An Assessment of University Students' Book Reading Levels and Problem Solving Skills

Abstract

The knowledge required to be acquired changes and increases with each passing day along with the developing technology and economy. In parallel with the increase in the knowledge required to be acquired, learning environments and mutual interaction are not enough anymore to acquire this knowledge. One of the most important ways to acquire knowledge is reading books. The studies conducted with pre-service teachers revealed that they mostly read newspapers followed by books and magazines. This study was carried out to assess the university students' book reading levels and the effect on their problem solving skills thereof. “Attitude Scale Towards Reading Habit” and “Problem Solving Inventory” were used to collect the research data. The results revealed a significant difference between the student groups created based on gender in attitudes towards reading in favor of the male students. Nevertheless, in terms of problem solving skills, a significant difference was found between the student groups created based on age in favor of the age group of under 20 years, and between the student groups created based on the type of high school which the student was graduated from, in favor of the students who were graduated from science and vocational high schools against students who were graduated from anatolian high schools. Lastly, a significant relationship (r=.56) was found between the reading levels and the problem solving skills in the positive direction, which suggests that the higher the reading attitudes the higher the problem solving skills.