Toss the Text? An Investigation of Student and Faculty Perspectives on Textbook Reading

ABSTRACT

College graduates are entering the workforce with reading and critical thinking deficiencies. This study examined students’ and instructors’ perceptions of reading in the college classroom and the course grades associated with not reading an assigned textbook. Instructor tenure-status and discipline were also examined to determine differences in instructor perception. Results suggested that both instructor and students value reading; however, both report that it is possible to pass college courses without reading. Further results indicated that tenure status does not influence instructor perception textbook usefulness. Humanity and Social Science instructors held students slightly more accountable for reading when compared to Math and Science instructors.

KEYWORDS:

• Faculty perspectives
• reading
• student perspectives
• textbook

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tiffany Culver

Tiffany Culver, Associate Professor of Psychology, earned her Bachelor’s degree from New Mexico State University and her Master’s from Mississippi State University in Educational Psychology. Dr. Culver completed her dissertation and earned her Ph.D. at Mississippi State University. She is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology at Sul Ross State University. Her primary research interests include reading compliance, comprehension, metacognitive strategies and self-regulation. Dr. Culver enjoys presenting and attending conferences, such as Southwestern Psychological Association (SWPA) and Mid-South Educational Research Association (MSERA). She has also published manuscripts in many peer-reviewed journals.

Scott Hutchens

Scott Hutchens earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology, his Master of Arts and his Ph.D. in experimental psychology (with a specialization in cognition) from Texas Tech University. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Stephan F. Austin University. His primary research interests include distinctive memories, text comprehension, eyewitness identification, social cognition and scholarship of teaching and learning. He is a member of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, the Southwestern Psychological Association and the Southeastern Psychological Association.