Graduate Literacy Students’ Reading Completion - A journal of educational research and practice - 2021 Vol. 31 (1) 22-38

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr

Course reading completion strengthens learning and deepens students’ conceptual thinking. A study with 434 graduate students in six literacy courses (28 classes) tracked reading completion over nine years (2009–2017) to identify what drives completion levels. Findings are presented alongside recommendations aimed at improving reading completion rates, with an emphasis on clarifying accountability and instructional factors that shape whether students complete assigned texts before class and assessments.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Literature Review

Why Many Students Don’t Read: Examining Motivation

Number of Readings Assigned

Graduate Literacy Students’Reading Completion A journal of educational research and practice 2021 Vol. 31 (1) 22-38 [https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked](https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked) Linda Rak* , Kathleen Olmstead , Jie Zhang, Carol Pelttari SUNY Brockport Abstract Course reading completion enhances student learning and helps deepen students’ thinking about concepts and ideas presented in class. To better understand the students’ reading completion and the factors which impact course reading completion, the researchers engaged in a study with 434 students enrolled in six graduate level literacy courses, or 28 classes, over nine years from 2009 through 2017. The researchers share the results and discuss recommendations to improve reading completion rates. Keywords: teacher education , reading completion , instructional techniques to increase reading completion * [lrak@brockport.edu](lrak@brockport.edu) Faculty often have wondered how they could encourage students to critically engage in course readings (Abbott, 2013; MacMillan, 2014; MacMillan & MacKenzie, 2012), especially as many lament a drop in the number of course readings students complete during the semester. This decrease in course reading completion may have a negative impact on students’ intellectual development and their ability to master course content. Indeed, researchers like Berry et al.(2011) assert “Students spend significantly less time reading and studying than they did 20 years ago”(p. 31) . While we have heard our colleagues mention their observations of this downward trend of reading completion, it seems few researchers have actually quantified students’ reading completion. Although quantification is sparse, Berry et al. (2011) reported low levels of reading completion for class compared with higher levels of reading completion in preparation for assessments , and concluded that “Overall for psychology courses students read on average 27.46% of the assigned readings before class and 69.8 % before an exam” (p. 32), suggesting that reading completion may be influenced by whether or not students will be held accountable for that reading. Similarly, Kerr and Frese (2017) report that only 20% to 30% of undergraduate students complete required course readings. While quantitative data on course reading completion is limited, researchers have qualitatively assessed students’ engagement and willingness to critically interact with assigned texts , with some questioning current students’ abilities to read and understand higher-level texts (Wiles et al. , 2016) . When Researcher 1 started teaching as an adjunct professor of Literacy at the research site in 2001, she felt that her graduate students were more invested in reading, and this was demonstrated in their rich class discussions. As time went on, Researcher One became concerned with some of her students’ struggles to complete readings. She began to investigate what other professors were doing to increase reading completion. She also started to collect anonymous data from students regarding the amount of readings they completed during the semester in an effort to learn more about students’ reading completion and its impact factors in order to use the data collected to inform instruction in her future courses. While this formal research study is retrospective, Researcher 1 collected data and made instructional decisions in the spirit of action research to reflect the evolution of Researcher 1 ’s instructional techniques used to encourage higher levels of reading completion. The longitudinal data collection took place in 28 sections across six Literacy graduate courses within 9 years from 2009 to 2017. Three Education faculty joined Researcher 1 to analyze the plethora of data collected from students enrolled in 28 classes over 9 years. Our goal in this paper is not to achieve generalizability; instead , we seek to add to our current understanding of the factors or circum

FAQs

How was the reading completion study conducted and over what time span?

The study included 434 students enrolled in six graduate-level literacy courses (28 classes) tracked over nine years, from 2009 through 2017.

Why does course reading completion matter for students?

Reading completion is linked to deeper thinking about in-class concepts and may affect intellectual development and the ability to master course content.

What factors does the research highlight as influencing reading completion?

The paper discusses motivation and engagement factors, including students’ attitudes toward reading, course interest and grades, and the amount of reading assigned.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr