Geez, no one responded since yesterday. OK, I'll do it.

First of all, I don't think your experience is NOT very unusual. My youngest 
child is a 19-year old college sophomore and I would say that is pretty typical 
of him and his group. He wouldn't be caught dead raising his hand, publicly in 
class to that one, but he is a "closet" reader! 

Second, I'm not at all surprised to hear that these are ed students. We have 
the worst problems in disabusing our ed students of their psychological 
misconceptions. They just hang on to them more tenaciously than other students. 
They are less critical and scientific thinkers for some reason, as a group. An 
ed student is most likely to be in my office telling me that this one 
experiment, well, it's only one. But they have heard many people say (insert 
favorite misconception) dozens of times, so it must be true: quantity trumps 
quality in their minds. 

I think this is something worth researching.

Anyway, I would have openly called my students on it. I guess I'm older and can 
get away with that sort of thing; but I would have said something like, "So. 
Hmm. Many of you want to become teachers. Well, imagine yourselves a few years 
from now asking YOUR students how many like to read, and NONE raise their 
hands.....hmmm, can we revisit this question now?" I don't know, I just come 
across as "mom" and can do those things.

Annette

Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
University of San Diego
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
619-260-4006
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:42:17 GMT
>From: "Julie Osland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  
>Subject: [tips] attitudes toward learning and reading  
>To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]>
>
>   Hi Tipsters
>
>   I just had a somewhat worrisome experience in my
>   child psychology class today that I  need to share. 
>   We were discussing how the gene-environment
>   interaction can change over time (passive,
>   evocative, and active).  To illustrate, I had used
>   an example involving "being athletic." So I asked
>   the class to volunteer things they liked to do, so I
>   could provide another illustration.  After a long
>   pause, I asked them "how many of you like to read?"
>   No takers.  So next I asked "how many of you like to
>   learn?" (1/2 of this class of 30 is elem. ed
>   majors). No takers.   So these students who want to
>   teach elementary kids don't like learning and
>   reading?!?!  Now there's a nightmare (which I didn't
>   say out loud to the class).  To borrow an expression
>   from Paula Deen "Oh my gumdrops!" Are these
>   attitudes common in today's students?  Or is this
>   class of mine just a fluke?
>
>   Julie
>
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