Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Sheila Mosley
Committee Member
Sandra Ransel
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
academic achievement programs, attendance, community colleges, counseling, education, English 101, first-year college students, instructors, internet, learning, mandatory orientation seminars, media selection, mentoring, reality-based teaching, relationship building, retention, sequential learning, student retention, thematic teaching, writing comprehension skills
Abstract
This applied dissertation describes an academic achievement program designed to keep 1st-year college students eligible for continued learning. At the onset of the program, results of the English department’s records indicated that approximately 60% of the students enrolled in English 101 were not eligible to continue to advance in a sequential manner. This study identified the problem areas that confronted 1st-year English 101 students who did not successfully complete the course.
A creative teaching model was developed that sought to improve the attendance and retention rate of students. The project also sought to empower the students to be responsible and successful in their pursuit of an education. The objective was to develop and utilize a thematic teaching technique that would be mutually beneficial to students and instructors for an improved retention outcome. The various techniques included mentoring, counseling, relationship building, mandatory orientation seminars, and concentration on writing and comprehension skills through a reality-based teaching approach.
The interventions of this project helped to reduce the number of students who were not able to progress in a timely manner. The percentage of students who began the program and were ineligible to continue to the next course was 30%. This represented an improvement rate of 40%. This innovative teaching program could be expanded to other disciplines within the community college.