Using a qualitative approach based on grounded theory, this study explored the best practices of educational technology implementation in 2-year community college writing centers utilizing interviews with writing center administrators. Sociocultural development theory, as well as social learning theory, were applied to frame the results. Each…

In the article "Understanding Writer Center Use among Community College Students," Christina Savarese addresses the reasons students use the writing center, understanding those reasons, and using them to identify ways the writing center administrators and tutors can better serve their student population. Additional research findings…

Self-efficacy in writing is increasingly studied among undergraduates; however, less is specifically known about the variables that are associated with community college students' confidence in their capacity to succeed on writing assignments. In this study, 434 community college students who have completed at least one semester of a freshman…

The problem addressed in this study was that teachers have been challenged to implement effective strategies in recent years at a local community college in the southern region of the United States with a 47 to 49% student failure rate in developmental English. The purpose was to investigate the challenges encountered by developmental English…

Community colleges across the United States are increasingly linguistically diverse, with populations that often include immigrant students who have grown up with a language other than English but have spent a significant part of their childhood in the U.S. and as such received a substantial part of their -K-12 education there. In this paper, we…

Using a qualitative approach based on grounded theory, this study explored the best practices of educational technology implementation in 2-year community college writing centers through a series of interviews with 13 separate 2-year community college writing center administrators. This study utilized Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural development…

In recent years, increased attention has been paid to mental health struggles among students, and a range of interventions have been proposed to improve student retention and learning through "trauma-engaged pedagogy" and "cultures of caring." Drawing on the insights of affect theory, we argue that such a focus, although…

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the effect of instructional scaffolding on information literacy skills of college students in an English Composition I (ENG 101) course at Urban Community College in the Southeast. Information literacy is defined as a set of skills to recognize an information need as well as locate, evaluate, and…

Limited research examines writing tutors' self-efficacy, or how tutors believe "in their abilities to produce given attainments" (Bandura, 2006, p. 307). This qualitative constant comparative study explored self-efficacy's impact on tutoring strategies writing tutors use in recorded digital tutoring conferences with community college…

The five-paragraph essay is highly controversial, and yet it has also been a useful format for composition. In this essay we explain why, despite its limits, students need to go along with the format to make what use and get what advantage of it. We then demonstrate that valuing the philosophical, historical, cultural, and educational backgrounds…

As a community college writing instructor, I found older students to be both an asset and a mentor in guiding students through the process of exploring their lives and values.

Writing Intensive (WR) High Impact Practice (HIP), which incorporates Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT), was applied to written assignments in Human Biology and Anatomy and Physiology II (A&P II) courses. As part of our study sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), certified AAC&U Valid…

Community College Written Communication 1 (ENC) instructors encounter complex challenges when attempting to teach writing skills to diverse student populations. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the perceptions of full-time community college ENC faculty and determine the instructional strategies they use to…

The purpose of this study was to measure to what extent an experimental method of teaching argument incorporating elements from both Toulmin's (2004) structural approach and Walton's (2013) dialectical approach effects first-year college students' ability to write strong arguments. This experimental instruction used critical questioning as a…

Situated in Hong Kong's considerably limited discourse on sexuality, this paper aims to examine how introducing the topic of masturbation into our college's gender-and sexuality-related course created pedagogical conundrums (in the words of Kathleen Quinlivan). We discuss how attempts to confront these conundrums enabled us to begin the journey of…