Experiencing education as an English learner (EL) is challenging and can result in lower persistence and graduation rates for ELs in community colleges. The overall three-year graduation rate in the United States for two-year institutions is low, but graduation rates are even lower for EL learners. One way to support EL students is through an…

This study compared traditional methods of college-level instruction, including lecture and class discussion followed by assessment via course content exams, with a variety of other instructional techniques. The intent was to evaluate whether more contemporary instructional techniques are significantly correlated with improved average exam scores…

The shift across developmental education from prerequisite to corequisite remediation has left students underprepared for college-level mathematics in need of additional support. Typically, this support takes the form of content remediation, but what happens when this extra help is reframed in terms of student learning skills and confidence?…

This research paper attempts to investigate the organization and effectiveness of vocabulary notebooks by distinguishing several benefits the implementation of this technique brings in the acquisition of technical terminology through an "English for Specific Purposes course". When tackling with language learning, it is needless to…

Colleges are currently involved in an epic struggle to keep students enrolled. One reason for student attrition involves non-academic issues such as executive functioning. In the present study, we investigated how journaling helped influence paradigm shifts in students' thinking regarding a growth mindset towards their educational performance. We…

This study investigated how community college students in an online introductory-level language course self-regulated their learning while using digital learning resources. An analysis of reflective journals revealed that learners reported engaging with resources in ways consistent with the six dimensions of self-regulated learning. Only learners…

With technology on the rise not only within society but also within higher education, it is essential for community college students to become fluent in digital literacy as well as social media. This project supported community college students' use of social media and Pecha Kucha to develop their critical thinking skills and improve their writing.

Across disciplines, faculty members face a common challenge of finding methods to get their students to complete assigned course readings. It becomes an even larger task to develop strategies whereby students are also engaging in deep reading that promotes critical thinking. Reading positively impacts students on a number of variables, and when…

A "threshold concept" is a challenging concept that acts as a doorway leading to deeper understanding and a dramatic shift in perception. A learner that is involved in grasping a threshold concept is said to be undergoing a threshold experience within a "liminal space" or learning environment. We used the blog as a liminal…

The emergence of social media technologies (SMT) as important features of life in the twenty-first century has aroused the curiosity of teachers and scholars in higher education and given rise to numerous experiments using SMT as tools of instruction in college and university classrooms. A body of research has emerged from those experiments which…

This multiple-case study examined the unique perspectives of six adult English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) students who participated as the givers of a service in a semester-long service learning community college ESOL course. Their ages ranged from 19 to 45 and they hailed from five different countries (Colombia, Mexico, South Korea,…

The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to understand the experiences of older students' use of web-based student services in a community college setting. For the purpose of this study the term "older student" was defined as people born between the years 1943 and 1960. This group of people, often described as the Baby Boomer…

This research presents findings from a qualitative study investigating the perceptions of students engaged in the transfer process. Fifty-seven community college transfer students were interviewed through e-journaling during fall 2006 and spring 2007 in an effort to learn what students perceive as a successful transfer process, supports needed to…

Journaling is an effective tool for the development of writing skills and creative thinking; however, research has not revealed how it improves writing skills in the college classroom. The majority of the studies related to journaling are elementary school studies, which do not provide statistics on how journaling can improve writing skills for…

This action research study, set in a community college in the southwestern United States, was designed to investigate the effects of implementing cooperative learning strategies in a developmental mathematics course. Introductory algebra was formerly taught in a lecture based format, and as such regularly had a low course completion rate. To…