"Involvement in Learning: Realizing the Potential of American Higher Education," the 1984 federal study group report on excellence, identifies three conditions vital to the improvement of undergraduate education: student involvement, high expectations, and assessment and feedback. Of these, student involvement was judged most important…

Three types of evaluation methods are discussed in terms of their use in evaluating both cognitive and affective learning in developmental programs: standardized tests; criterion-referenced tests; and naturalistic inquiries. Section I looks at the complexities of learning and the inherent difficulties in judging the quality and quantity of what is…

A 1981 survey was conducted to gather information on income, employment, educational background and aspirations, and demographic characteristics of adult students attending credit evening courses and recent high school graduates admitted provisionally to a day developmental studies program at Canisius College. The survey was undertaken to provide…

In 1981, as part of its implementation of Roueche's model for developmental education, Pima Community College (PCC) initiated its first collegewide assessment and placement program. Faculty in the areas of reading, writing, and mathematics met to establish scores on which recommendations for student course placement would be based. A study was…

When remedial/developmental programs at community colleges are examined on a national level, four areas of concern are apparent: (1) administrators frequently fail to provide the funding and personnel necessary to meet the needs of a diverse student population; (2) instructors are often intellectually and culturally unprepared to teach…

During 1908-81, the final year of a 3-year institutional development project, Dyersburg State Community College (DSCC) focused on increasing participation in and the services of its developmental studies program; developing the college's library into a fully functioning learning resources center; and implementing computer-assisted instruction…

The workshop represented in this proceedings was conducted to stimulate dialogue on the place of remedial instruction in postsecondary education and to promote the effectiveness of remedial/developmental education and the maintenance of educational quality. The proceedings begin with an introduction to the workshop and its 14 resulting…

Three techniques for teaching effective reading--using students' textbooks, reading modules, and individual instructional packets--have proven successful in reducing reading time while improving comprehension skills for students in a reading and study skills course at a Texas university. Students assigned to the course use their content area…

The provision of counseling services, especially for community college students in need of developmental education, will continue to be a task of major importance in the coming decade. However, if counselors are to be effective in helping these students, they must select, implement, and mesh their strategies with other college personnel within a…

Milwaukee Area Technical College's (MATC's) responses to the need for developmental mathematics instruction are reviewed in this paper. The paper begins by briefly describing a project which MATC undertook in 1965 through 1970 to develop technical mathematics materials and courses which were relevant for technicians and matched the entry-level…

A comprehensive developmental studies program was initiated during Fall 1980 at Navarro College to help Micronesian and other international students become acquainted with American culture and to assist them in the areas of basic skills development, English as a second language (ESL), and career planning. The program offered a special course…

Classical multiple regression was compared with Bayesian m-group regression, complete with cross-validation. The setting was a post-developmental studies situation in a comprehensive community college. A secondary purpose of the study was to incorporate an advisor prediction of grade point average (GPA) as input into both regression procedures.…

A pilot program was begun at the University of Southern Mississippi to measure the effect of a concentrated period of linguistic and communication skill development at the beginning of college for high risk students. The experiment was designed to follow an experimental group drawn carefully from the 15% of college freshmen with the lowest scores…

Examines telephone discourse of twenty children between two and five years of age for answerer rules, turn-taking, constructional units, conversational acts, closing sequence, and ability to take messages. Shows developmental differences, although mastery of discourse skills appeared only in response categories, and primarily at four and five…

Describes how news magazines were used successfully as supplements to teach civic literacy, vocabulary, and writing to college level reluctant readers. Contains two sample exercises. (HOD)