Motivation in Reading for Success

Imagine yourself sitting in high school, and your teacher assigns a very interesting book for homework. You may or may not love reading, but as soon as she says "homework," your mind shuts off. You are no longer interested in even opening the cover of the book. Many students refuse to read anything that is assigned for homework. I believe this is true; however, I think it is more important to identify this trait in students. Identifying it allows teachers to help the afflicted students. I often find it to be affecting many of my friends here in the Rio Grande Valley, and this habit follows them for a long time, even college. Which is why I ask, "Why do college students in the Valley tend to refuse reading novels, books, or articles that are assigned for homework?"

Student's motivation to read homework assignments is an upcoming research topic. Kathryn Ley and Dawn B. Young wrote “Motivation in Developmental and Regular Admission College Students," which focuses on high school and college students and their motivation. Students are less likely to be motivated to read in college if they take college courses during their grade-school experience. This may be because they have had to read so much for so long. Throughout the research they conducted, they gathered 134 students (60 developmental and 74 non-developmental) and placed them in classes according to placement-test scores. The studies resulted in no practical difference between the scores of each group. This article is similar to the next two because they are all about the motivation to read among students in college. However, this research has a gap. The research conducted is not as useful to us because the authors focus on the use of the LASSI scale to come to certain conclusions. It is also not quite helpful because the information is based on any student. The question I am looking to answer focuses on college students in the Rio Grande Valley, and their lack of motivation to read. Ley and Young write about motivations for students to read in high school.

Another source I read was "Reading to Learn or Learning to Read? Engaging College Students in Course Readings" written by Mary Margaret Kerr and Kristen M. Frese, which focuses on the reasons why students refuse to read. These authors did not conduct their own research. They claimed to have interview questions, but their questions lack validity because the generating of the questions and the effect they had were not demonstrated with their own research study. This article, once again, has a similar topic to all the others: the motivation (or lack thereof) for students in college to read their assignments. Kerr and Frese write about the students' refusal to read while the following authors write on the motivational rewards students place on themselves in order to accomplish their reading.

The final source was, "The Effect of Incentives on Cognitive Processing of Text" by Yasmine L. Konheim-Kalkstein and Paul van den Broek. It focuses on the internal and external rewards that students experience in their motivation to read. For their research, the authors gathered 64 undergraduate psychology students to participate in a research study in exchange for extra credit. The students were asked to read 3 short texts at their own pace and 3 other texts at a fixed pace. The participants were randomly assigned motivation or non-motivation. Motivations like money called for the students to check and double-check the accuracy and understanding of the reading. The readers with motivation recalled more text than the readers without motivation. This article is similar to the previous because of its topic: motivation among student readers. However, the difference is that it focuses merely on psychology students.

The main focus of these sources were on all kinds of students, therefore their information was not enough to support my question. The question "in question" focuses on college students in the Valley. This means that, regardless of how much research has been conducted around students' motivation to read, there has not been research conducted in the Valley specifically. So much research has been put forward due to one huge reason. There are so many students going to school. Reading is a huge part of learning and homework assignments. Homework in college is, for the most part, reading articles, chapters, and books.

During grade school, I hated reading the books and novels we were assigned for homework. I noticed this in myself all through middle school and high school. I conducted this research in order to be able to figure out if and why other students go through this same situation. I hope to use my research to fill in previous gaps. The research I conducted was solely in the Valley—specifically in UTRGV. I decided to come up with a survey. My survey consisted of 8 questions on a Google forms format. The questions were:

Survey Questions

1) "Do you like to read,"

2) "Do you read on your own free time,"

3) "What kind of books or articles do you read on your own time,"

4) "In what college are you? (In what college is your field of study),"

5) "What kinds of books or articles do you read in your classes or major,"

6) "What motivates you to read on your own time,"

7) "What motivates you to read in college,"

8) "If you enjoy reading on your own time, but you hate reading school assignments, what could be a reason?"

My data was very concise. It was very straight forward. Those who did enjoy reading on their own time tended to enjoy reading their college assignments. However, there were two students that stood out. They said they did not enjoy reading on their own time or in their classes. This is on what I chose to focus. Those who responded "no" were my focus. The two who selected "no" to the first two questions, tended to select "nothing" to the sixth question. These two people also selected "I think it is boring," "I have better things to do" or responses such as these to the final question. The reason I believe students must be able to identify where they stand on their motivation to read is to solve this issue.

The first survey brought some data to light, however I decided to go deeper. To do so I issued a survey that would help me identify the "Average UTRGV Student." This survey included simple questions. The survey questions were:

Are you a male or a female?

Are you paying for college with financial aid or out-of-pocket?

What year student are you?

Are you living on campus, in an apartment, or with your parents?

After issuing the survey and gathering the data, I concluded that the "Average UTRGV Student" is a:

Female

Paying with financial aid and/or out-of-pocket

Freshman

Living with parents

These questions allowed me to identify the student and set up an interview with them. Once I found a person that matched the "Average UTRGV Student" skeleton, I decided to interview them one-on-one in order to put some meat on the bones, so to speak. The interview questions included:

1) How many classes do you take?

2) What is your major?

3) What do you do outside of school?

4) Where do you live?

5) Do you have a job?

6) Do you have anyone dependent on you?

7) Are you dependent on anyone?

8) What things worry you?

9) Do you like reading? Why or why not?

10) What year student are you?

I interviewed a friend of mine. She was kind enough to answer all of these questions completely and honestly. The responses that caught attention the most were numbers three and five. Most students at UTRGV have and would like to maintain a social life. Question number three asks what the interviewee does outside of school. My friend responded that she hangs out with friends, work, and travel. Nowhere in anyone's list will one of the answers be "read my homework assignments." Students like to have a life outside of school. I believe this may be one of the reasons many students lack motivation to read. They, on their own scale, have better things to do. The fifth question asks if the interviewee has a job. My friend does as do many of the UTRGV students around campus. Having a job and attending school, although they can be done, are heavy things to balance. I believe social lives and jobs intervene in and detract from the motivation of students to read.

I was able to gain deeper insight to the lives and minds of UTRGV students from the two surveys I issued, as well as the final interview I conducted. There is a lack of motivation to read assignments among the students. However, this lack of motivation is not without cause. The average UTRGV student struggles with external and internal interference which impeded them from adequately desiring to read their assignments. These internal and external interferences can range anywhere from having other, more prominent assignments to issues at home or work.

The student who does not enjoy reading must be able to identify the reason for his lack of motivation. Whether he lacks internal or external motivation, he must identify his lack and place internal or external rewards on himself. Internal rewards can be the mere satisfaction of having completed or learned something. External rewards can be a snack every few pages. This is important because reading in college is extremely important. If anything, it is the primal way in which we learn in college. Ridding students of their lack of motivation allows them to learn more.

I myself have begun to develop this habit. Throughout this semester I have found myself quite frustrated and bored with the reading for one of my classes. That class doesn’t even have a final. I found no reason to read the assignments. There was no external reward for my reading. I had to place my own internal and external rewards on myself. I externally rewarded myself with candy or treats for each article I completed. Internally, I applauded myself for acquiring new information and knowledge. I am the type of person who prides themselves in knowing more than the Average Joe. This, for me, is reward in my heart.

In college, reading is extremely important. We are not going to escape it. Nearly every class requires some form of reading from which to gain knowledge. If anything, it is the primal way in which we learn in college. When we, as students, actively try to understand our lack of motivation and work to overcome it, we can truly begin to engage our reading and really begin to learn.

Works Cited

Ley, Kathryn, and Dawn B. Young. “Motivation in Developmental and Regular Admission College Students.” Research and Teaching in Developmental Education, vol. 14, no. 2, 1998, pp. 29–38. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42801995.

Kerr, Mary Margaret, and Kristen M. Frese. “Reading to Learn or Learning to Read? Engaging College Students in Course Readings.” College Teaching, vol. 65, no. 1, Sept. 2016, pp. 28–31., doi:10.1080/87567555.2016.1222577.

Konheim-Kalkstein, Yasmine L., and Paul Van Den Broek. “The Effect of Incentives on Cognitive Processing of Text.” Discourse Processes, vol. 45, no. 2, Apr. 2008, pp. 180–194., doi:10.1080/01638530701792883.