Home
Resource
"In college, I'm the one people go to": lessons from successful developmental literacy students about the transition to college-level courses across disciplines
PDF
PDF format is widely accepted and good for printing.
Plug-in required
PDF-1(1.99 MB)
Access to has been restricted at the author's or publisher's request.
Citation & Export
View Usage Statistics
Staff View

Citation & Export
Hide

Simple citation

Darkenwald-DeCola, Jessica A.. "In college, I'm the one people go to": lessons from successful developmental literacy students about the transition to college-level courses across disciplines. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-vctw-3116

Export

Click here for information about Citation Management Tools at Rutgers.

Statistics
Hide

Description

Title"In college, I'm the one people go to": lessons from successful developmental literacy students about the transition to college-level courses across disciplines
NameDarkenwald-DeCola, Jessica A. (author); Belzer, Alisa (chair); Morrow, Lesley (internal member); Boling, Erica (internal member); Bickerstaff, Susan (outside member); Rutgers University; School of Graduate Studies
Date Created2021
Other Date2021-01 (degree)
SubjectCommunity college, Education
Extent1 online resource (ix, 271 pages)
DescriptionThis study focused on the institutional issue of alignment between developmental literacy courses and college-level coursework. Research suggests alignment between these courses is a key condition for successful transfer of learning (Grubb, 2013; Grubb & Cox, 2005; Roueche & Roueche, 1999; Tinberg, 2015). This collective case study aimed to understand the ways in which community college students who initially placed well below the cutoff score for college level English, but successfully passed developmental literacy coursework, experienced the alignment between their developmental literacy and college-level coursework.

This study was conducted at a community college in New Jersey. Participants were interviewed during and after the semester following their developmental literacy course. In these interviews, they described the strengths and challenges they experienced meeting the literacy demands and expectations of college-level courses in disciplines other than English. In addition, disciplinary faculty completed a survey about the reading and writing they assigned in their courses and course documents were collected. Data was analyzed through the lens of Lea and Street’s (1998/2006) academic literacies approach and Ivanic’s (2004) discourses for writing framework.

Findings suggest that participants were able to apply many reading and writing strategies learned in their developmental literacy courses to the reading and writing they did in college-level courses across disciplines. In addition, participants reported affective benefits from their developmental literacy course, such as increased confidence and motivation, that positively impacted their performance in college-level courses. Participants also reported important differences between the two courses and some challenges related to both meeting the disciplinary literacy expectations in their college-level courses and transitioning between a developmental literacy course to a discipline-specific college-level course.

The results of this study provide insight into what conditions and instructional approaches increase the likelihood of student success and learning transfer across contexts and have implications for both developmental literacy and disciplinary college-level educators. Implications for future research are also addressed.
 
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-vctw-3116
LanguageEnglish
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
Version 8.5.5
Rutgers University Libraries - Copyright ©2024