Too long to read: Assessing the motivation behind graduate student attendance in reading groups

Graduate-level reading groups serve as a primary forum for students to learn current and complex concepts in their field. Because graduate students lament that reading "abnormally long" articles discourage them from attending particular reading group sessions, we tested the hypothesis that attendance will decrease proportionally with page number . We examined the relationship of attendance to semester chronology, the presenter, paper type, and time allowed to read the paper . We found that there was no significant relationship between page number and attendance and that students were not selecting shorter papers on average; however, a significant relationship was found between the attendee number and semester chronology, with attendance decreasing as the semester progressed. No significant relationships existed between attendance and who led the discussion, paper type, or time allowed to read the paper . We discuss how these results can be used to maximize student attendance and how to maximize student involvement in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of College Science Teaching is the property of National Science Teachers Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)