The complex relationship of teachers with reading as a skill: the reading behavior of the teachers of Pre-school and Primary Education in training

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The interest of this work is to reflect, specifically, on the quality of training of future teachers in the specific competence field as mediators of reading. On the one hand, the latest reports on the reading habits of Spanish students call into question that there has been evolution in this matter, so it seems necessary to make more effective the teaching of the reading skill at the first stages of education. On the other hand, previous research has pointed out the influence exerted by teachers’ reading experiences on their effectiveness in this field. This research is aimed at studying the behavior and the reading engagement of the students of the Teachers’ Degree to reflect on their competence development regarding the reading education of the children of Pre-school and Primary Education. METHOD. This research has involved 861 students from the Universities of Castilla-La Mancha and Santiago de Compostela, from the first to fourth year of the Teachers’ Degree in Pre-school Education (355) and Primary Education (506). Reading behavior and engagement to reading were evaluated. RESULTS. The results indicate the relationship between behavior, engagement and reading habits. As they advance in the training, there is an increase in the reading habits in the students of the Teachers’ Degree in Primary Education, but not in the ones of Pre-school Education. The category of false readers is evident, as well as a high percentage of future teachers who do not seem to have the necessary personal conditions to develop a voluntary reader behavior in their students. DISCUSSION. The university must move towards a complete, solid and coherent training with the competences that these future professionals have to develop as mediators of reading, strengthening their reading habits as regards both to behavior and reading engagement.