Considers three serious problems associated with learning styles: confusion in definitions, weaknesses in reliability and validity, and the identification of relevant characteristics in instructional settings, or aptitude-treatment interactions. Discusses four basic groups of learning styles that developmental educators should be aware of.…

Describes a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for teachers to travel to Antarctica and the Arctic for a field season to participate in ongoing scientific research. (CCM)

With large numbers of underprepared students enrolling at community colleges, faculty are beginning to recognize that developmental education is a collegewide responsibility that needs to be fully integrated with the college's broader curriculum and varied missions. (Contains 1 table.)

The following story is written by a former student who spent half of his middle school years in an alternative program which operated under the Developmental Therapy-Teaching Model.

This article, the first in a three-part series, will explore the existing body of research regarding successful developmental mathematics education. The three-part series will present qualitative research conducted at a large Midwest public university. The qualitative study was conducted three to five years after students completed their…

After a critique of the standard literacy practice in primary school, the article develops a Vygotskian view on literacy that defines literate activity as a generalised ability of using sign systems for personal and interpersonal use within specific cultural practices. Narrative competence is seen as one specific form of this literate activity.…

To generate motivation and promote the development of written communication skills, students in a freshman-level anatomy and physiology course for nonmajors created group webpages describing historically important diseases. After the groups had been formed, each individual was assigned specific components of the disease (e.g., causes or…

One of the greatest challenges that community colleges face in their efforts to increase graduation rates is improving the success of students in their developmental, or remedial, education programs. This literature review seeks to examine research on developmental education strategies and reforms and identify the most promising approaches for…

The introduction of an outcomes-based curriculum in South Africa together with a new syllabus for physical sciences for grades 10-12, prompted the development of an instrument to monitor conceptual understanding in chemistry at the secondary-tertiary interface. This instrument was used to evaluate placement within different programmes at tertiary…

We face a world in which a college degree increasingly dictates the likelihood of life success. At the same time, there has been an ever increasing population of students who have not been prepared adequately through their high school education to meet the rigors of college/university-level content. The present study investigated the effects of a…

Effects of a special remedial program at Glendale Community College were investigated to determine if there was any significant difference in college academic performance and persistence between students enrolled in the Developmental Studies program and those with similar reading and math characteristics who elected to enroll in other remedial…

The PACE (Personalized Approach to College Education) program at Community College of the Finger Lakes was designed to provide basic academic skill development in reading, English, and mathematics for students with academic records in the bottom quartile of the entering freshman class. The program emphasizes student responsibility for learning and…

Students learn best when their physical, mental, emotional, and other needs are met, but schools rarely have the time and resources available to meet those needs. If schools can find a way to engage families and communities, students are more likely to succeed. But how? One answer is the community schools strategy. A community school has a set of…

More than 32,000 young people in the United States exit the foster care system in a typical year by aging out to independence (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2011). Despite available financial support for post-secondary education through the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, only 20% of college-qualified foster youth attend college and…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) requires local education agencies to provide students with disabilities exiting high school with a Summary of Performance document, which includes academic and functional performance information and recommendations for helping the student reach postsecondary goals. However, the federal mandate…