ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA UNIVERSITY
VOLUME 2
P E R I O D I P O S T
PeriodiPost is an
online publication
of the Ateneo
Research Center
JUNE 2013
Reading in the Digital Age: AdZU Grade School students’ attitudes
toward reading and the reading programs
Ma. Pilar M. De Guzman1
ADZU Grade School Unit
“The decline in
reading habits among
children is an offshoot of technological
advancements which
have brought about
overall changes in
family, social, and
economic conditions”
(Greenfield, 2009)
The digital era has brought so
many drastic changes in the life of
Filipino students and one of those
manifestations is the loss of interest
and poor attitude toward reading.
Despite the emphasis that the
Ateneo
Grade
School
places
on reading, children have been
observed
to persistently avoid
reading.
It appears that the decline in
reading habits among children is an
offshoot of technological advancements which have brought about
overall changes in family, social, and
economic conditions (Greenfield,
2009). The internet, according to
Johns
(2009), has completely
changed people’s attitude toward
reading and people’s reading habits.
He observed that people nowadays
want to read things
faster, easier,
and skim articles as quickly as
possible so that they can go to the
next website. People also want
information given to them in video
form.
reading books for leisure declined
while the time kids spend going online
for fun and using cell phone to text
or talk has increased. Moreover, it
has been noted that popular social
networking sites such as Facebook
are now
more appealing to
children around the world than
reading books.
Researchers (Teale,
1984; Garcia, 2010; and Ireland,
2011) believe that non-interest in
reading, largely as a result of
increasing fascination with technological
advancements, can be
damaging to
children’s overall
education and formation.
A recent survey conducted by
Scholastic and Harrison Group (2010)
in the United States found that
the number of children who liked
Objectives
Attitudes toward reading take
on an important role in explaining
a student’s motivation to read. Hence,
this paper examined the attitudes
of
students toward
reading,
specifically toward recreational and
academic reading and toward the
two reading programs namely, the
Drop Everything and Read (DEAR)
and the Guided Independent Reading
(GIR) programs in terms of feelings,
cognition and behavior. This study
also looked into students’ reading
habits in terms of their reading
preferences, reading frequency, and
reading motivations as contributory
factors in the reading process.
Method
This is a mixed method research,
using questionnaire-based survey
technique and Focus Group Discussion
and Key
Informant Interview to
generate information. Two hundred
forty nine (249) grade school
students participated in the survey.
Cluster sampling was used in the
selection of the survey participants.
Fifty students (50) participated in
seven (7) focus group discussions and
two (2) reading coordinators, one
administrator,
and
one
parent
participated in the interviews.
Four survey questionnaires were
constructed for the purpose of this
study: Students Reading Information
Questionnaire, the Elementary Reading
Attitude Survey parts I and II, and the
Reading Programs Assessment Tool.
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Results and Discussion
The findings indicate that
the respondents held contrasting
attitudes toward reading in terms of
feelings, cognition, and behavior. The
students showed slightly positive
feelings toward reading but at the
same time had negative opinions
toward reading and were less likely to engage in reading behavior.
Results showed that students liked
and felt happy when reading but
somehow also thought that reading
was more for work than for fun,
consequently making them behave
negatively toward academic and
recreational
reading and
also
toward the two reading programs.
In addition, the students did not take
time to read as they viewed reading
as rather functional – an activity to
learn skills such as learning how
to read, understand the meaning of a
story, spell and pronounce words.
Moreover, reading was seen as only
for those wanting to get good grades.
Also, the majority of students
was found to spend only 1-2 hours
reading or studying, and thus can be
considered as light readers. Students
also were found not to visit the
library on a daily basis.
The results revealed that
majority of the students in the
higher grades preferred to read
adventure stories, picture story
books, horror stories, and comics. In
addition, reading was not the most
preferred leisure activity for the
students, though it was listed as one
choice. Instead playing computer
games, logging on Facebook,
watching TV, and listening to music
were the top choices to do during
leisure time.
Influences such as the media, the
home, and the school have also
been found to contribute to the
development of negative attitudes
of children toward reading. Many
children spent more time on internet
and watching TV and less on reading.
The students also did not feel much
support from home and parents had
lapses in the monitoring of children’s
guided independent reading (GIR)
and leisure reading (DEAR). The
school has somehow failed to fully
motivate children to read since
some of teachers and moderators
who were conducting the DEAR and
GIR were not Reading teachers and
were not properly oriented with
regards to the goals of DEAR and
GIR. Whereas students liked the time
and activities during Reading
class and believed that reading was
important, many students reported
to being
bored and
inattentive due to the
perceived lack of exciting
materials appropriate for
their age and the lack of
interactive activities after
the reading time.
Students in the study
were shown to be low in
reading frequency due
to
negative
reading
attitudes. This
finding
supported the study of Donaldson
(2010) stating that there is a connection between reading attitude
and reading
frequency and that
one can be improved by increasing
the other.
The
following factors have
been identified as barriers
to
students’
reading
engagement
and from developing good reading
attitudes and habits: students’
exposure to the different technologies available such as internet,
computer games, Facebook, and
television that take them away from
reading, the lack of appropriate
materials for their age and level that
will give them that “fun time” to
engage in reading and the lack of
support from home.
“Reading helps
human beings
manage or
deal with
human
experience”
(Hermosa,
2002).
It could be said then, in light
of the results, that in general the
attitudes of the students toward
reading and the reading programs
were negative.
The study also
found
inconsistencies between
attitude toward reading and the
behavior of reading – that is, the
affect-based
positive
attitude
toward reading did not automatically
translate to actual engagement in
reading.
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PERIODIPOST
Conclusion
Reading helps human
beings
manage or deal
with
human
experience (Hermosa, 2002). This idea
connects beautifully with what Jesuit
education also strives to achieve by
giving learners ongoing development of
their imagination, feelings, conscience
and intellect, and to encourage and help
them recognize new experiences as
opportunities to further growth.
Schools need to understand the
world of the learner, including the ways
in which family, friends, peers, and the
larger society impact and affect the
learner for better or worse. This paper
is an attempt at that, an attempt to
understand the reading experience of
learners of this increasingly digital
generation.
In light of the findings of the study,
teachers as well as parents need to
work together to build (or perhaps
to re-build) a culture of reading in the
grade school. A culture of reading that
responds congruently to the context
and general character of the learners of
the present. Teachers and parents have
an enormous impact on the attitudes
children develop
toward
reading
and attitudes of children toward
reading can be
changed. Hence,
it
is important for the school
administrators, teachers, and parents to
realize that through careful planning,
designing, and use of effective
instructional methods a genuine culture
of reading is still within reach despite
the challenges of a more digital world.
References
Donaldson, N. (2010). The Fourth Grade Slump: The Relationship Between Reading Attitudes
and Frequency of Reading. . Master’s Thesis. Bowling Green State University May
2010
Garcia, L. (2010) Social networking and its impact on the Filipino Youth. Empirical
research Presentation on the 9th PCEDB Convention. www. scribd.com
Hermosa, N.(2002). The Psychology of Reading. University of the Philippines Open University. Diliman. QC
Ireland, J. (2011). The Effects of Modern Technology on the Study Habits of Students. eHow
contributor. Reading Today vol.28, no. 3 dec 2010/jan 2011, Resources pp. 38 http/
mediaroom.scholastic.com/kfrr
Teale, W. (1984). Reading to young children: Its significance for literacy development.
Heinmann Educational Books
T H E
M A N
W H O
D O E S
N O T
R E A D
A D V A N T A G E
O V E R
T H E
M A N
W H O
―
M A R K
T W A I N
“
H A S
N O
C A N N O T
R E A D . ”
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ATENEO DE ZAMBOANGA UNIVERSITY
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