What matters most when it comes to increasing achievement and student success in the developmental classroom? Recent reform efforts in developmental education have brought sweeping changes in some states. New curricular pathways, redesigned courses, and a handful of new instructional delivery methodologies have been the result. Although these are…

The nature and role of developmental education classes are under tremendous scrutiny across the nation today. Specifically, students are entering community college and four-year institutions of higher education unprepared to understand and apply much of the reading material presented to them in college-level classes. This article describes the…

Teaching developmental writing courses is a high-wire act, complicated by its need to balance both rudimentary skill-building and college-level writing preparation. However, many developmental writing instructors spend most of their time on the former, focusing on rote memorization of grammar rules and sentence skills development, which often…

Teaching circles are an innovative mechanism to support faculty and improve student learning. This article describes the use of instructor teaching circles to support math-anxious students at a mid-sized urban university, including the purposes, formation, and sometimes surprising outcomes associated with using this method. Teaching circles for…

An understanding of the role of metacognition--thinking about thinking--is a fundamental aspect of the theoretical base of most textbooks for college reading and study strategies courses today (e.g.,Veenman, Van Hout-Wolters, & Afflerbach, 2006). The theme we seek to develop in this article is that elements of what make a reading and study…

Newspapers are an effective educational and motivational tool in developmental reading classes. However, many students are unfamiliar with newspapers and read them infrequently. In order to foster newspaper reading and familiarize the college freshmen enrolled in their developmental reading classes with newspapers, the writers of this article…

Using technology in a developmental classroom, particularly a classroom platform such as WebCT, can help provide a sense of community in a developmental writing course. The rationale for designing a hybrid developmental writing course is discussed as well as the ways in which students perceived themselves as "real writers" as a result of…