The purpose of this article is to explore SI's alignment to theories of adult learning and development which are the underpinnings of developmental education. We begin by identifying adult learning and development theories that have influenced the field of developmental education and then examine descriptions of SI in the literature to explore…

In the United States, students often graduate from high school unprepared to succeed in college. In Alabama, fewer than 25% of high school graduates are college ready. Frequently, unprepared students enroll in community colleges, which are tasked to help them transfer to a four-year institution or to enter the workforce. However, students who need…

Judged to be academically underprepared, millions of students must take developmental education in college, and more than half never make it through or graduate. Experts argue that there are two main problems: Too many students are being placed unnecessarily into developmental courses, and the structure and traditional instructional practices in…

This article explores and conceptualises the emergent and historic presence of a feminised pedagogical praxis in Australian Enabling (university access) programs. Analysing a participatory project at a regional university that sought to map these pedagogies, it specifically aims to visibilise the complexities of careful pedagogical practices which…

State community college systems and their two-year colleges have spent the 2010s reexamining and redesigning decades-old developmental education tracks to ensure students get what they need--and only what they need--with an eye toward moving them more quickly into college-level courses and, eventually, the degree or certificate they want.…

Research on developmental education reform has given surprisingly limited attention to what happens inside the classroom between faculty and students. Our qualitative study used interview data from 20 faculty and 20 students in corequisite math and English courses at one of the nation's largest and most racially diverse community college systems.…

Drawing inspiration from two foundational publications that put forth "Ten Recommendations" for supporting students' reading and learning, this manuscript provides an updated list of ten recommendations tailored for professionals in learning assistance centers. Given the ever-changing landscape of developmental education and academic…

This paper presents a framework for educators, administrators, and researchers to assess distinct facets of developmental education programs. The researchers review the literature on best practices in developmental education with regards to program cost, program structure, and student placement procedures. This paper also identifies seven model…

Many middle level teacher education programs attempt to explicitly address goals such as developmental responsiveness, empowerment and equity. Over the past 3 years, faculty at a regional comprehensive university explored perceptions of professional growth among middle level teacher candidates in a program that attempts to meet these aspirations.…

This paper focuses on two research-based frameworks that inform the design of instruction and promote student success in accelerated, developmental mathematics pathways. These are Learning Opportunities--productive struggle on challenging and relevant tasks, deliberate practice, and explicit connections, and Productive Persistence--promoting…

As developmental education practitioners in the midst of North Carolina's Developmental Reading and English Redesign, we are interested in researching best practices for instructional design and application. We discovered that the principles of reflective practice pervade much of the literature on program planning and practice, so we began to…

The Community College Pathways initiative consists of two pathways, Statway® and Quantway®, that accelerate post-secondary students' progress through their developmental mathematics sequence and a college-level course for credit. Launched in 2011, the Pathways have been remarkably successful, helping thousands of students achieve success in…

Sociocultural theories based on the work of Vygotsky have been increasingly influential in educational sciences. Developmental education (DE) is a pedagogical approach based on Vygotskian theory that has inspired primary schools in the Netherlands to change the learning environment innovatively in a comprehensive way. In this article, we focus on…

In this article I discuss the contributions to this Special Issue of "Language Learning" on orders and sequences in second language (L2) development. Using a list of questions, I attempt to characterize what I see as the strengths, limitations, and unresolved issues in the approaches to L2 development represented in this Special Issue. I…

Community colleges are open access institutions, striving to meet the needs of all students regardless of level of academic preparation or achievement. Community college student enrollment continues to rise; however, the success of community college students has not increased accordingly. A significant number of students begin at community…