Increasing Community College Basic Skills English Instructors\u27 Use of Autonomy Supportive Instruction to Impact Students\u27 Perceptions of Autonomy and Engagement

Abstract

There is concern in California community colleges about student success because persistence rates have decreased and graduation rates have declined. Basic skills students are underserved and underprepared, and their success rates are lower than traditional students. Nine California Community College Student Success Task Force recommendations were designed to increase basic skills student success. In this quasi-experimental study three basic skills English instructors were trained on two of the six autonomy-supportive instruction strategies. The training design was based on characteristics of effective ASI interventions and addressed recommendations to improve community college basic skills instruction with professional development on research-based pedagogies. The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of instructors\u27 use of autonomy supportive statements that nurtured students\u27 inner motivational resources and that provided informational feedback on their students\u27 perceived autonomy and engagement. Instructors attended a training session and two coaching sessions facilitated using ASI strategies. Data to measure instructors\u27 autonomy orientation were collected using a slightly modified Problems in Schools questionnaire and transcriptions of instructors comments during classroom instruction, that were coded on the ASI Observation Coding Guide, a new instrument based on the literature. Student autonomy and engagement was measured with a new instrument, the Student Learning Survey that combined autonomy items from the Learning Climate Questionnaire and classroom engagement items from the National Survey of Student Engagement. Results were compared between groups and across measurement times for control and treatment groups. Results showed that treatment instructors increased use of autonomy supportive statements and decreased use of controlling statements. Students reported higher perceived autonomy and increased engagement immediately following treatment, compared to pretest, but perceptions returned to pretest levels at the maintenance measure 3 weeks after posttest. Limitations were related the small population of instructors and a small student sample with missing data due to inconsistent classroom attendance. Suggestions for future research include replicating this study with a larger sample, providing scaffolds for faculty to sustain their provision of autonomy during maintenance, and providing an internet-based student survey available over a short amount of time to reduce the amount of missing student data