A Mixed -Method Approach to Evaluating Learning Communities for Underprepared Community College Students: The Integrated Studies Communities at Parkland College
Moore, Linda Hamman
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/80404
Description
Title
A Mixed -Method Approach to Evaluating Learning Communities for Underprepared Community College Students: The Integrated Studies Communities at Parkland College
Author(s)
Moore, Linda Hamman
Issue Date
2000
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
DeStefano, Lizanne
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Educational Psychology
Language
eng
Abstract
A growing number of post-secondary institutions are touting the academic and social benefits of learning communities, curricular structures that link and integrate courses across disciplines, and include team-teaching and collaborative, cooperative approaches to learning. Many colleges and universities are tying various sorts of learning community structures for entering freshmen or for honors students, and are suggesting that the connections made, both academic and social, are rejuvenating faculty and enhancing student retention. Historically, students entering college without college-level skills in reading, writing, and mathematics have had high rates of attrition, but learning communities have not been tried as often with this population. Parkland College, a community college in Champaign, Illinois, piloted a learning community for underprepared students in the spring of 1998. Planners adopted a coordinated studies model, a full-time, team-taught learning community that, in this case, integrated the content from four courses, some developmental and some college-level. Full implementation of two similar developmental learning communities, named the Integrated Studies Communities, occurred during the 1998--99 academic year. This study employs a unique combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in a comprehensive evaluation of these communities. The evaluation includes various measures of academic success, but also uses multiple methods to explore the students' adjustment to college, as well as the experience of the participating faculty members. A 22-item instrument with an eighth-grade reading level, designed to measure student adjustment, and derived from Baker and Siryk's (1989) Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire, is a product of this study.
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