Annotated bibliography of postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs available online

As part of my scholarly and personal research interests, I maintain an annotated bibliography of 1,100+ publications about postsecondary peer learning programs. While I have posted it as a PDF online in the past, I am now making it available in multiple formats: PDF, Word, and EndNote database file as an open educational resource. You might find this useful when generating support for a campus peer study group program, writing an article, or your own professional interest. Nearly 25 percent of the citations are by researchers describing their findings with peer programs outside the U.S. Peer learning programs are a world-wide approach for higher student achievement and engagement as well as a powerful incubator for personal, educational, and professional benefits for the peer learning group facilitators themselves

What is a best education practice?

“Best education practices” is one of the most important, misunderstood, and misused concepts in education. I have been working with others for nearly two decades regarding the identification, validation, and dissemination of these practices. I define Best Education Practices as a wide range of individual activities, policies, and programmatic approaches to achieve positive changes in student attitudes or academic behaviors. This umbrella term encompasses the following categories that differ on the level of evidence supporting desired student or institutional outcomes: promising, validated, and exemplary

Fostering multi-cultural education with a learning assistance model that works: Supplemental Instruction

Through all the institution's process and products, multicultural education stresses respect for and understanding of cultural diversity and individual uniqueness. Multicultural education is not a supplementary area, rather, it is a process and philosophy with ideas that are broad and integrative. However, some see that patterns of resegregation have returned to some elementary and secondary schools since academic ability groupings often result in the separation of students by race and class (Edwards, 1991). It is difficult to promote multicultural education if the students are separated. Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a collaborative learning strategy that can help facilitate multicultural education as well as assist students in developing learning strategies that they can use to earn higher grades and persist longer in college

Words make a difference: The influence of language on public perception

Can a nuanced change of words make a difference to students, parents, and policymakers? Changing public perception with any concept or idea is difficult. Inaccurate prior information, memories, and prejudices are difficult challenges to overcome. The struggles within U.S. society concerning racial stereotyping, religious strife, and bigotry continue. As a historian, I see positive results for society when the majority becomes intolerant of language that categorizes and demeans people. The language usage changes described in the new glossary for developmental education and learning assistance provide another step to building a better and more productive society for all citizens

Postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs: Annotated bibliography 2018

This 2018 annotated bibliography reviews seven postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs that have been implemented nationally and internationally to increase student achievement. An extensive literature search was conducted of published journal articles, newspaper accounts, book chapters, books, ERIC documents, thesis and dissertations, online documents, and unpublished reports. Peer learning programs in this bibliography meet the following characteristics: (a) program must have been implemented at the postsecondary or tertiary level, (b) program has a clear set of systematic procedures for its implementation at an institution, (c) program evaluation studies have been conducted and are available for review, (d) program intentionally embeds learning strategy practice along with a review of the academic content material, (e) program outcomes include both increased content knowledge with higher persistence rates, and (f) program has been replicated at another institution with similar positive student outcomes. From a review of the professional literature, nearly 1,500 citations emerged concerning seven programs that met the previously mentioned selection criteria: "Accelerated Learning Groups" (ALGs), "Emerging Scholars Program" (ESP), "Peer-Assisted Learning" (PAL), "Peer-Led Team Learning" (PLTL), "Structured Learning Assistance" (SLA), "Supplemental Instruction" (SI), and "Video-based Supplemental Instruction" (VSI). Nearly one fourth of the entries in this bibliography are from authors and researchers outside of United States. Guidance is provided to implement best practices of peer learning programs that can improve academic achievement, persistence to graduation, and professional growth of participants and facilitators of these student-led groups. The literature reports not only positive outcomes for the student participants of such programs, but includes outcomes for the student peer leaders of these academic support programs such as skill improvement with leadership, public speaking, and other employment skills along with an impact of their future vocational choices including a career in teaching at the secondary or postsecondary level. Educators need to investigate these peer learning programs to discover effective learning practices that can be adapted and adopted for use in supporting higher student achievement for students of diverse backgrounds. [This annotated bibliography is a revised and expanded version of ED565496, ED545639, ED489957, and ED574832

Understanding the Supplemental Instruction model

It has been nearly two decades since Supplemental Instruction first in higher education. After starting at the University of Missouri-Kan in 1973, SI has been implemented at a variety of institutions across the States and around the world. Borrowing ideas from developmental psychology, SI has attempted to encourage students to become active investigators of strategies they have heard about from teachers and advisors. As new tional theories and practices have surfaced, the SI model has been ad incorporate the best in educational research. With the increasing diversity of today's college students and the alternative admission programs, the student body is continuing it's into a heterogeneous group reflective of American society. The pop professional literature often carries articles decrying the poor academic level of students or the poor quality of teaching by classroom pr Few solutions have been offered that work. From our point of view, that is moot. Many professors have tenure and colleges need all the stud they can recruit. Rather than blaming either party, strategies must b oped that allow students to succeed while ensuring that academic are maintained, if not strengthened. SI, as one component, can contr an overall institutional plan for student success

Using objective criteria to analyze interventions: Navigating through student retention literature

Many developmental educators have been assigned increased responsibilities for campus-wide enrollment management activities. A new system is needed for educators to sort through more accurately and analyze the rapidly growing database of information related to student retention. This will enable the reader to more quickly identify promising practices for further investigation. This article provides a series of criteria scales to evaluate the likelihood of success among potential programs and identify the needed resources by the institution to successfully implement change. Scrutiny of potential retention programs must be increased by asking more questions early in the investigation process

Directory of academic interventions and learning enrichment activities.

Selecting the appropriate academic intervention or making a change in institutional policies is contingent upon many factors. What is the unique academic and culture issues at the institution and which academic intervention is best fitted to meet those needs? Is there clear evidence that the intervention will contribute to higher academic achievement at a particular institution as opposed to its past success as the institution where it was first developed? What is the capacity of the institution to implement the intervention or policy regarding administrative support, faculty support, skill level of the intervention program, and the cost to implement and continue the program

Changing trends for administrative location of developmental education with an institution: A pilot study of NADE members

With this limited pilot study, conclusions about the data are carefully restrained. However, a couple of interesting observations can be made. Not surprisingly, the most common name of the departmental unit for NADE members is developmental education. The surprise was observing that the regular academic departments of mathematics, English, and humanities occur with such a high frequency. Boylan (2002) indicated that some shifting away from centralized developmental education units may be occurring. This preliminary study seems to confirm that among the top ten departmental names that NADE members receive their mail, only two have the words developmental education explicitly listed in their titles. It appears that centralized developmental education administrative units are becoming rare. As a pilot study, it suggests that further investigation is warranted. Some possible directions could be a more careful analysis of the original data set. Similar studies could be conducted with other professional associations in the field (e.g., College Reading and Learning Association, National College Learning Center Association). Follow-up interviews with a stratified sample of members could probe for the historic choices made concerning departmental names and whether changes have occurred in the intervening years

David Arendale’s 2017 Guide to iPad Apps

This document provides an overview of the iPads apps I have found useful as an educator and in my personal life. Most of the apps were free, some cost a dollar or two. Only a few cost $9.99. Many thanks to my colleagues in my home academic department of Curriculum & Instruction as well as the College of Education and Human Development staff within the Office of Information Technology at the University of Minnesota. I received good recommendations from them reflected in this document