Teaching Community College Students Strategies For Learning Unknown Words As They Read Expository Text

The study reported here investigated methods that enable college students to learn the meaning of unknown words as they read discipline specific academic text. The ability to read and comprehend text is known to be positively correlated with academic success. However that ability is challenging to college students in part because of the sophisticated vocabulary encountered in academic text. The study reported here utilized an experimental design. Forty one participants read specific passages aloud during three sessions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four intervention groups to investigate alternative methods of learning the meaning of unknown words. In the Strategies group, participants learned the use of context cues, morphological cues, and syntactic cues. Participants in the Definition group learned to use researcher supplied definitions. In the Strategies plus Definition group, participants learned to use both the strategies and definitions. Using a constructivist framework to create meaning while interacting with text, these three groups had time for practice and received feedback. Participants in the fourth group, the Control group, engaged in discussion of the passages. Intervention and outcome measures examined word learning and comprehension. All participants completed a transfer task to investigate the effects of treatment on independent text reading. It was expected that participants in the intervention groups would outperform participants in the Control group, and that participants in the Strategies plus Definition group would outperform participants in the other two intervention groups. Results were mixed. Analyses of data revealed that participants in all three intervention groups demonstrated significantly better word learning and comprehension as measured by definition recall, CLOZE and response to comprehension questions than participants in the Control group. Other measures did not support these hypotheses. There were also interaction effects involving time with treatment groups performing differently on intervention and outcome measures than on transfer task measures. In general participants in the intervention groups performed better during the first three training texts than during the final transfer task. Additionally, participants in the intervention groups did not perform significantly better on the transfer task than participants in the control group. Thus the word learning treatments and their impact on comprehension did not generalize to a novel task as was hypothesized. Results of this study contribute to the research by helping us understand the benefit of methods that enable college students to access academic text. Use of definitions and to a lesser extent, use of strategies, appear to have a positive impact on word learning and comprehension. The use of a combination of strategies and definitions also appears to have a positive impact but, with mixed results, this awaits further study

Teaching Community College Students Strategies for Learning Unknown Words as They Read Expository Text

An experiment was conducted to investigate methods that enable college students to learn the meaning of unknown words as they read discipline-specific academic text. Forty-one college students read specific passages aloud during three sessions. Participants were randomly assigned to three vocabulary learning interventions or a control condition. The interventions involved applying context, morphemic, and syntactic strategies; applying definitions; or applying both strategies and definitions to determine word meanings. Word learning and comprehension were measured during the interventions and in a transfer task to assess treatment effects on independent text reading. Results revealed that students in all three intervention groups outperformed controls in learning words and comprehending passages. However, the treatment groups did not differ from controls on the transfer task. Teaching both strategies and definitions was especially effective for learning unknown words and comprehending text containing those words

Investigating Writing Performance and Institutional Supports Among Teacher Candidates Who Transferred from Community Colleges

To provide a snapshot of the skills of community college students as compared to senior college students, this study investigated writing performance and college experience of initial two-year enrolled (community college transfer students, n = 17) versus initial four-year enrolled students (n = 12) in a teacher preparation program. Results of independent samples t-tests on in-class writing, research paper, and final score were non-significant (p =.28, p = .54, p = .15, respectively) indicating that two-year and four-year start teacher candidates did not differ in their performance on these assignments nor overall in the course. Qualitative data indicated that while both two- and four-year start teacher candidates had a positive writing identity during their first two years of college, the personal support that two-year starts had may be what enabled them to succeed and have a positive writing identity once they transferred to a four-year college. Implications regarding how to coordinate supports for transfer student teacher candidates will be discussed, as this is the very population of diverse students needed as PreK-12 teachers

Creating a Charrette Process to Ignite the Conversation on Equity and Inclusion

The gaps in graduation and retention rates between ethnic and gender groups continue to be a foremost area of focus at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), The City University of New York (CUNY). Equity and inclusion is also a critical concern as it relates to faculty and staff. At BMCC, a college-wide initiative, Designing for Success, is seeking to improve declining retention and graduation rates. At its core is the question, “Have we designed our operations to produce these results?” The answer is, “Yes”. BMCC’s Designing for Success strategic planning process seeks to re-design administrative processes and teaching in an effort to eradicate these gaps through efforts which include a community-wide discussion and action planning on equity and inclusion inspired by the charrette process. The charrette creates small groups that meet on more than one occasion to identify critical barriers to addressing equity and inclusion and develops action plans for addressing these barriers from stakeholders at all levels of an organization. This paper proposes that public scholarship is at the core of the charrette process, that it is uniquely appropriate for the higher education environment and moves the community from a “discussion” of the barriers to fully engaging the entire college community in meaningful action-oriented strategic planning

Teaching community college students strategies for learning unknown words as they read expository text

An experiment was conducted to investigate methods that enable college students to learn the meaning of unknown words as they read discipline-specific academic text. Forty-one college students read specific passages aloud during three sessions. Participants were randomly assigned to three vocabulary learning interventions or a control condition. The interventions involved applying context, morphemic, and syntactic strategies; applying definitions; or applying both strategies and definitions to determine word meanings. Word learning and comprehension were measured during the interventions and in a transfer task to assess treatment effects on independent text reading. Results revealed that students in all three intervention groups outperformed controls in learning words and comprehending passages. However, the treatment groups did not differ from controls on the transfer task. Teaching both strategies and definitions was especially effective for learning unknown words and comprehending text containing those words.SIN FINANCIACIÓNNo data 201

Investigating Writing Performance and Institutional Supports Among Teacher Candidates Who Transferred from Community Colleges

To provide a snapshot of the skills of community college students as compared to senior college students, this study investigated writing performance and college experience of initial two-year enrolled (community college transfer students, n = 17) versus initial four-year enrolled students (n = 12) in a teacher preparation program. Results of independent samples t-tests on in-class writing, research paper, and final score were non-significant (p =.28, p = .54, p = .15, respectively) indicating that two-year and four-year start teacher candidates did not differ in their performance on these assignments nor overall in the course. Qualitative data indicated that while both two- and four-year start teacher candidates had a positive writing identity during their first two years of college, the personal support that two-year starts had may be what enabled them to succeed and have a positive writing identity once they transferred to a four-year college. Implications regarding how to coordinate supports for transfer student teacher candidates will be discussed, as this is the very population of diverse students needed as PreK-12 teachers.SIN FINANCIACIÓNNo data 201