Reading is not studying

I think professionals find shorthand ways to identify key ideas that they use frequently. Reading versus studying is one such key idea for me. Even though I worked with college students, I know that many of them I encountered did not understand this distinction. They would assume that reading was enough or they read several times and assume they were studying. I try to explain this key idea to educators in the hopes it will be a way they can use concepts I assume are familiar to guide their own thinking and practice. Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not. Perhaps what is important here is coming up with your own ways to understand important issues. Perhaps teachers are using a concept such as “deep reading” in the same way I use studying.

If exposure to ideas is not enough (reading, lecture, videos, hands-on tasks), what can educators do to facilitate learners learning. How can educators facilitate studying and perhaps help learners learn to studying without facilitation? Yes, you did notice that I went beyond reading to list other versions of information exposure. In doing so, I may have gored some of your own sacred cows by implying these other learner experiences are equivalent to the information exposure involved in reading. I do think the magic of making and other forms of experiential learning is nothing more than information exposure. Like reading, these experiences with content expose learners to information, but the tactics without more cognitive activity on the part of learners do not do enough. Students need to study, process deeply, think or whatever concept you will accept in order to learn.

This has been a lengthy way to introduce you to a second distinction I find helpful – information vs educational content. I find this distinction relevant in thinking about the “abandon the textbook” tactic some find meaningful. I can argue each side of this tactic. I do think it important to consider why anyone thinks this is a good thing to do. Textbooks are costly? Textbooks are easily dated? Textbooks are not how adults learn? These pronouncements may be accurate, but textbooks are also produced from a single perspective, written in an integrated fashion, carefully vetted, and developed purposefully as educational content rather than information. If you are willing to move beyond the textbooks, there are unique challenges when making this transition.

As a textbook author, I have thought about the limitations and advantages of a textbook. My own efforts as an author have encouraged me to move beyond the traditional textbooks I once wrote to more of a hybrid product that addresses some of the weaknesses I and others have identified. As a cognitive psychologist interested in learning challenges and technology, I have also explored options for how information content might be transformed into educational content.