This SoTL-driven study used Read Aloud Protocols (RAPs) to explore the question, how do students read assignments? Reading theory suggests that students will draw on schema in order to make sense of what they are reading. This study explored the strategies that students used to read and interpret an assignment and examined the ways that schema…

Content area literacy has an important role in helping students understand content in specific disciplines, such as mathematics. Although the strategies are not unique to each individual content area, they are often adapted for use in a specific discipline. For example, mathematicians use mathematical language to make sense of new ideas and…

This study investigated the effects of task relevance instructions and topic beliefs on reading processes and memory for belief-related text. Undergraduates received task instructions (focus on arguments for vs. against) before reading a dual-position text. In Experiment 1 (n = 88), a reading time methodology showed no differences in reading time…