With Nic Voge, senior associate director, McGraw Center for Teaching & Learning.

Recent articles in the popular press and in higher education journals have lamented a “crisis” in reading among college students. Few, though, have thoughtfully analyzed the origins of the problem or considered the role college reading demands themselves play in it. Nor have they made realistic proposals to address the root causes of the issue. Research reveals, however, that college level reading and learning from extended, complex academic texts make distinctive cognitive demands on students requiring them to develop not only new knowledge, strategies and skills, but also new understandings about reading and learning from texts—and how to do it well.

Nic Voge earned his master’s degree in advanced reading and language (reading specialist) from UC Berkeley and undertook doctoral work there in college reading and learning. He has taught workshops, seminars and courses on college reading and learning from text at UC Berkeley and Princeton University and has presented and published on topics related to college reading, learning, motivation and teaching, including Life Beyond Grades: Designing College Courses to Promote Intrinsic Motivation (Cambridge University Press).

Sponsored by the McGraw Center for Teaching & Learning