Institute/Session Summary:

Purpose of the Presentation:    

Much has been written in the field of Developmental Education about the needs of developmental students and types of reading programs best designed to serve them (Maxwell, 1997; Boylan, 1999b, Arendale, 2003). Students at most 2- and 4-year colleges are identified as being DR students based on a placement test, which measures reading level along with their college records and SAT scores. Developmental students are characterized as being under prepared for higher education (Zhang, 2003).

“Typically, the students taking reading-study skills courses are those who have been identified as “at risk” (of not continuing to graduation) because they are presumed to lack verbal competencies necessary to perform college-level reading-study tasks” (Stallworth-Clark, Scott, & Nist 1996, p. 2). The purpose of Developmental Education is to prepare students to be able to handle the academic demands of college successfully.     

The nature of course types has been changing. Recently many 4-year colleges have been pressured to discontinue stand-alone course-based remediation (Brothen & Wambach, 2004; Kozeracki, 2002; Arendale, 2002). Implementing and evaluating alternatives to stand-alone courses such as the Linked Course may be one way of addressing this problem and better serving students.

As students in an SDR class take varied coursework, it is difficult for the Developmental Reading Instructor to address strategies for specific core content work. Teaching strategies and assigning students’ application of strategies to core content course work can be done; however, some students are not currently taking courses that require the same type of reading. When the core content work is so varied among the students in the class, it is difficult to teach and have students apply strategies to different material at the same time.

In a linked course, all of the students have at least one core content course in common. Instead of trying to have students apply strategies to different materials, the common core course materials can be used for all students. Then, many activities can be implemented with all of the students to discuss and review common materials. It is hoped that having the experience of applying reading and study strategies directly to a common course will enable students to do this with other coursework in the future.

One of the underlying theories of linked courses is that individuals do not predictably transfer their learning across school subjects (Simpson, Stahl, & Frances, 2004); through the reading class, students will learn and apply strategies to conquer the content of the core course leading to transfer and direct application of knowledge from the DR course to the core course. This type of linked course has been found to positively impact retention rates for developmental students (Laine et al, 2002; MacGregor, 1999; Minkler, 2000; McCusker, 1999; Perrin, 1999; Tinto, 2004; Tinto, Goodsell-Love, & Russo, 1994).

The main purpose of the study was to implement and then compare the effects of an Linked Developmental Reading  course and a Stand-alone Developmental Reading course on beginning freshman Developmental Reading students’ achievement in Principles of Sociology measured by the final grade score, persistence, passing the course, and final letter grade between groups. As growth in reading comprehension is a goal for any Developmental Reading course type, pre-posttests of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test/ Comprehension (SDRT)subtest and the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) Passage Comprehension subtest were given for comparison within and between groups.The average mean difference between groups’ final grade scores, persistence, passing, and final letter grade for sociology were analyzed using an ANCOVA with pretests of the SDRT and DRP separately as covariates.

Because transfer of strategy is one area of fault found with Stand-alone Developmental Reading courses, students’ learning strategies and study skills use were measured by the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (Weinstein, Palmer & Schulte, 2002), and open- ended surveys given to students periodically throughout the semester. Students’ experience with the course type was measured by end of the semester surveys. The responses were analyzed using Content Analysis for common trends in students’ experience with the course type.

This study took place at a 4-year state university in the Mid-Atlantic region. Students in the study placed into Developmental Reading after receiving scores below the cut off level of 11.6 on the Nelson Denny Reading placement test and were students in the ACT 101/EOP program. Mandatory placement in Developmental Reading is required for students who test into Developmental Reading.

Learning Outcomes:

Learning objectives will include information on implementing the linked course in terms of structure, requirements for students, attendance issues, requirements for the instructors, variables studed, and results of this study. Results from this study will further inform the audience about issues which would need to be addressed in future studies.

Outline of Content:

     I. Introduction
          A. Purpose of the Study
          B. Relevance of the study
          C. Review of Literature
     II. Methodology
          A. Design of the Study
          B. Structure of the Linked Course
          C. Structure of the Stand-alone course
     III. Vartiables Studied
          A. Final Grade Score in Principles of Sociology
          B. Persistence in Principles of Sociology
          C. Final Letter Grade in Principles of Sociology
          D. Learning Strategies Use
          E. Reading Comprehension Growth
      IV. A. Results
               1) Ancovas of Variables
               2) Percentage Comparisons
               3) Unanticipated Results
       V. Considerations for Future Studies
      VI. Questions and Comments from Audience

Significance to Field and Relevance to CRLA Members:

The nature of DR courses is changing. Based on the research cited, one of the major problems with stand-alone reading courses involves questionability of the meaningfulness and transferability of strategy from the stand-alone reading courses to the real reading demands of core content courses. As a result, one key recommendation suggested as an alternative to stand-alone reading courses is the linked course design. The benefits of the linked course type are that it provides an opportunity for students to directly apply reading and study strategies to a credited and required core content course and serves as a Learning Community. Research on linked courses and Learning Communities has been found to be favorable for students’ success in college (Byrd & Carter; Cox et al, 2003; 1997; Deitz, 2002; Laine et al, 2002; Lardner, 2003; Mathews et al, 1997; MacGregor, 1991; McCusker, 1999; Malnarich, 2003; Swinton, 2003; Tinto & Love, 1995). This study will add to the research base of LC and linked course implementations and assessments.

Plans to Engage Audience

Prior to the presentation, the audience members will be asked to share questions they would like answered by the presentation and source of interest in paired courses. The audience will be encouraged to ask questions for clarification during the presentation, and the last ten- fifteen minutes will be reserved for further questions and discussion of the material from the presentation and experiences of audience members.

Instructional Materials and Handouts:  

A Power Point Notes handout will be given to the audience with an outline of the presentation and sections to take notes.

Presenter1 Name: Joan Dillon
Presenter1 Institution: Bloomsburg University
Presenter1 Bio: Joan Dillon, EdD, is an instructor at Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. She has taught Developmental Reading and College Reading and Study Skills for four years fulltime at a this university and also twelve years as an adjunct at the community college level. This presentation was the subject of her dissertation for completion of her Doctoral Degree in Reading/Language Arts from Widener University in May, 2006.