Best Laid Plans: How Community College Student Success Courses Work

Autor/inn/en	Hatch, Deryl K.; Mardock-Uman, Naomi; Garcia, Crystal E.; Johnson, Mary
Titel	Best Laid Plans: How Community College Student Success Courses Work
Quelle	In: Community College Review, 46 (2018) 2, S.115-144 (30 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0091-5521
DOI	10.1177/0091552118760191
Schlagwörter	Community Colleges; Two Year College Students; Qualitative Research; Case Studies; First Year Seminars; Theories; Cultural Context; History; College Freshmen; Success; Curriculum; Classroom Research; Courses; Observation; Semi Structured Interviews; Nebraska (Lincoln) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Community college; Community College; Qualitative Forschung; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; Theory; Theorie; Geschichte; Geschichtsdarstellung; Studienanfänger; Erfolg; Curricula; Lehrplan; Rahmenplan; Kursangebot; Beobachtung
Abstract	Objective: Beyond understanding whether first-year student success interventions in community colleges are effective--for which there is mixed evidence in the literature--this study's purpose was to uncover how they work to realize observed outcomes, including at times unanticipated undesirable outcomes. Method: This qualitative multiple case study used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to unpack interactions and tensions among programmatic-level features and individual-level experiences and actions. We conducted classroom observation, document analysis, and interviews with instructors and students in four student success courses across diverse contexts. Results: Regardless of particular designs and course emphases, we found in all cases a blurring of activity elements, wherein learning tools and learning goals were often coterminous, or instructors effectively took on the role of learning tools themselves, in the form of object lessons and mediators, for instance. Courses had a distinctive character as rehearsal for college that simultaneously created a welcoming peer environment but an uncertain learning and assessment environment. Contributions: Because of their nature as metacourses--college courses about college-going--success courses' means and ends ultimately may be functionally inseparable, thus helping to explain their continual evolution and contested roles. Whereas such courses are typically justified as means to teach college skills, we found this utilitarian rationale to be insufficient to describe the experiential dimensions of social learning that participants reported. Instead, we found these courses reveal how college-going is an emergent social literacy, one that a single course is insufficient to fully realize. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01