Seven out of ten teachers believe that pupils today are less well-prepared because they are no longer used to studying from textbooks

Students are arriving at their exams increasingly ill-prepared. According to seven out of ten university lecturers (68 per cent), one of the main causes is the gradual decline in the habit of reading and studying university textbooks in full, even though these are considered the most effective teaching resources (88 per cent) and are most often designated as compulsory (50 per cent) and recommended (45 per cent) for exam preparation. In fact, only 17 per cent of lecturers believe that the teaching materials designed by publishers are widely read today.

This finding, taken from a survey of 463 first- and second-tier lecturers from 34 Italian universities conducted by Talents Venture on behalf of the Italian Publishers’ Association (summary attached), forms the basis for the conference ‘From Fragile Knowledge to Critical Knowledge. University publishing, quality and innovation’, promoted by the AIE, which brought together institutions, politicians, universities and publishers in Rome today to discuss the future of learning in the country. The discussion centred on the value of university publishing as an infrastructure for knowledge and a bulwark of critical education in an era of evolving, increasingly fragmented learning systems.

Over the last 3–5 years, in fact, as many as 83 per cent of lecturers have noted a change in study habits, with students consulting recommended or compulsory texts less and less, making greater use of summaries and overviews, and experiencing increasing difficulty in tackling complex or lengthy texts. Course presentations and slides (69 per cent) and lecture notes (52 per cent) are the materials most frequently used, again according to the teachers’ views.

The result? Without books, critical thinking and analytical skills are diminished. 68 per cent of teachers identify the lack of a habit of reading and studying comprehensive textbooks as the cause of the shortcomings observed in students’ preparation. Among the most frequently cited shortcomings are a reduced capacity for analysis and critical thinking (41 per cent), a superficial grasp of factual knowledge (28 per cent), difficulty in linking topics together (24 per cent), and a poor understanding of basic concepts (19 per cent).

“This,” said AIE President Innocenzo Cipolletta, “is one of the sectors that has historically been most open to innovation and change: seven out of ten publishers have incorporated AI into their work processes and into the provision of new teaching tools. At the same time, we are seeing some students making improper, passive use of AI tools, to the extent that 55 per cent of lecturers believe that algorithms have a negative impact on students’ academic preparation. The problem, however, does not lie with the technology itself, but with the way it is used: we must manage this transition by putting university teaching materials – and, more generally, structured knowledge – back at the heart of educational processes.”