Inside the College Writing Gap: Exploring the Mixed Messages of Remediation Support (original) (raw)
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The Teachers College Record, 2009
Background/Context: Twenty percent of first-year students in public 4-year institutions and 42% of first-year students in public 2-year institutions in the United States enroll in remedial courses. Yet despite widespread remediation across U.S. colleges and universities, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about how remedial courses develop the academic skills and habits of mind required for students to succeed in college-level courses. Remediation at the college level is a widely debated practice, yet there is a dearth of research that assesses the efficacy of postsecondary remediation. In addition, there is evidence that student outcomes differ depending on whether students participated in remedial coursework at a community college or a 4-year institution. A theoretical analysis of first-year students' experiences of remediation in both contexts may help to reveal the institutional structures that act to maintain or reduce this disparity in outcomes. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Two questions guided this study: (1) How do first-year developmental writing courses at a research university and a community college compare? (2) How do differences in institutional provisions of course content, instruction, and tutoring resources to remedial students at a research university and a 1620 Teachers College Record community college impact students' self-reported experiences in the first year of college? To address these questions, we analyze the relationship between postsecondary institutional structures and the efficacy of remedial writing instruction for underprepared students by examining the experiences and outcomes of remedial writing students enrolled in two institutions, an urban community college and an urban research university. We apply Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice and consider remedial writing as a position in the field of higher education. Research Design: A qualitative comparative case study approach was used, including three primary methods of data collection: ethnographic observations of students and instructors during one semester of course meetings; taped interviews with instructors, students, and a college writing program director; and a compiled catalog of course documents including course syllabi, class notes, assignments, and samples of student writing provided by instructors. Both course instructors also provided data on student performance. Using Atlas.ti qualitative analysis software, we coded and categorized field notes and interview transcripts to facilitate the development of theoretical concepts. Conclusions/Recommendations: Although remedial writing can be viewed as a subordinate position in the overall field of higher education, our ethnographic study reveals that institutions further determine the advantage or disadvantage of remedial students by controlling their access to cultural capital and the supportive academic resources that are critical for navigating the field of higher education successfully. In addition, although all students in the two courses seemed to possess a college-going habitus, only students enrolled in the remedial writing program at the 4-year university acquired a habitus of what is required to be successful once enrolled. We believe that these findings may inform postsecondary remediation practices and add a new angle to the debate over whether remedial courses have a place at 4-year institutions. In particular, our findings suggest that it is not the type of institution but the confluence of curriculum, pedagogy, and level of resources afforded to students by the institution that influences students' experiences with remediation.
Rethinking Postsecondary Remediation: Exploring an Experiential Learning Approach to College Writing
This article contributes to the national discourse on college readiness and postsecondary remediation reform. It discusses an experiential learning model of writing remediation as an alternative to traditional basic skills instruction. Such a model may be practical to support the degree completion rates of underprepared writers whose sociodemographic characteristics—including age, race, ethnicity, and income—suggest intersecting strands of linguistic disadvantage. The data describe the classroom implementation of an experiential model of writing remediation in the context of a summer bridge program for students who were traditional by the sole criterion of age, but nontraditional on the composite indicators of prior language exposure. Findings from this exploratory study suggest that the failures students experienced within the program provoked a variety of insights on college writing skills and academic behaviors. The article’s discussion focuses on implications in the context of developing remediation reforms that benefit students across multiple lines of difference.
Rethinking Remediation: Toward a Social-Cognitive Understanding of Problematic Reading and Writing
Written Communication, 1989
A case study, designed to provide information on what it is that cognitively and socially defines an underprepared student as underprepared, focuses on a piece of writing by a community college student from the inner city (Tanya) in a college-level basic reading and writing course. The study presents a "snapshot" of some of the social and cognitive variables surrounding this single piece of writing. It is part of a larger research project on remediation at the community college, state college, and university level. It is hoped that analysis of more of their data collected at the three sites will yield answers to the following questions: (1) What productive and counterproductive strategies characterize the writing and reading skills of underprepared students? (2) How are these strategies represented in the students' minds and what forces have influenced these current representations? (3) What tends to happen to these strategies during instruction? (4) What mismatches or points of convergence tend to occur between pedagogies/programs and students' background knowledge, experience, and goals? and (5) What are the social and institutional processe_ whereby students like Tanya are defined as deficient or remedial or substandard? (Twenty-four references are attached.) (RS)
Skills, access, and 'basic writing': A community college case study from the United States
Studies in the Education of Adults
As policymakers in many parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, push for widening participation in higher education, the preparation of diverse students for the communicative demands of the academy becomes increasingly salient. As greater numbers of 'non-traditional' students, who may be unfamiliar with the conventions of academic communication, enter higher education, discussions about explicitly teaching academic literacy have increased. A 'skills' conception of learning concurrently dominates governmental and policy discourses. In response, this article argues against the use of the skills model in teaching academic writing by drawing on a case study of a 'basic' (pre-university level) writing course for English language learners (ELLs) at a U.S. community college. In particular, it examines the use of a version of the 'skills model' to teach writing to 'non-traditional' students. It concludes that in the context of this case study, in which students had varied backgrounds and educational goals, the skills model was insufficient for teaching writing and helping students gain access to the discourses of tertiary education. 1 Stereotypically, 'traditional' students are considered white, male, Christian, middle-class, and native-English speaking; whereas the 'non-traditional' category encompasses students of colour, more women, non-native speakers of English, handicapped students, students of various religious affiliations, and those in the first generation of their families to enter tertiary education.
The Challenge of Writing Remediation: Can Composition Research Inform Higher Education Policy
Bridging composition studies for a higher education policy audience, this is a critical synthesis of prior conceptual and empirical work. We first provide a historical perspective to explicate important disciplinary issues that may be unfamiliar to a policy audience. We then present a critical synthesis of the disciplinary-based literature from two viewpoints. The review demonstrates the seriousness and scope of policy problems perpetuated by two obstacles. The first is a lack of clarity on what constitutes college writing. The second is a dearth of assessment tools with which to measure writing aptitude. The negative implications of the review for college writing preparation are discussed in the context of the K–12 Common Core State Standards. Recommendations are tendered for an interdisciplinary agenda to increase the educational opportunities of under-prepared writers and decrease the social inequities associated with remediation policies and programs.
1995
The first part of this paper details a study that examined differences between students who received course-based and non-course-based writing remediation. A total of 260 students at Southwest Texas State University who had received one or more semesters of course-based writing remediation or one or more semesters of non-course-based writing remediation participated in the study. No significant differences were found between the two groups in their scores on development writing tests or their grades in required freshman English, history, and philosophy courses. However, significant differences were detected in the grade point averages (GPAs) of students who received course-based and non-course-based writing remediation, with the latter having significantly higher GPAs. The results suggest that comparing course-based and non-course-based remediation using the same tests and measurements may not be feasible. The second part of the paper outlines the data collection model for this study, and contains sample data collection forms. (MDM)
1996
The first part of this paper details a study that examined differences between students who received course-based and non-course-based writing remediation. A total of 260 students at Southwest Texas State University who had received one or more semesters of course-based writing remediation or one or more semesters of non-course-based writing remediation participated in the study. No significant differences were found between the two groups in their scores on development writing tests or their grades in required freshman English, history, and philosophy courses. However, significant differences were detected in the grade point averages (GPAs) of students who received course-based and non-course-based writing remediation, with the latter having significantly higher GPAs. The results suggest that comparing course-based and non-course-based remediation using the same tests and measurements may not be feasible. The second part of the paper outlines the data collection model for this stud...
Self/Portrait of a Basic Writer: Broadening the Scope of Research on College Remediation
2016
This article explores one basic writer’s evolution as he moves from the lowest level of developmental English at a community college to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree. Combining personal narrative, essay excerpts, and textual analysis, this piece aims to expand the borders of scholarship in composition studies to include basic writers as co-authors. In painting an intimate and detailed portrait of one student and his writing, we hope to broaden the scope of what counts as research on college remediation, add texture and complexity to the debate over what it means for basic writers to journey towards academic success, and contest the notion that developmental education is a detriment to students. We conclude with reflections on the lessons learned from paying close attention to the college experiences of one basic writer.
International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 2015
This article reports an alternative assessment of at-risk college students' second language and academic literacy skills, and their awareness and experiences in learning English as Second Language (ESL) for deeper understanding of such students' challenges and opportunities. Fifty-one freshmen grantees of the Expanded Students' Grant-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA) in a state university from the Philippines participated in this study mounted on a quantitative-qualitative research design. Results of summative academic literacy tests revealed that the students found considerable level of difficulty in negotiating with meaning and form of college-level language tasks. Problematique analysis of their journals suggests influential factors that could impact at-risk students' success and failures in college language and literacy instruction. Implications for approaching student-centered-classroom-based English language remediation program are advanced.
2018
Research concerning teachers' pedagogical beliefs shows a strong relationship between planning and instruction; however, the sources of pedagogical beliefs have not been researched thoroughly. Because teachers bring their histories and experiences to their interactions with students, their pedagogical beliefs may also be present in their instruction, mediating the relationship between knowledge (planning) and action (writing instruction). Framed by Sociocultural Theory (SCT), the purpose of this qualitative, multi-site, multi-case case study was first to understand teachers' expectations for teaching writing based on their beliefs about learning. A secondary intent was to examine ways in which high school English teachers' learning expectations are embodied in their classroom praxis for writing. A third intent sought to illustrate the impact of external pressures on teachers' writing praxis. Through multiple sources of data, and analytic techniques, the perspectives of six teachers from three high schools in the Southwest United States were illustrated in individual case reports and interpreted from cross-case analysis. Using a combination of discourse and event mappings, Burke's Pentad, situated meaning, and domain and taxonomic analyses data were triangulated resulting in a model of English teachers' writing praxis based on their learning beliefs. Findings suggest that teachers' writing praxis was grounded in a transmittal paradigmatic pedagogical perspective, resulting in a focus on function and form of writing rather than teaching for relevance and meaning. External pressures of professional and content standards, lack of adequate preparation, and push to graduate students have added to English teacher frustration and reliance on traditional teaching methods.