The Importance of Reading Comprehension in Higher Education

Reading comprehension is essential for success in higher education because it is a critical component of most academic tasks. In higher education, students are required to read and understand a variety of complex texts, including textbooks, research essays and papers, and scholarly publications. These texts often contain technical terminology and abstract concepts that can be difficult to comprehend without a strong foundation in reading comprehension skills.

Moreover, students are expected to critically analyse and evaluate the information presented in these texts and use it to support their own arguments and ideas. This requires the ability to identify main ideas, recognise supporting evidence, make inferences and evaluate the credibility of sources.

Additionally, reading comprehension is crucial for success in written assignments, such as essays, research essays and exams. These assignments often require students to synthesise information from multiple sources and to develop their own arguments and ideas based on that information.

Reading comprehension is a foundational skill that is essential for success in higher education. It enables students to engage with complex texts, think critically about the information presented, and develop their own ideas and arguments based on that information. You can give your students the best possible head start in higher education with the CARS & STARS Online digital reading comprehension program, which focuses on all the above aspects of developing reading comprehension through its unique, research-based reading strategies.

The core reading strategies that underpin the entirety of the CARS & STARS Online digital reading comprehension program form an underlying instructional framework that recurs throughout every level and provides consistency of understanding and instruction for students and teachers alike. 

The twelve reading strategies progress from simpler, lower-order thinking skills such as Finding the Main Idea and Recalling Facts and Details to more complex, higher-order concepts such as Identifying Author’s Purpose and Summarising. Initial questions determine students’ mastery of the text at a literal level, while later questions build on this understanding to get to the heart of their conceptual understanding. In this way, in every reading passage across every reading level, students are being asked to perform the same essential tasks – with their difficulty and complexity increasing as the student progresses through the reading levels.

If you are interested in learning more about the CARS & STARS Online subscriptions and how they can help children to achieve better results, then sign up for a free trial to be an integral part of your child’s reading success.