Session Format
Presentation
Location
Rooms 113 & 115
Publication Type and Release Option
Event
Recommended Citation
Timpte, Candace; Sakaris, Peter; Schleuter, Mark; Kurtz, Alexandra M.; Penn, Jill; and Hammonds-Odie, Latanya, "Assessment of Reading Speed and Comprehension in STEM Students at Georgia Gwinnett College" (2015). SoTL Commons Conference. 34.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2015/34
Assessment of Reading Speed and Comprehension in STEM Students at Georgia Gwinnett College
Rooms 113 & 115
Faculty colleagues frequently assert that students have difficulty reading; students fail to read exam questions or lab instructions correctly. Additionally, students frequently report to faculty that college level texts are too hard to read. To investigate the scope of this problem, reading comprehension across the biology program was assessed. Students were asked to read a passage and mark their position when the time limit was called; students were then asked to answer a few questions and summarize the reading passage. These student reading comprehension scores are analyzed with regard to academic (e.g. GPA, college hours completed) and social metrics (e.g. English as a second language, first generation college student) to determine if correlations exist with student success and persistence. Data indicating the progress of reading comprehension through the degree program and data documenting the insufficiencies of student reading comprehension and speed will be presented. Since successful science students must understand and interpret literature that uses technical language appropriate to the field, we hope to document correlations between reading speed and comprehension and student success to better understand difficulties GGC STEM students encounter. Future studies may address remediation however this study is limited to assessing the problem.
