Many college students struggle with the literacy skills needed to be successful in higher education (Bettinger & Long, 2009; Snyder, Tan, & Hoffman, 2004). The difficulties emerge within students' capabilities in reading and writing. Students must be taught the skills needed to be successful to complete the tasks assigned in college classes and in…

A successful lecture that includes meaningful class discussions requires students to be familiar with the topics covered in the assigned reading. However, because college students frequently do not complete such reading prior to class, instructors are faced with the challenge of finding methods that would encourage students to do so. The purpose…

This article describes how Fayetteville State University's Reading Across the Curriculum (RAC) model developed for use with underprepared students can effectively improve the literacy and academic language skills of those students. The primary goals and objectives of the RAC program are to train faculty members from various disciplines to create…

Teaching college students how to read online effectively is an important area of concern. Libraries have become digitized with online articles and e-books; e-textbooks are available and used; and instructors routinely assign online articles of some length. It is critical that instructors who teach reading at the college level understand the theory…

In this article, a model of intertextuality is introduced as an instructional approach for postsecondary developmental reading courses. This model involves a scaffolded, schema building approach to teaching college reading that aims to link core material (a text, a concept, or specific academic content) with supplementary texts that focus on…

A cohort of first-time, full-time, degree-seeking undeclared freshmen at a medium-sized university in Pennsylvania was used to study the relationship between tutoring and the retention rates and decision paths of undeclared students. Undeclared students who did and did not receive tutoring were tracked over four years to determine rate and…

The purpose of the present experiment was to determine whether using an active learning technique, electronic highlighting, can eliminate the negative effects of pre-existing, poor highlighting on reading comprehension. Participants read passages containing no highlighting, appropriate highlighting, or inappropriate highlighting. We hypothesized…

Adult learners that enter today's higher education community bring learning styles and life experiences that may either be critical foundations for future success or deeply entrenched beliefs that hinder learning in the academic environment. As adult learners enroll in their entry level courses, college instructors will need to realize that these…

Readers' beliefs about their understanding and test performance as a function of the reading purpose was examined. Participants read a series of expository texts for entertainment or study purposes, answered questions about the texts, and their beliefs about future and past test performance were assessed. The results showed that students believed…

While tutoring as a whole has been demonstrated to improve student learning across a variety of subjects and age groups, there is little published evidence for the effectiveness of drop-in tutoring at the undergraduate level. This type of tutoring can be derided as homework help; however, it is clear from this study that students who made use of…

The relationship between degree of academic support center use and college success was examined in a population of 262 college students with learning disabilities. Five years of attendance data and graduation rates were examined and submitted to discriminant function analysis to evaluate the predictive influence of academic support center use on…

This case study explores the impact of metacognitive reading strategies on the ability of five college students in developmental courses to self-regulate while reading. Instruction in reading strategies derived from past research on metacognition was scaffolded, based on Pearson and Gallagher's (1983) model of gradual release of responsibility.…

Written essays are a common feature of classroom and high stakes standardized tests at many age levels. However, little is known about how small alterations in the writing task affect students' writing, an issue made more important by the increasing use of task alterations for students with disabilities. In the present study, 140 college students…

The effectiveness of a postsecondary strategic learning course for improving metacognitive awareness and regulation was evaluated through systematic program assessment. The course emphasized students' awareness of personal learning through the study of learning theory and through practical application of specific learning strategies. Students…

Community college developmental education students face numerous obstacles as they proceed through their years of higher education. One specific area of need is students' inadequate vocabularies. Advanced communication skills are an integral part of higher education, so students may be at an academic disadvantage if these skills are not…