Date of Award
1-1-1989
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
John Losak
Committee Member
John Morgon
Committee Member
Philip H. DeTurk
Keywords
American students, attrition, cognitive learning strategies, college, college freshmen, collaborative learning, content-oriented instruction strategies, control group, credit hours, curriculum, course design, course impact, course pedagogy, course testing, courses, developmental studies, enrollment, experimental group, GPA, human information processing, instructional strategies, LASSI, learning behavior, learning tactics, metacognition, motivation, panel of experts, pedagogy, performance, placement tests, Piedmont Technical College, pretests, research design, retention, self-concept, standardized instruments, student application, student attrition, student failure, student learning strategies, students, study skills courses, teaching
Abstract
Many American students appear to learn orally and/or passively, often not linking new information to existing information, knowledge structures, or broader perspectives. National study commissions, researchers, and teachers point to a lack of systematic and comprehensive student learning strategies as a key contributor to the high level of student failure and attrition in college. Piedmont Technical College Shared this problem, with 23% attrition across two quarters and two-thirds of entering students requiring developmental studies.
Traditional study skills courses have proven largely ineffective in leading students to change their learning behavior. This development of research studies sought to determine the efficiency of course-based cognitive learning strategies within a content-oriented instruction strategies, as well as the instructional strategies.
Cognitive learning strategies were defined as grounded teaching strategies which emphasize the human information processing, metacognition, and learning tactics. Outcomes measure both cognitive, student application of such strategies, and affective, stronger student motivation and self-concept. The pedagogy emphasizes active learning, collaborative learning, and the application of learning.
The project explored the research question whether the well-known model, the was a significant increase in performance on eight shorter and longer-term and the variables between the 19 students completing the cognitive learning strategies, courses, and a matched set of 19 students were taking the courses.
The project required completion of 17 steps organized into five phases. The first phase, course design, required seven steps to specify course goals, clarify constraints, identify content and unit objectives, pinpoint course pedagogy, and create use and response to a panel of experts to critiqued this and other aspects of the project. The second phase, testifying, and sequence course activities and developers, instructor, and student materials, the results were submitted to the panel of experts and the materials were revised accordingly.
The third phase prepared for course testing to standardize instruments, LASSI and consequences, were used on a pre-post basis. Grades, course withdrawals, and student preparedness during the experimental quarter were also examined. The final three measures investigated course impact over a year's period in terms of GPA, credit hours completed, and quarters completed. The other two steps in this phase were selection of the experimental group through open college enrollment and of an individually matched control group. Matching was based on eight traits, three placement tests, course, quarters, and hours already completed, GPA to date, curriculum, and number of courses taken during the experimental quarter.
The fourth phase was to teach the course and document the events and results. The final phase was to collect and analyze the evaluation data and to make recommendations for course revisions.
The results supported three of the eight hypotheses: experimental and control groups upon entry were equivalent on 9 of 10 measures, quarters and hours completed, GPA to date, placement scores, curriculum, and pretests scores on the Lassie and consequences. Students in the control group were enrolled in significantly fewer courses during the experimental quarter.
Students in the experimental group showed statistically significant gains (.05 level) on three of eight measures: LASSI gain scores in quarters and credit hours completed over the following year. The measures favored the control group. Some of the findings support the course's value, though the impact seems greatest on self-assessment and measures of persistence rather than on measures of performance, e.g., long-term GPA. The results of the study suggest the usefulness of a cognitive, indeed-oriented learning strategies course for improving retention among college freshmen.
Comments
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