ERIC Number: ED555327
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 336
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 978-1-3034-2026-9
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Impact of Contextualizing First Year Composition for Occupational Program Students at the Community College: A Study of Student Learning and Student Perceptions
Parlier, Sarah A.
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Illinois State University
This dissertation reports on student learning and students' perceptions of learning in contextualized composition courses at a Midwestern community college. The teacher-scholar who conducted the research taught four different contextualized composition courses for occupational program students and collected various forms of data, including student writing, pre- and post-course surveys, pre- and post-course interviews, and her own reflections as the classroom teacher. Twenty-one community college students from four different Associate's degree programs participated in the project. The purpose of this dissertation is to establish the kinds of learning that take place in a contextualized composition course and to provide sufficient data to support institution-wide contextualization of composition courses for community college occupational program students. Student writing analyzed in this study provides ample evidence that students in contextualized composition courses meet course learning objectives, such as demonstrating an awareness of context and writing a precise thesis. Furthermore, survey and interview data demonstrate that occupational program students at the community college learn more than they expect to learn in their contextualized course, connect their composition instruction to both their career and their college coursework, value composition as a necessary general education course, endorse contextualized learning over traditional general education course delivery methods. The teacher-scholar provides her own reflections as the curriculum designer and classroom instructor in this study and discusses various pedagogical as well as administrative considerations for those interested in implementing contextualized composition courses at their community colleges. The researcher also shares how teaching contextualized composition at the community college influenced her praxis and her professional identity at her institution and in the academic community. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Writing (Composition), College Freshmen, Freshman Composition, Vocational Education, Associate Degrees, Learning Processes, Student Attitudes, Writing Attitudes, Context Effect, Curriculum Design, Theses, Student Surveys, Interviews, Community Colleges
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A