Browsing by Subject "learning assistance centers"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Mainstreamed academic assistance and enrichment for all students: The historical origins of Learning Assistance Centers
    (Research for Education Reform, 2004) Arendale, David R.
    Learning Assistance Centers (LACs) have become one of the most widely adopted approaches for providing academic support and enrichment for all students enrolled at a postsecondary institution. LACs were a natural product of historical forces influencing the college environment such as changes in federal policies, increases in federal economic resources, rapidly increasing enrollment, increased diversity of the student body, and mutually supportive alliances with other campus entities. Understanding the external and internal forces that helped to create LACs can also provide insight into new venues for transformation of them to meet future needs.
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    Postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs
    (National College Learning Center Association, 2018) Arendale, David R.
    Peer collaborative learning has been historically embedded in education. As both pedagogy and learning strategy, it has been adopted and adapted for a wide range of academic content areas at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels due to its benefits. The professional literature is filled with reports of individual instructors integrating this approach into postsecondary classrooms in diverse ways. This is due to claims by some programs that following their specific protocols increase student academic performance, persistence rates, and bolstering institutional revenues as a result. Rather than attempting to cover the entire range of collaborative learning practices, this section is focused on four national peer learning models. The four student peer learning programs selected for this chapter were the only ones that met the following characteristics: (a) implemented at the postsecondary or tertiary level; (b) clear set of systematic procedures for implementation to replicate by another institution; (c) evaluation studies have been conducted and available for review; (d) intentionally embeds learning strategy practice along with a review of academic content material; (e) outcomes include increased content knowledge, higher final course grades, higher course pass rates, and higher college persistence rates; and (f) replicated at another institution with similar positive student outcomes. The following programs met these seven characteristics: (a) Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), (b) Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), (c) Structured Learning Assistance (SLA), and (d) Supplemental Instruction (SI).
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    Postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs: Annotated bibliography 2018
    (Unpublished manuscript, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2018) Arendale, David R.
    This 2018 annotated bibliography reviews seven postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs that have been implemented nationally and internationally to increase student achievement. An extensive literature search was conducted of published journal articles, newspaper accounts, book chapters, books, ERIC documents, thesis and dissertations, online documents, and unpublished reports. Peer learning programs in this bibliography meet the following characteristics: (a) program must have been implemented at the postsecondary or tertiary level, (b) program has a clear set of systematic procedures for its implementation at an institution, (c) program evaluation studies have been conducted and are available for review, (d) program intentionally embeds learning strategy practice along with a review of the academic content material, (e) program outcomes include both increased content knowledge with higher persistence rates, and (f) program has been replicated at another institution with similar positive student outcomes. From a review of the professional literature, nearly 1,500 citations emerged concerning seven programs that met the previously mentioned selection criteria: "Accelerated Learning Groups" (ALGs), "Emerging Scholars Program" (ESP), "Peer-Assisted Learning" (PAL), "Peer-Led Team Learning" (PLTL), "Structured Learning Assistance" (SLA), "Supplemental Instruction" (SI), and "Video-based Supplemental Instruction" (VSI). Nearly one fourth of the entries in this bibliography are from authors and researchers outside of United States. Guidance is provided to implement best practices of peer learning programs that can improve academic achievement, persistence to graduation, and professional growth of participants and facilitators of these student-led groups. The literature reports not only positive outcomes for the student participants of such programs, but includes outcomes for the student peer leaders of these academic support programs such as skill improvement with leadership, public speaking, and other employment skills along with an impact of their future vocational choices including a career in teaching at the secondary or postsecondary level. Educators need to investigate these peer learning programs to discover effective learning practices that can be adapted and adopted for use in supporting higher student achievement for students of diverse backgrounds. [This annotated bibliography is a revised and expanded version of ED565496, ED545639, ED489957, and ED574832]