Premjith Mathew

Tuesday, 9 December 2025

Deep Reading for Better Teaching

The library offers an inclusive, positive, and lively atmosphere that supports learning and teaching. Teaching is like farming and treating patients. In all cases, the teacher, the farmer, and the doctor can only help the students, the plants, and the patient to grow and improve. It is the students, the plants, and the patients who must do the necessary work to develop and become better. The art of reading involves keen observation, a good memory, imagination, and an intellect trained in analysis and reflection.

It was when I started reading books on memory studies that I discovered that serious academic reading goes one step further than the reading skills practised in the classroom. The dynamics of academic reading are totally different from those of reading for entertainment, which is the most effortless type of reading. The sole purpose of academic reading is the enhancement of understanding. Academic reading is also related to learning. A reading that leads to learning by discovery. This is a form of enlightenment in which the information received is assimilated, internalised, and processed into knowledge. We should never stop at the stage of just getting informed.

Misreading is also a type of ignorance, according to Montaigne. Alexander Pope described these ‘misreaders’ as ‘bookful blockheads’ The word sophomores was coined by the Greeks to describe the group of people who are ‘ignorantly read.’ Reading is deeply rooted in these two modes- Reading for learning and reading for discovery. The latter emphasises research, investigation and reflection. Reading provides you with the opportunity to learn independently. I am someone who believes that no matter how advanced technology is or how much information it provides, it cannot replace the joy of reading a book. When I started reading, there was only one way to gather information and process it as knowledge to improve the worldview. Today we have viewers, listeners and readers. Knowledge is a prerequisite for understanding. Sometimes in the modern world, we are overloaded with information that it is difficult to process all the facts, which may lead to a blurred understanding. There is also a big difference between reading for pleasure and reading for research. Reading with a research goal in mind involves the following. Most of the time, the reading is done to gather information, build arguments, solve problems, or answer questions. The act of reading is complemented by deep thinking and reflection, which lead to clarity, accuracy, understanding, and critical thinking. Close attention should be paid to concepts, evidence, arguments, and the logical organisation of the ideas. The reading process will be slow because it involves taking notes and re-reading difficult passages. "The ability to read different things at different—appropriate—speeds, not everything at the greatest possible speed" The author emphasises that there is no such thing as passive reading. He compares reading to catching and understanding various ideas presented in the material. He sums up the idea with a quote from Pascal: “When we read too fast or too slowly, we understand nothing”

The book 'How to Read a Book' by Doren, Charles Van proposes four types of reading.

Elementary - Also known as rudimentary reading, this type of reading helps in acquiring the basics of reading.

Inspectional: this is the reading type, the art of skimming systematically.

Analytical - thorough reading, complete reading, or good reading. An analytical reader will ask many questions and is always intensely active. This quote by Francis Bacon is applicable here - ‘some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested’. Analytical reading is primarily for understanding a concept.

Syntopical - This kind of reading is also known as a comparative type of reading. The reader looks at not just one book but several. He places them in relation to one another and to a subject to which they all revolve. This is the most active and effortful type of reading. It is also the most rewarding of all reading activities. We may need to highlight and reflect on the highlighted areas to clarify and deepen their meaning. The outcomes may be converted to essays, blogs, articles, or posters/infographics. We can also create self-study tools, such as MCQs and flashcards, for review. Academic reading involves exertion, which will take you from a state of less understanding of a text to a state of more knowledge of a text.