gms | German Medical Science

Learning through inquiry requires students to self-regulate their learning behavior as well as related cognitions and motivational resources in order to gain new knowledge and develop relevant competencies. These competencies include being able to deal with relatively challenging academic texts as the primary source of information in research. Since this is one of the basic prerequisites for lifelong learning, students should be supported to develop a high level of reading comprehension and to manage their reading activities in a professional and efficient way. However, support for students is frequently reduced to speed reading trainings. These trainings usually focus on speeding up visual language processing via certain exercises to improve oculomotor control and to suppress subvocalization, i.e. the ‘inner reading voice’. These exercises are conducted with the aid of isolated words and numbers or easy non-fictional texts. Comprehension is intended to be measured by single or multiple choice questions which aim at memorizing single facts. In sum, this has little to do with the challenges (and goals) of academic reading. Therefore, the research question was: How should an academic reading training look like in order to be tailored to the specific needs of students dealing with research literature? To answer this question, a new two-day program was developed which is directly based on psychological and linguistic research. Particular emphasis was put on the following leading perspectives: a) reflection on individual reading attitudes and (use of) strategies, b) considering different phases of the reading process as the prototypical form of self-regulated learning, c) promoting metalinguistic knowledge, d) combining efficient skimming and deep reading of real academic articles. So far, the training has been tested informally with a small group of students. The poster will focus on theoretical aspects of the new training concept.