Design, implementation and outcomes of a condensed curriculum for an accelerated developmental education English course
Date
2020
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
In 2015, Delaware Technical Community College (DTCC) sought to decrease the amount of time students spent in developmental education (DE) English courses by offering a compressed DE English course. The 2-credit, compressed course met for four days a week for four weeks at the start of the semester, leaving time for an 11-week first year composition (FYC) course in the same semester. The purpose of this ELP was to develop, implement, and evaluate the effects of a curriculum based on self-regulating strategy instruction for the compressed DE English course at the Stanton Campus of DTCC. To accomplish this task, I conducted a quasi-experimental, mixed-method study. Five instructors participated with two in the treatment groups and three in the business-as-usual control group. The curriculum sought to improve overall quality of writing, improve reading comprehension, and increase self-efficacy by teaching literacy strategies along with self-regulatory strategies. ☐ Results of the intervention were mixed. For the primary measure, an argument essay written from two newspapers articles, a statistically significant effect was found favoring the treatment group. However, analysis of other measures, a summary outline, self-efficacy questionnaire, and completion of the FYC course, did not show statistically significant effects. This ELP details the steps taken to complete this intervention as well as a detailed analysis of the results and recommendations for further research on accelerated developmental English courses.
Description
Keywords
Community college, Developmental education, English