Why University Students Don't Read: What Professors Can Do To Increase Compliance

This article reports findings from two studies assessing reading compliance among first semester freshmen at a small Midwestern two-year liberal arts university. The first study assessed reading compliance of students enrolled in two sections of First Year Seminar, finding that 46% of students reported that they read assignments, yet only 55% of those students were able to demonstrate the most basic level of comprehension of the material they claimed to have read. Reasons most frequently cited by students to explain their failure to read and advice that noncompliant readers say will increase their compliance are identified. The second study assessed reading compliance in a 3-course learning community of first semester freshmen, incorporating one piece of noncompliant reader advice in each of the courses, finding that quizzes and graded journals greatly increased reading compliance.