LIBRARY USE IN AFGHAN TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGES

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I

LIBRARY USE IN AFGHAN TEACHER TRAINING

COLLEGES

Reading Culture among Teacher Students

___________________________________

Mohammad Zaman Saii

Faculty: Art and Social Science Subject:Education

Points: 15 Credits

Supervisor: Anders Broman Examiner: Amir Mansory Date: 21,11, 2013

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ABSTRACT

Reading culture and library use in Afghan education area can be a very important issue to be studied particularly, in teacher training colleges because these institutions play a very important role in spreading and developing reading culture and library use among students.

Moreover, students of TTCs as teacher students and future teachers get reading habit in order to convey it to their school students and can be very affective to establishment of this culture among them.

This study is aimed to find out the view point of teacher educators and teacher students on library use and reading culture among students. The basic and primary factors involved in establishment of reading culture and habit of library use are parental involvement in children’s pre-education ages. They put a critical foundation for this culture in students’

educational life while this study also shows the important role of parental involvement in development of reading habit among students. Teachers also play an important role in establishment of reading habit among students, after students’ primary education by parents then in school education teachers support reading development with the cooperation of parents. In this study, a large number of teacher students have replied that they have got the support of their parents when they were children. In findings of this study many of students responded that they go to library by their own interest and they mostly go there for supporting their background knowledge however they strongly agreed that their family background affected on their reading habit. Furthermore, teacher educators have mentioned that they persuade students using methods of teaching to improve reading habit among them.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to thank Afghanistan Ministry of Education, Swedish Committee and Karlstad University for facilitating the Teacher Education Master’s Program (TEMP) for me and other Teacher Educators who have participated in this program. Secondly, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Amir Mansory and Dr. Pia Karlsson who have organized and have done their best to provide and manage a good program that participants be able to develop their professional skills in an appropriate way. My thanks go to my professors at Karlstad University who have been involved in my various courses and patiently give lectures and formative feedback to our course papers.

I would like to express my warm gratitude to my supervisor Professor Anders Broman that I have learnt a lot from his kind and formative guidance and feedback for my research project.

My deepest thanks go to the directors and my colleagues (teacher educators) and teacher students at teacher training colleges of Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar and Faizabad who took time to respond the questionnaires and gave me the data for my study.

Finally, I would like to thank my family, my wife and two sweet daughters that they helped and facilitate me despite many problems and obstacles I could do my studies.

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IV

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Teacher Educator Profile (in number and percent)... 7

Table 2: Students’ Interest in Reading... 7

Table 3: The Reason of Reading Book...8

Table 4: Library Going of Students...8

Table 5: Students Interest in Going to Library...8

Table 6: Class Performance of Students with Reading Habit... 9

Table 7: Effects of Family Background on Students Reading Habit... 9

Table 8: Obstacles in Students’ Reading Habit...10

Table 9: Impacts of Curriculum in TSs’ Reading Habit...10

Table 10: The Factors Involved in TS's Reading Habit...10-11 Table 11: Impact of Teachers’ Method on TSs Reading Habit...11

Table 12: Percentage of Students’ Daily Visit of Library...11

Table 13: Parents' Cooperation with Children’s Reading Habit...12

Table 14: Students’ Encouragement by Their Teacher...12

ABBREVIATION

BA Bachelor of Arts

MA Master of Arts

PHD Doctorate of Philosophy

TE Teacher Educator

TEMP Teacher Educators Master Programme

TTC Teacher Training College TS Teacher Student

Y Year

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INTRODUCTION Background

Three decades of inner conflicts in Afghanistan caused a high ratio of illiteracy among earlier generations. A high percentage of the people who are now parents and even grandparents of today’s youths are illiterate or have low level of literacy skill which somehow affects their children’s education. According to Samadi (2001) in Afghan society literacy has been a huge problem, especially among adults, although some governments have worked to decrease the rate but the numbers of illiterates have been raised by the end of twentieth century.

Furthermore, lack of parental ability to involve their children’s education and low development of education in Afghanistan caused shortage of students’ interest in reading books or any other resources. According to Samadi (2001) the development of contemporary education in Afghanistan started with independence in 1919. Due to some political, social and cultural issues the development of education was passing in a very slow mood but in recent years the system of education is changed and parental involvement in their children’s education seems to be improved. Therefore, focusing on the new changes and progresses in education sector, it is needed to explore the idea of teacher students and teachers educators about the situation of reading habit among students of TTCs.

Problem Area

Parents lay the cornerstone of children’s education before they go to school or even preschool education. According to Department for Children, Schools and families (2008) in children’s achievements parents’ involvement plays an important and positive role even some background elements like family and social issues influence it. Parents’ literacy or illiteracy effects children’s educational achievements anyway, to involve in an effective participation of children’s development, parent should find capability to know the essential need and get the knowledge and capacity to play a good role in their children’s educational achievements.

However in Afghanistan context the role of parents is very limited because majority of them have very low literacy skill while this problem comes from three decades of civil conflicts in the country. Furthermore, educated parents can establish a reading culture in their home, if they themselves have reading habit, it would have a positive effect on children’s habit that finally make them good readers. Parental higher education has an important link with the hope to have good achievement of children. In other words, parental higher education can increase the expectation that they have about their children’s educational achievements (ibid).

On the other side of students’ educational life teacher is meeting the students with prior family educational background, habits and culture which seem to be not very easy to change.

According to Department for Children, Schools and families (2008) two educators play same important role in children’s live: their parents and their teachers. Parents are the main instructor in ages before children go to school then in next steps, school teacher follows the parents’ primary education that they have given to their children. If parents have been educated and literate that background is set as a preschool education and that would help the teacher and the school education to start with success and that is needed for every child before coming to school but unfortunately majority of them are coming to school with very low interest in reading books or any other reading materials.

Since there are still students in TTCs with very low literacy skills, reading culture among them seems lower than it is expected. Maybe this can cause their lower achievements of education. Regarding to this issue Samadi (2013) said, due to low quality teachers and shortage of suitable educational and learning facilities like libraries, laboratories, updated curricula and textbook, the quality of education in primary and higher education is still a problem.

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2 This study will explore the main factors behind reading habit/culture among teacher students and its essential impacts on their academic achievements. Moreover, parental involvement in foundation of their reading culture or lack of this culture among teacher students will be argued and discussed to find the way(s) to establish and improve this culture for having a good quality education. Furthermore, teacher students are expected to be involved in reading habit more than students who are busy with other fields because first, they have to gain a huge knowledge through reading as a trainee of teaching field and they should be able to respond the questions of their keen students. Second they as future teachers should have reading habit to pass on this habit as an important educational achievement to their students.

Libraries are made in education centres particularly in TTCs to facilitate learners to have easy access in books or any other reading materials and provide a suitable and peaceful place for reading and learning however, it plays important role in students’ reading habit as educational achievements. Library and reading has close link with each other therefore, this study is aimed to investigate students’ reading habit. This study will not be complete unless involvement of library use is included.

Aim

The aim of this thesis is to explore reading habit and reading culture among students of teacher training college. Reading habit which begins with literacy skills and used as a support for educational achievements of students, will be explored from teacher students and teacher educators’ perspective.

Research Questions:

1. What is the use of library among students?

2. Which students refer to visit the libraries and why?

3. What is the role of library in students’ learning?

4. What affects students’ success or failure in their reading habits?

5. How to establish reading culture in students?

As the main aim of this study is to explore reading habit or reading culture among students of teacher training colleges of Afghanistan, these five research questions are made to collect the data for this research. In my perspective the most important question is number 4, which finds the reasons why students have reading habit and the factors in failure of their reading habit while this issue is considered to be the main point of this study to reach in.

Furthermore, all questions collect somehow the details for students’ habit in reading while questions number one and three ask for the benefits of reading for students, likewise question number two asks what categories of students go to library for reading and what is behind their reading habit. Question number five is searching for the ways to make reading culture among students. In general, the questions as a whole are designed to ask for the necessary data to complete the aim of this research.

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LITERATURE REVIEW Significance of Reading Habit

Reading can play a very important role in development of individuals which leads them to success in society. As Murphy (2013) says reading gives people opportunity to know about themselves, to find ideas about how to influence society, how to make the life better, to develop our academic perspective and link our personality to the civic society. Furthermore reading lets the readers to know something new and enable them improve their knowledge about others’ life and find good ways to treat unexpected situations appearing in one’s life.

Besides that the advantages of reading and writing is not only limited in learning two skills but there are further positive points regarding family, community, and social activities.

Moreover, in modern societies the important role of reading is clear indeed while the question why the people should read is obvious because it is clear that reading affect employment and some other societal issues worldwide.

Chidiebere et al. (2013) consider reading as total of knowledge interpreted of the written words. They add that libraries are the places where we enrich our understandings by reading and enable people to improve their knowledge by themselves. Parents should be involved in their children’s reading. They should be good readers in order to cultivate reading habit in their children and get benefit of that in school. In fact, educated parents can play an important role in their children’s reading rather than those who are semi literate or not literate parents.

Akindele (2012) declares that reading has a very important place in education of children that cannot be separated from their education process. Even reading is considered as an essential skill for life and can be the foundation of children’s success in school education and other parts of their life. Furthermore, most of children’s life achievements like job success and any other opportunities in their future can be acquired with reading and it can be an important approach for development of pupil’s education.

Ways to Develop Reading Habit in Students

For cultivating reading habits in children different important factors play crucial roles to achieve the target. Parental supportive participation can be one of the initial things in developing reading habit in children. As Akindele (2012) says, books are introduced to the children by their parents for the first time. They read the basic daily things which can pave the way to reach the readings that are linked to their school issues in their coming later years.

However, due to the important role of children’s home environment and parental involvement in their reading habits, Murphy (2013) points out that many studies show home environment which facilitates reading, is very important in development of reading habit among children as well as those habits which have been established in childhood period can persist lifelong.

Not only parents are the key persons in reading development of the children, maybe there are some other people involved in children’s learning. As Luong (2008) observes when the expansion of literacy knowledge needed for children, learning to read comes up as the main factor for that approach and it is the responsibility of anyone who involved in children’s life particularly at risk students will get improvement in their school achievement when they receive their parents’ and home environment’s support in reading.

Marlow (2001) says that parents should let their children bring the library books home and read the books aloud for their children to be encouraged. Oral reading affects learning and plays an important part in capturing the issue. Likewise, regarding to the importance of family part in reading improvement among children, Murphy (2013) indicates that in families where there is no reading habit in the parents, their children come to read late in comparison with the

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4 children with the parents who read at home, it directly affects to their children’s habit and they are encouraged to reading.

According to Njeze (2013) one of the easy ways to encourage reading habit in pupil is newspaper reading which can be inexpensive to access. In addition, newspaper reading has some other interesting points, it has basic subjects for literacy improvement and its frequently reading enables the children to think critically even, it provides academic information to be used in research. Newspapers are good resources for those people who want to find some entertainment and leisure things. The up to date information and recent development in different areas is available in newspaper which can be another advantage of its reading.

Furthermore, the newspapers have some attractive things like colorful pages, good quality paper and articles which satisfy their readers also for improvement of the awareness of the youth, it is more useful and more readers among youth but there are also some private ones they publish articles which in not reliable which cannot be good for enhancing academic information. He also points to the position of magazine among readers as a substitution for books, these days a few people spend their time in reading a book, they prefer to find their beloved article in a magazine to read.

According to Akindele (2012) in order to motivate children to do more reading in an informal way individualized reading is suggested. Marlow (2001) also indicates that in individualized reading the student selects a book from school library and read it in his/her spare time in school or at home which can be a good use of time. He also adds: reading materials in a library should cover as different areas as possible. This coverage gives possibilities for pupils to find their book of interest. Also the library books should be in different levels which should give chance to the readers to select the materials according to their level that reading should be done in a meaningful manner to comprehend the ideas.

Furthermore, Akindele (2012) says if the students are going to be good readers, library is very important to have good materials and this sound good for developing quality reading. He adds, when reading increased up to complex number of books and information is needed to be improved to its higher level, and then other books are needed to be available. The children should be encouraged to read and do as much reading as they can.

Reading has some advantages and some important points, to know about that can encourage the pupil to read more and Chidiebere et al. (2013) introduce seven important things in reading:

1. Reading is a skill which can help us to find a good job.

2. The brainpower of mind needs regular exercises to grow its ability so, reading the written words is a way to grow it.

3. Reading enables the reader to get new ideas and improve his/her knowledge.

4. Through reading, we receive different ideas written down which can change the life of human beings.

5. Reading can change reader’s vision. The people who do not read or rarely read, do not believe in their own and others’ abilities.

6. We achieve success in education through reading because as far as we improve our knowledge the success rate increases.

7. Your future and your position in the future depend on your reading. As much reading as you do, you make a good communication among people.

Allyn (2011) emphasizes environment for independent reading which is adjusted in reader’s interest. It is energetic and the reader feels comfortable and enjoy in reading time.

The reader should be asked what kind of facilities they want; they may like to have a light music or a quiet room for their individualized reading.

Vannelli (2012) says reading habit establishes itself in children by the fifth and sixth grade. The out of school reading habit achieved by children in the mentioned age can be an

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5 independent reading habit which motivates readers to read more and its effects remains in students throughout their lives. The success of reading will be achieved at the moment when the reader selects what to read and when to be engaged in his/her independent reading. He emphasizes to develop interest and habit on entertainment and pleasure reading as an initial step for attracting the interests to reading. Otherwise, who do not make this habit of reading they may pass difficult reading and writing time, anyway, they cannot use their time in reading as necessary as expected. Furthermore, independent reading habit develops background knowledge, improve vocabulary capacity and affect on learning process positively.

How to Establish a Reading Culture in Students

Establishing of a reading culture in children is one of the most important and necessary issues for improvement of their education. Love and interest of reading and learning is cultivated in children to have a good achievement for their school education and to find good opportunities in their future life. Behind this important success or failure of children, parental and family strong involvement and support are necessary. According to Akindele (2012) parental support and reading are two crucial factors which help establishing reading culture in children particularly in their formative age (from birth to 7), mostly the age before school.

Furthermore, reading encourages the children to be interested in books which makes the foundation of reading culture and makes good achievement starting from primary issue and then progress to academic levels. As far as children’s education star in family environment and mostly controlled by parental supervising, parents’ reading to their children motivates them to be more interested in reading while reading enable students to explore the ideas written in the books and day by day this achievements is improved getting more information about situations and places around them. In order to make a good reading culture in children which is base of their future success, we should concentrate on the poor reading culture of the children. Regarding how to motivate people to do reading in their leisure time Murphy (2013) says those people who use free time in reading, they have selected a good approach for reading and it can be a good way to be motivated in reading.

Allyn (2011) introduces top ten ways to create a reading culture in a classroom which persuades students to read and love reading.

1. The readers should not be judged according to what material he/she reads, what material is good to read and what should not be read instead help him/her to find the best things which work for them.

2. Present variety of materials to students because they have not been able to find their suitable and interested materials.

3. Time for dialogue is very important in reading because students will know many things from others and shares their ideas with each other.

4. Readers should have the tools they need to solve their problem when they read 5. Let the readers read independently, it means we should assess the students to start

reading either from lower level or higher level according to their own level of reading.

6. Beginner readers need the approaches to talk about books with more concentration;

it enables them to change their idea that for a clear understanding of reading the literatures selected for reading should not be too long.

7. Let the student to reread the texts to browse new things which is not an easy job, each rereading increases comprehension of the text for the reader. It enables the students to think differently.

8. Build stamina in readers, let them to read more the topics they enjoy and are somehow familiar with them.

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6 9. Teach the students to find this ability to choose what to read, they themselves should

justify what to read in variety of materials.

10. Students should enjoy reading the texts, if they could find the text of their interest, the result of the reading and its impacts are good.

Students know their own personality better than anyone else. It would be wise to ask the way of their reading improvement from themselves as Allyn (2011) says; ask students to indicate the method to be a lifelong reader and keep readings fresh in the mind. Furthermore, Marlow (2011) reminds that student should be encouraged in reading to do more and more reading while this repetition of reading give them the ability to read more complex levels of the books and a background knowledge based on that. He/she can read other books. In other sides, individualized reading plays an important part motivating the readers to do more reading in an informal approach.

To sum up, as far as there have not been done enough research on library use or reading habit/culture among students in South Asian countries especially Afghanistan, the evidence has been reviewed and extended largely from American, the western and some African contexts. The main point which is supported by much of researches is preschool education and important role of parental involvements in it. Moreover, independent reading is indicated as self confidence making way for students to find their reading interests while in some parts, leisure time reading is mentioned in order to read those things which are easy and students feel relaxed in reading time. Anyway, the different parts of research reviewed are linked with each other supporting the main issue of reading habit among students.

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METHODS

This research is designed based on the quantitative approach aimed to find the view point of teacher educators and teacher students upon how library is used in teacher training colleges in order to find out the reading culture among students. For collecting the data of this study a well structured questionnaire is used. The questionnaire is known as an easy way to collect data. As Bell (2010) points out, the researchers use the questionnaire when they think it is better for collecting data rather than interview also it is considered facilitating collecting a large number of data with a short possible time period. Bryman (2012) declares that use of questionnaire in quantitative method is a good idea because it gives researcher possibility to get a mass of respondent in a short limitation of time. Besides, the respondent will get chance to find any suitable place and answer to the questions with a relaxed mind. Furthermore, questionnaire is easy to understand and could be more interesting to respond if it is good designed. As Cohen et al. (2010) say simple form, easy looking, attractiveness and interesting form of a questionnaire is more important rather than being complicated, unclear and boring.

Besides, sometimes some unnecessary responses will be collected by questionnaire which will not be analyzed. As Bell (2010) declares, the questions can have advantages and limitations, the researcher should take care of the received information by questionnaire whither she/he needs it and is it analyzable? The offensive questions should be removed.

The questionnaires were designed and developed for two types of respondents, teacher educators and teacher students. The teacher educators’ questionnaire contained of 19 questions and was distributed to 35 teacher educators and then all collected back with responses. The other type of respondents which I distributed the questionnaires were teacher students. This questionnaire contained of 20 questions and was distributed to 200 students.

Before the distribution, the questionnaires were piloted with ten teachers and students in Baghlan teacher training college while the piloting did not result any change in design and questions. Moreover, in this data collection of both teachers and students, I have travelled to four provinces namely: Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan in North Afghanistan. The questionnaires were translated in to Dari (local language) which is one of the two official languages (Dari and Pashto) of Afghanistan and distributed to both male and female teachers and students, for responses they have had one day. The questions were designed based on the impacts of the literature review and focusing on finding responses to research questions which were seeking teachers’ and students’ view points about students’ reading habit/culture and its effects on their educational background.

Questionnaires contained the following sections: respondents’ personal data, multiple choice questions, Likert Scale and open ended questions in order to give chance to the respondents if they had any idea out of the options the questions have.

Limitations

As my study was “reading habit/culture among teachers and students Afghan teacher training colleges, I decided to include as many TTCs in Afghanistan as I could but unfortunately due to security reasons and high travel costs I could only go to four main TTCs in North Afghanistan (already named). Moreover, there are some misunderstandings in filling the questionnaires by both teachers and students. As I know this was for the lack of a separate guide chapter to show how to respond to the questions also in most cases, particularly of female respondents for sake of some local ethical issues, there was not any chance for me to give verbal instruction to them as to how to respond. Fortunately, some colleagues (teacher educator) that I already knew and they were working in those TTCs helped me solving the problem.

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FINDINGS

Teacher Educator Participant’s Profile

The Majority of the teacher educators (91%) were male while a few of them (9%) were female. Furthermore, majority of the respondents, (94%), had university degree of B.A while a few of them (6%) had M.A degree. Moreover, the respondents had different years of working experience as teacher educators: a very small number of them (9%) had experience of one or more than one year while majority of them (54%) had working experience of more than two up to five years. In addition, 20% of them had worked 6-10 years while very few (4%) had experience of more than ten up to thirty years.

Table 1: Teacher Educator Profile (in number and percent)

TE Sex Level of Education Experience in Years (Y) Male Female BA MA PhD 1or>1 y 2-5y 6-10y <10y

# % # % # % # % # % # % # % # % # %

32 91 3 9 33 94 ₂ 6 ₃ 9 19 54 7 20 4 11

Library Use among Students

Many of teacher educators (31%) said students used to go to the library for improving their background knowledge while another big number (25%) mentioned that students go to the library for supporting their TTC text books while a lower number of respondents (25%) said:

students go there to update their information regarding to the lessons they get in TTC. 24% of them have not answered the question.

Table 2: Students’ Interest in Reading

Statements Options

TE Responses

# %

What is students' interest in reading?

1) Improving their background knowledge 11 31

2) Leisure reading 1 3

3) Supportive reading for their textbooks 8 25 4) Up to date their field of study knowledge 6 17

No answer 9 24

Total 35 100

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9 78% of teacher students (ST) answered they go to library for supporting their background knowledge while a few of them (14%) said they go to library for doing their assignments but fewer of participants (5%) believed they read for supporting text books of TTC and a few other students (4%) replied they read for passing time while 2% did not answered.

The responses to these two questions show how the students use library and what aims are followed in going to library and reading (see tables 2 and 3) the books.

Table 3: The Reasons for Reading Book

Statements Options

TSs' Responses

# %

Why do you read books?

1)Improving your background knowledge 153 78

2)Reading for leisure 7 4

3)To support TTC textbooks 9 5

4)To do the assignment 28 14

No answer 3 2

Total 200 100

Which Students Refer to Libraries

Many of teacher respondents (49%) believed that boys go to the library most but some other TEs (23%) declared that girls go to the library most. Moreover, some other TEs (29%) said that both boys and girls go to library to the same extent.

Table 4: Library Going of Students Statements

TE Responses

Boys Girls Both

# % # % # %

Which students go to the library most? 17 49 8 23 10 29

Total 35 49 35 23 35 29

96% of the students said they are interested themselves to go to the library but a few of them (4%) mentioned they are not interested in reading.

To sum up, these two questions indicate that which group of students goes to library, boys or girls and are they interested themselves to go to library?

Table 5: Students Interest in Going to Library

Statements Options TSs' Responses

# %

Are you interested yourself to go to the library for reading?

1) Yes 192 96

2) No 8 4

Total 200 100

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Role of Library in Students’ Learning

26% of teacher educators totally 35 respondents replied that students who read a lot are more active in class performance while 26% of TEs said the students who have habit to read are more interested in the lessons of their field study. Moreover, 26% of teachers claimed that the students who go to the library for reading get good marks in their tests while some other TEs believed that students with reading habit are smarter than others but on the negative side 37%

of TEs answered that the students who do not have reading habit are not so active in their class performance and many others (34%) of them said these students do not get good marks in tests. Moreover, a smaller number of TEs (26%) responded that student without the habit of reading books are not interested in TTS’s lessons.

The responses of the TEs pointed on students’ participation in class activities, show how students with reading habit and those who do not read too much perform in class .

Table 6: Class Performance of Students with Reading Habit

Statements Options

TE Responses

# %

What changes are there in class performance of the students who

have reading habit

1. Are more active in the class 9 26

2. Are smarter than others 8 23

3. Are more interested in studies 9 26

4. Get god marks 9 26

5. Other 0

Total 35 100

What positive or negative changes are there in class performance of the students who do not have reading habit?

1. Are passive in the class 13 37 2. Are not interested in lessons 9 26

3. Get bad marks 12 34

4. Other 1 3

Total 35 100

The Factors Involved in Reading Habit of Students

A large number of students (88%) replied that family background affects their reading habit whether this habit is positive or negative. Moreover, a few of TSs (13%) do not believe parental background affects their reading habit.

Table 7: Effects of Family Background on Students Reading Habit

Statements Options

TSs' Responses

# %

Do you think family background affects your reading habit?

1) Yes 175 88

2) No 25 13

3) I do not know 0 0

Total 200 100

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11 6% of TEs agreed that boys are facing lack of reading materials access while another group, (6%), of TEs said that boys have problem of lack reading materials access. Some of TEs (14%) believed that boys are not interested in reading while rather a big number of TEs (17%) replied social ethics is an obstacle for girls to go to the library for reading and a small number of TEs (9%) said boys are also suffering from social ethics to go to the library for reading.

Furthermore, another part of TEs (6 %) said: boys are facing economical problem which do not let them read. Besides, 6% of TEs believed that girls face economical problem as an obstacle for their reading materials. A few TEs (9%) responded girls and 6% of them replied boys are suffering lack of ability to read which comes up as an obstacle for their reading interest.

Table 8: Obstacles in Students’ Reading Habit

Statements Options TEs Responses

Boys Girls

# % # %

What is the obstacle for students (boys &

girls) to access library and reading materials?

1.Economy 2 6 2 6

2.Social ethics 3 9 6 17

3.Lack of reading materials of their interest 2 6 2 6

4.Lack of reading habits 5 14 1 3

5.Don’t know how to find their books of interest 0 0 0 0 6.Low level of literacy skills 2 6 3 9 7.Other Boys __________________ 0 0

Total 35 40 35 40

Majority of teacher students (55%) agreed that curriculum helps both teachers and student to establish a reading habit among students but a smaller number of TEs (35%) do not have enough information about the contents of curriculum while a few TEs (10%) do not agree with any link between curriculum and reading habit of students.

Table 9: Impacts of Curriculum in TSs’ Reading Habit

Statements Options

TSs' Responses

# %

Do you think the curriculum by Ministry of Education has any influence on reading habit of you?

1) Yes 110 55%

2) No 20 10%

3) I do not know 70 35%

Total 200 100%

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12 Majority of TEs, (54%), believed that social environment influences students’ reading habit but many other TEs, (23%), said parents are responsible for reading habit or lack of this habit in their children while a few of participants, (11%) replied that school is involved in students’

reading habit and a few others (11%) responded that low or high economy affects reading habit of students.

The answers to these four questions indicate the factors involved in reading habit of students.

Table 10: The Factors Involved in TS's Reading Habit

Statements Options TE Responses

# %

What is responsible for success or failure of reading habit in students?

1) Parents 8 23

2) social environment 19 54

3) school 4 11

4) economy 4 11

Total 35 100

Establishment of Reading Culture among Students

There are some key factors in establishing a reading culture among students. The large majority of responses (97%) show that teachers can create reading habit through reasonable teaching ways in which students are encouraged to read a lot.

Table 11: Impact of Teachers’ Method on TSs Reading Habit

Statements Options

TE Responses

# %

Do you have such a method of teaching to persuade students to read?

Yes 34 97

No 1 3

Total 35 100

Many of TEs (46%) agreed that only 20% of students are interested to go to library for reading while a few TEs (20%) believed that a very small number of students, (10%), go to library regularly. Moreover, fewer TEs (17%) said a big number of students (50%) go to library repeatedly while only (11%) of them answered that more than half of the students (more that 50%) go to library for reading books.

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13 Table 12: Percentage of Students’ Daily Visit of Library

Statements Options

TE Responses

# %

What percentage of the students does regular reading beside and/or within their TTC lesson?

1) Less than 10% 2 6

2) 10% 7 20

3) 20% 16 46

4) 50% 6 17

5) More than 50% 4 11

6) Other 0 0

Total 35 100

Majority of students (83%) agreed on parental involvement in reading habit or lack of reading habit among students. They declared that their parents helped them read books in their childhood but fewer (17%) of them said they did not get any help from their parents regarding to reading books. Besides, many of TSs (54%) mentioned that their parents persuade them to read while a smaller number of TSs (22%) claimed that their parents helped them with buying interesting books. Moreover, a few of TSs (19%) said their parents used to read books for them in order to help them in reading.

Table 13: Parents' Cooperation with Children’s Reading Habit

Statements Options

TSs' Responses

# %

Did your parents use to help you in reading books in your childhood?

1) Yes 166 83

2) No 34 17

Total 200 100

How did your parents help you?

1) Persuaded you by saying 90 54

2) Read for you 32 19

3) Bought interesting books 36 22

4) Others 8 5

Total 166 100

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14 Majority of TEs (80%) agreed they encourage students to read with introducing the reading materials to them while a small number of them (20%) sometimes use this method.

The findings presented in these five questions show what plays role in establishment of reading culture among students. It also searches for the current reading habit among students.

Table 14: Students’ Encouragement by Their Teacher

Statements Options

TE Responses

# %

Do you introduce the students some books or any other reading materials to encourage them in order to establish a reading culture on them?

Yes 28 80

No 0 0

Sometimes 7 20

Total 35 100

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15

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study are mostly same as other studies about reading culture/habit among students which is reviewed in literature. Many teacher educators (42%) said, students read books for improvement of their knowledge, maybe they like to get further information about general things but some other teacher educators (31%) are not satisfied with that, they agreed with students reading for supporting the text books they read in teacher training college while another part of teacher educators rather a big number, (23%), believed that when students go to library or do reading, they just read for adding new information on the previous knowledge of their field of study time. However, reviewed literature on other studies show that students should have leisure reading, they read those literatures which they are interested in, because repetition of reading of their interest will improve their ability of understanding. Besides, reading will become habit of students but in findings of this study very few of TEs only (4%) responded that teacher students read in their leisure time. In addition, teacher students agreed with some items of this question but in some other, their answer is different, for instance, majority of TSs (78%) said they read books for supporting their background knowledge while only 5% of them answered they read for supporting their TTCs text books but a rather big number of them (14%) said they read when they received assignments by their teachers.

In Afghan society, educational facilities to a large extent consistent with men while due to some social obstacles for women, educational opportunities are also limited, particularly in urban areas. In this regards Samadi (2013) says that due the shortage of women teachers in some parts of Afghanistan, education development of girls face problem. In the findings of this study also many of teacher educators (TEs) (49%) responded that boys are using the library for reading books most while one of the issues which can play an important role to decrease the number of girls to go to library as it is mentioned in findings is social ethics.

However, 23% of TEs believe that girls visit to library most. Besides, there are some other alternatives have been chosen by a certain number of TEs, (29%), they responded: both boys and girls equally go to library for reading.

Majority of students (96%) responded that they are interested themselves to read books maybe on this habit some other factors like parental involvement in their childhood reading practices affected or maybe teachers encouragements and method of their teaching caused such a reading interest among them. However, a large number of the teacher educators (83%) replied that they use such methods of teaching that students can be encouraged to reading habit. Likewise, according to majority, (97%), of teacher students, parental involvements in their education background helped them to read these findings regarding to the impact of parental involvement in children education are supported by other studies which have been reviewed in literature.

As in the literature review, reading habit not only affects educational achievements but students, who read a lot, will succeed in many other careers of their life. Supporting this issue, this study also shows that the students with reading habit or vice versa get some advantages and disadvantages in school performances. According to 26% of teacher educators, students who have reading habit take more part in class activities and they are more interested to study, also these students get good scores in their tests. Moreover, some teacher educators, (23%), claimed that students who has habit to read are smarter than others who do not read. On the other hand, many of the teacher educators (37%) say the students who are suffering lack of reading habit, are not active in class performance and they do not take part in class activities.

While many other believed that these students often get bad marks in their tests. Besides, these students are not interested in learning.

Some obstacles against reading habit of the students have been mentioned by the research participants, 17% of teacher educators said social ethics make problem for girl

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16 students to go to the libraries where there is no special study room for female students. It may come from the traditions which influence most of Afghan society’s life, particularly urban life style where there Islamic and Afghan fundamental traditions are very strict. This problem also stands for male students but they are fewer, 9% of teacher educators responded that social ethics stands as a problem behind boys’ reading in library which may apply to the existence of mixed study rooms for male and female students in TTCs. Besides, some other factors have been mentioned as obstacle for reading habit and library. Referring teacher students however, some teacher educators (12%) agreed that economical situation of students comes as a problem for both boy and girl students and decreases their interest in reading and visiting the library for reading. Moreover the economy problem is also studied in other researches as Gove & Wetterberg (2011) pointed out, In some low income countries illiteracy is an outstanding problem, the students are not able even to know the basic rules of literacy in their early grades.

This problem may go to the low income of Afghan families which compels some students to have a job beside their education. Furthermore, the teacher educators have pointed to another factor which contributes to decrease interests in referring to library: that is lack of the books of their interest while another evidence of this study (14%) is that boys are not interested in book reading. However, maybe this low interest of boys is due to their engagements with other works to make an income as already mentioned. Moreover, 9% of TEs have mentioned that low literacy skill is another problem which plays an important role in reading habit of students particularly for female teacher students. Other studies regarding to capacity development of pupils with low literacy skill have been done and it is mentioned in literature review that they should read independently to find the books of their level to understand easily and by repetition of that kind of reading they can improve their reading skills.

Many of teacher student participants, (55%), showed they are well familiar with the text books designed by the Ministry of Education, they agreed that contents of curriculum help them and teacher educators in establishment of reading habit among students but a few of students do not agree with any help regarding to reading habit by curriculum while some other students (35%) show they do not know anything about the content of curriculum by Ministry of Education.

Other studies reviewed shows that parental involvement in children’s education is very important. It helps them to have education achievements. According to 23% of teacher educators, parents’ are involved in students’ reading or lack of reading habit but 54% of TEs said social environment affects students reading habit. However, the majority of Afghan population is suffering from illiteracy which directly affects their children’s literacy skills. As German Development Cooperation with Afghanistan (2011) pointed out, 73% of men and 93% of women do not even have primary education while a big number of people in Afghan society, (70%), is straggling with illiteracy problems. Furthermore, some other teacher educators claimed that school and economical situation are behind students’ interests in books and reading.

For regular visits to library, 46% of teacher educators, responded that a few students, (20%), refer to library for reading books while another part of TEs (20%) agreed that a lower number of students (10%) go to library. Some other responders pointed to lower or higher number of students who go to library but they are in minority. However, majority of respondents agreed with lower number of students who refer to library. Maybe it is linked with the students’ problems mentioned before; some students are engaged with other jobs to make an income while some others are facing the obstacles of social ethics.

According to many of the teacher students, (83%), parents were involved in their children’s reading contributed to reinforcement in several ways, as many of them (54%) said

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17 their parents gave them advices in order to encourage them to read books while some others (22%) declared their parents bought them books of their interest for their reading habit but there are some other students (19%) who their parents read interesting books to them for their encouragement in reading. The importance of parental involvement in establishment of reading habit in students is reviewed in literature which has pointed to ages of preschool and parental participation by reading and encouraging them to read the books.

Many of teacher educators (80%) responded that they introduce students references (books or any other reading materials) to read while this introduction is aimed to make and improve reading culture among students. Moreover, some other teacher educators (20%) claimed that they sometimes introduce books to the students for making reading habit among them.

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18

CONCLUSION

The aim of this study is to explore the circumstances of library use among teacher students in TTCs particularly, to explore reading habit/culture of teacher students. The findings of this study are the view points of teacher educators and teacher students. However; in a large extent they are similar to the findings in international studies in the reviewed literature. The positive points which helped students to get reading habit since their childhood and negative factors that were involved in students’ with lack of reading habit investigated showed that mainly the family educational background impacts on students’ reading habit, particularly in their childhood ages. Besides, low quality of education in primary school, even it continues up to higher education causes the shortage of reading interests in students. The factors involved in students reading habit cannot be limited to the mentioned things however; low educational facilities like lack of suitable study room, text book, reading materials and some other small issues also exist.

The aim and objectives are achieved in the findings of this study. For collecting this data a structured questionnaire was designed and these questionnaires were distributed to four TTCs teacher educators of both sexes (male and female) with various work experiences and educational background. The other part of respondents was teacher students (male and female) in grade 13 as well as grade 14 of both in-service and pre-service students in north Afghanistan: Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar and Faizabad main TTCs. They responded to the questions. Moreover, when achieving the aim of this study, research questions were also responded by participations’ on topic answers.

In Afghanistan since very limited research has been done on the topic of library use and related subjects neither in school level nor in higher education. Therefore, this study which particularly investigated on reading habit /culture among students of TTCs can be useful in the field. Besides, this study contributed to a large extent to other existing knowledge which is studied in the same field in international level. Since an appropriate method is used to generate the views the outcomes of this study are similar with other studies done on reading habit of students. Therefore, this research can be reliable.

In this study many efforts have been done to collect responses to cover the related questions and issues on the topic, in general, library use in TTCs and in particular, reading habit/culture among TTC students but as many other researches, this study also cannot make a complete view of the issue and research on the topic, more studies is needed to be continued to focus on those points which are not covered in this study. However, in terms of making a deeper investigation, many other questions are remaining to be answered. For instance what is the effect of low quality teacher and education on reading habit of students? To what extent do inner conflicts (which is a very important factor in Afghanistan various development and lack of that) have their impact on students educational achievements particularly, reading culture among students? What is the level of government involvement in establishing reading culture among students? What is social ethic and Islamic culture’s influence in reading culture development of students? In some aspects, this study viewed the economic part in success and failure of reading habit among students but details are needed to find the exact impacts of economical background on reading habit and weakness of this habit. In addition, new method of teaching which is internationally valued and can help students to establish reading culture, needed to be investigated with deeper focus.

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19

REFERENCES

Akindele, N. (2012) Reading Culture, Parental Involvement and Children’s Development in Formative Years: The Covenant University Experience. Library philosophy and Practice (e-journal) Paper 805.

Allyn, P. (2011) Turn Your Boys into Readers. Scholastic Instructor: Back to School,121(1), 29 -34.

Allyn, P. (2012) Taming the Wild Text. Educational Leadership, 69(6), 16-21.

Bell, J. (2010) Doing Your Research Project. A guide for first-time researchers in education, health and social science. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Book: The role of Librarians in Promotion of Reading and Literacy in Nigeria. Library philosophy and Practice (e-journal) Paper 876.

Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University press.

Chidiebere, I.G.; Nosike, O.O.; Nkechi, I. And Magnus, A.L. (2013) Bring Back the Clark, C. (2010) Linking School Libraries and Literacy. London: National Literacy Trust.

Cohen, L., Manion, L. &Morrison, K. (2010) Research Methods in Education. London:

Routledge.

Denscombe, M. (2010) The Good Research Guide For small-scale research projects. Milton Keynes: Open University Press

Department for Children, School and Families, (2008) Parental Involvement on Children’s Education, Nottingham: DCSF Publications.

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-00924-2008BKT-EN.pdf Edem, N. B. (2012) Influence of Information Source Parameters and Personal Characteristics

of Librarians on readers’ ability to Retrieve Information in Reference Service. Library philosophy and Practice (e-journal) Paper 880.

Ediger, M. (2001) Reading and the Classroom Library.

German Development Cooperation with Afghanistan, (2011) Education in Afghanistan, German Embassy Kabul.

Gove, A. & Wetterberg, A. (eds) (2011) The Early Grade Reading Assessment. Applications and Interventions to Improve Basic Literacy: NC. USA, RTI Press.

Luong, N. (2008) Family Support for At-Risk Second Graders to Improve Reading Fluency.CA, School of Education, Dominican University of California.

Marlow, E. (2001) Reading and the Classroom Library. U.S, Department of Education,

Murphy, S. (2013) Towards Sustaining and Encouraging Reading in Canadian Society.Toranto: National Reading Campaign.

Njeze, M.E (2013) Use of Newspaper and Magazines in the Academic Pursuits of University Students: Case Study of Covenant University. Library philosophy and Practice (e- journal) Paper 845.

Samadi,S,,R.(2001) Education and Afghan Society in Twentieth Century. Paris: UNESCO.

Vannelli, E. A (2012) The Impact of Participation in a School Library Book Club on students’

Reading Motivation and Achievement. Missouri: University of Central Missouri.

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20

ANNEXES

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

Sex: Male Female

Age: ____________ Name of TTC: _________________

Grade

a) 13 b) 14 Class: ________________________________

1. How often do you go to library for reading?

a) Every day (regularly) b) in free time c) never go d) other ________

2. Do you have free time beside TTC lessons to go to the library for reading?

Yes No other ______________

3. Are you interested yourself to go to the library for reading?

Yes No If yes, why do you read?

a) Improving your background knowledge b) Reading for leisure

c) To support TTC textbooks d) To do the assignment 4. How you go to the library?

a) By your own interest b) teacher encourages you c) For doing assignments d)________

5. What was your level of interest in reading when you first came to TTC?

a) Very much b) much c) little d) not at all 6. Who/what is responsible for success or failure of reading habit in you?

1. For Success 2. For Failure

a) Parents a) Lack of parents cooperation b) Teachers b) Not attention of teachers c) Facility (easy book access) c) Lack of book access

d) Friends with reading habit d) Friends without reading habit e) Other __________________ e) Other ____________________

7. Do you get any instruction from your teacher to make you to read book?

Yes No If yes, how?

a) Giving assignments b) Arrange peer works in the class c) Arrange group work

d) Persuade you to read

e) Other way __________________

8. Do you think the library has enough reading materials to satisfy you to go there?

Yes No I do not know

9. What are/is the cause(s) of you for going or not going to the library?

a) For going to library b) For not going to library 1. To go to meet friends there 1. For lack of enough resources 2. To develop your background knowledge 2. Lack of interest in reading 3. For leisure reading 3. Don’t know what to read

4. To pass their free time 4. Lack of reading culture among students

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21 5. To read for supporting their text book 5. Lack of reasonable study room

6. Other _________________________ 6. Lack of a good management in library 7. Other ______________________

10. Do you think family background affects your reading habit?

Yes No I don’t know If yes, what?

a) Parents’ income

b) reading culture in parents c) Educated/non-educated parents d) Other _____________________

11. Do you think the curriculum by Ministry of Education have any effluence in reading habit of you?

12. Is there any obstacle which decreases your reading interest?

Yes No

If yes, what is the problem?

a) Economy b) Social ethics c) Lack of reading materials of your interest d) Lack of reading habits e) Don’t know how to find your books of interest f) Low level of literacy skills g) Other _________________________________

13. What percent of the text you understand when you read an article?

Less than 10% 10% 20% 50% more that 50% 100% other _________

14. What method of teaching do your teachers(s) use most in the class?

a) Give lecture

b) Let you to do self reading

c) Give you assignments in which you have to read a lot d) Nothing to persuade you for reading

e) Other ______________________________________

15. Do your teacher(s) introduce(s) you some books or any other reading materials?

Yes No

If yes, was it in your interest or in your level of knowledge?

Yes No Others ________________

16. Do you want your teachers to help you what to read, how to read the books, out of TTC text books?

Yes No

17. Did your school teacher(s) used to help you and persuade you to read articles beside school text books?

Yes No 18. Were your parents literate?

Yes No

19. Did your parents used to help you in reading books in your childhood?

Yes No I don’t remember If yes, how did they help you?

a) Persuaded you by saying b) Read for you

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22 c) Bought interesting books

d) Other ___________________________________

20. Do you have any suitable place for reading book?

Yes No other ____________________

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23 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS

Sex: Man Woman

Age: ____________ Name of TTC: _________________

Level of Education:

b) BA b) MA c) PhD

1. Teaching Experience:

Years of teaching: …………..

2. How often your students go to library for reading?

a) Every day (regularly) b) when they are free c) they never go d) other ________

3. Do you give chance to the students to make free time go to the library for reading?

Yes No

4. Are they interested themselves to go to the library for reading?

Yes No If yes, what is their interest?

e) Improving their background knowledge f) Leisure reading

g) Supportive reading for their textbooks h) Up to date their field of study knowledge 5. How the students go to the library?

a) By their own interest b) You push them to go

6. What is the students’ level of interest in reading when they first come to TTC?

a) Very much b) much c) little d) not at all 7. What is responsible for success or failure of reading habit in students?

a) Parents b) social environment c) school d) economy 8. Do you have such a method of teaching to persuade students to read?

Yes No

9. What changes are there in class performance of the students who have reading habit and who do not read too much?

a) Students who has reading habit, b) Students who do not read very often 1. Are more active in the class 1. Are active or passive in the class 2. Are smarter than others 2. Interested in lessons Yes No 3. Are more interested in studies 3. Get good marks Bad marks

4. Get god marks 4. Other ________________________

5. Other __________________

10. How you as an instructor can make reading habit in TTC students?

a) giving assignments b) peer works in the class c) group work

d) persuade them to read

e) other way __________________

11. Do you think the library has enough reading materials to satisfy students to go there?

12. What are the cause(s) of students for going or not going to the library?

b) For those who go to library b) for those who do not to library

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24 7. To go to meet their friends there 1. For lack of enough resources

8. to develop their background information 2. Lack of interest in reading 9. for leisure reading 3. They don’t know what to read

10. to pass their free time 4. Lack of reading culture among students 11. to read for supporting their text book 5. Lack of reasonable study room 12. other _________________________ 6. Lack a good management in library 7. other ______________________

13. Do you think family background affects students’ reading habit?

Yes No I don’t know If yes, what?

e) Parents’ income

f) reading culture in parents g) Educated/non-educated parents h) Other _____________________

14. Do you think the curriculum by Ministry of Education have any effluence in reading habit of students?

15. Which students go to the library most? Boys Girls

16. Is there any problem for girls or boys to go to the library or access reading materials?

Yes No

If yes, what is the problem?

h) Economy Boys Girls i) Social ethics Boys Girls j) Lack of reading materials of their interest Boys Girls k) Lack of reading habits Boys Girls l) Don’t know how to find their books of interest Boys Girls m) Low level of literacy skills Boys Girls n) Other Boys __________________ Girls ___________________

17. What percentage of the students does regular reading beside and/or within their TTC lesson?

Less than 10% 10% 20% 50% more that 50% other _________

18. What method of teaching do you use most in the class?

a) Give lecture

b) Let them to read by themselves c) Give them assignments

d) Give them book and ask them to write reflection d) Other __________________

19. Do you introduce them some books or any other reading materials to encourage them in order to establish a reading culture on them?

Yes No

20. Do students want you to help them what to read, how to read out of TTC text books?

Yes No

LIBRARY USE IN AFGHAN TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGES