He conducted an action research project to assess the approach towards reading among a group of first-year University students in a legal studies course.The objective of this project was to evaluate whether his students took a deep or a surface approach to reading.his ultimate goal was to assess the quality of their learning outcome.
He adapted a study conducted by Marton and Saljo to the characteristics of his students and the subject he teach.In Marton and Saljo’s study which took place at the University of Gothenburg,Sweden in the 1970.
Marton and Saljo reported what while reading the text,some student simply identified some isolated facts mentioned in the text. Another group of students tried to understand what the author was saying,focused on the underlying meaning of the text ,The first group of students focused on the surface level of the text while the second one adopted a deeper approach..Most of the students took a surface approach to reading.They did not question the author’s argument.
After this first part of the study,he introduced a series of strategies to teach his student how to read academic texts and he designed a series of student-centered reading activities.At the end of the term.The result was very stimulating. Now the majority of student took a deep approach to reading.A majority of students also reported having consulted several other sources to understand the context,the author’s argument and debates mentioned or alluded to in the text.