Leesmotivatie en persoonlijke groei in het literatuuronderwijs
| PhD ceremony: | Ms A.D. (Anouk) de Kleijn |
| When: | February 06, 2025 |
| Start: | 12:45 |
| Supervisors: | dr. M. (Maarten) Derksen, prof. dr. A.E.M.G. (Alexander) Minnaert |
| Co-supervisor: | dr. T.C.H. Witte |
| Where: | Academy building RUG |
| Faculty: | Behavioural and Social Sciences |
For years, the newspapers have been full of reports about students' declining reading motivation. Teachers in literature education are therefore diligently looking for effective methods to get their students reading. Besides boosting reading motivation, many teachers also find it important to encourage students' “personal growth”. In my research, I looked at the link between reading motivation and personal growth and developed a teaching method that can encourage both. In that lesson series, after some preparatory lessons and support in book selection, students read a book together in small groups (book clubs). During the lessons, they discuss their progress and experiences.
The study shows that students mainly enjoy reading together in a book club. They also find exchanging opinions and perspectives fun and instructive. Finally, students mention that they get a better grip on the book by asking each other questions.
Students show various forms of personal growth after reading a literary work, such as insights into society, other people, themselves and/or their well-being. For reading motivation, no significant differences were found between the experimental (book club) condition and the contrast condition (without book club), but the groups show different trends in favour of the book club. Moreover, there are clear links between reading motivation and personal growth, showing that it pays to focus on personal growth to boost motivation as well.