You learn nothing from jumping through hoops

“Make sure you don’t read the whole text as this will only distract you.” Strange advice if you really want to understand a text, but my Dutch teacher was right. This is how you can score well on the final central written exam – the exam that all Dutch students take at the end of their secondary education. We quickly figured out that it paid off to read only the first sentence of each paragraph in reading comprehension, to add keywords endlessly in texts, and that it doesn’t matter if you actually read your list of books or not as long as you learned the summaries by heart.

The result? A group of students showing surprising similarities to dolphins in marine mammal parks. They learned a trick and can perform it on command. But for them it has little benefit: jumping through a hoop does not make you a better swimmer. Even if the audience is clapping.

High final exam scores do not make you better at reading in the real world: understanding news articles or getting through a book. Perhaps it is time for students – like the dolphins – to engage in more natural behaviour. Instead of tricks and superficial reading strategies, in secondary school we should focus on developing a real understanding and enjoyment of reading.

For now, however, that lies ahead of us. That mean every year a new batch of students starts at TU Delft who neither like reading nor are good at it. However, contributing to ‘solving complex and urgent societal challenges’, as TU Delft’s vision describes, requires students to be able to read attentively and understand complex texts. It is therefore a missed opportunity that TU Delft pays so little attention to reading. Higher education has the opportunity to help students (re)discover the usefulness and pleasure of reading.

Have students read one book each quarter during their bachelor’s degrees

For this, students need to read more. Not just text fragments or papers, but books that elaborate on an idea or explain a vision about a field. Books that expand on a topic in a way that a short article never could. Books that encourage critical thinking about the world.

For example, have students read one book each quarter during their bachelor’s degrees. For this purpose, use a book list with a wide selection compiled by faculty and professors on topics related to the study field or current events. For my faculty Industrial Design Engineering , for example, it could include The design of everyday things, Cradle to cradle or Thinking, fast and slow. That way students have the room to choose books that appeal to them.

This helps students get over the initial barrier of returning to reading after secondary school. And it gives them room to explore the topics that they find interesting in their field and learn more about them. Plus, it’s good for their attention span, memory, vocabulary, empathy and stress levels. In this way, students will see that reading is more than just applying a trick. Reading will become fun again.
For now, it’s up to our own initiative . Ask an interesting professor for a book recommendation, put a book on your wish list for the holidays, or check out one of the minibiebs (little free libraries) in Delft. Have fun reading!