A study on paced reading scheme for students taking ergonomics courses

Reading to learn' is an essential tool for life-long learning. Promoting a reading culture among students is therefore one of the key tasks in the development of quality high school education with the aim to strengthen students' learning capabilities. To encourage students to develop a regular reading habit in textbooks, a Paced Reading Scheme was initiated and successfully implemented in the first semester of 05-06 academic year in the City University of Hong Kong. It was specially offered to students taking the three ergonomics related courses, viz. Ergonomics in Man Machine Systems, Ergonomics in Workplace Design, and Work Design. This study was conducted to ascertain the achievement of the Scheme and the extent of its impact on students' learning experience. A survey was employed to evaluate the successfulness of the Scheme. The results showed that 61% of the students agreed that the Scheme facilitated them to develop a more regular textbook reading habit and helped them learn, prepare, and revise the course materials more effectively; 48.7% students agreed that the Scheme improved their comprehensive ability and reading speed; and 50.3% reported that the Scheme helped them perform better in the end of semester examination. At the end of this paper, the difficulties of implementation of the Scheme were discussed, and the directions for further project development were proposed.