The Influence of Certain Factors on The Reading Habits of Students in University Teacher Training Programmes

Jasna Mažgon, Miha Kovač and Mojca Kovač Šebart

Summary:  The findings of a study conducted in 2024/25 on a selected sample of students enrolled in teacher education programs at Slovenian universities indicate that family reading practices in childhood, maternal education, and preschool attendance are significant factors influencing the number of books read in adulthood. Reading for pleasure and reading motivation also play an important role in shaping students’ reading habits. The results of the repeated 2024/25 study are less favorable compared to those of the 2017/18 survey. Students now devote less time per week to reading and, more often than in 2017/18, choose less demanding texts, although they do read more books overall. Female students prove to be more efficient readers than their male peers, but the texts they choose tend to be less demanding; male students, on the other hand, more frequently opt for more challenging texts and are more likely to seek answers to their own questions within the readings. Notably, 30% of male students and 15% of female students reported that they do not read at all—an alarming finding also for providers of higher education teacher training programs.