Improvement of reading and writing skills in postgraduate studies: a case study

Abstract

The criticality, clarity, precision, organization and inclusion are gaps in academic reading and writing present in the upper secondary education student, which should be remedied in university education. However, various studies indicate that serious difficulties persist in postgraduate studies. To help solve this problem, a study with 15 postgraduate students is presented. With the Project-Based Learning approach and the action-research methodological model, each student prepares an intervention project according to her interests. This implies the preparation of documents that require a high level of performance in academic literacy; in order to support you, activities are designed to gradually improve your skills in this area. Individual and group progress is measured with an assessment recording instrument. In addition, personal feedback is offered. A significant increase in the level of literacy was verified, to the extent that at the end of the postgraduate course there is a proven ability to prepare academic documents, including essays and research articles. The need to create an environment where graduate students should work on reading and writing skills with close supervision is discussed. It concludes on the importance of creating a functional methodology in the various learning modalities.