Reading comprehension in students of the Basic Cycle of Agronomía, Zootecnia y Veterinaria of the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán: a problem that is difficult to solve

Abstract

Reading comprehension includes a cognitive process that allows obtaining information contained in a context, which is actively received through the presence of preliminary themes of a message that is implicit in a text. Specialized studies carried out in Argentina indicate that almost half of primary school students do not understand texts appropriate to their age, a problem that also occurs in secondary school. The situation is complex and is inevitably transferred to the interior of university classrooms. With the aim of having a first level of diagnosis of the situation, the team of professors from the Chair of Agrarian Sociology of the Facultad de Agronomía, Zootecnia y Veterinaria of the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, implemented a test to evaluate reading abilities and understanding of a text. The results obtained indicate that there are indeed problems in a sensitive issue for teachers' tasks such as the ability to understand a short reading, because this is one of the decisive factors in the level of academic performance of students, because it affects the ability to manage the different types of information that is delivered in the various pedagogical and training processes.