2020 Draft glossary of essential terms for learning assistance and developmental education (4th ed.)

Abstract

The purpose of this glossary was to identify and describe education practices that improve academic performance, close the achievement gap, and improve persistence towards graduation for low-income, first-generation, and historically-underrepresented college students. Keeping current with the rapid changes in the field of developmental education and learning assistance is essential. Words make a difference in policy discussions and the practical guidance of campus activities. The rapid changes in learning pedagogies, delivery systems for courses, and language use evoke strong emotions for many within the profession, including those involved with this glossary. It may not be our choice to change, but this glossary is our response to the rapidly–morphing landscape of postsecondary education, our field in particular, and the larger society in which we live. In this fourth edition of the glossary, one area that has been significantly expanded is vocabulary related to culturally sensitive pedagogies that emerged during the 1980s and 1990s. Examples of these include: critical literacy, critical pedagogy, cultural competence, cultural differences, cultural literacy, cultural sensitivity, culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally responsive pedagogy, culturally sustaining pedagogy, inclusion, inclusive pedagogy, multicultural developmental education, multicultural education, and social justice. The second new area in this edition are approaches for offering the curriculum other than the traditional academic term-length developmental-level course. Examples of these include accelerated developmental-level course, acceleration, acceleration through curricular redesign, acceleration through mainstreaming, college access, compensatory education, compressed developmental-level course (or skills instruction), contextualization or contextualized learning, co-requisite paired course, course redesign, differentiated placement, embedded academic support, emporium-style model, flipped classroom, gateway course, Gateways to Completion®, guided pathways, integrated reading and writing, modular instruction, non-course competency-based option (Texas), nontraditional model (Texas), stacked course, stretched course, and students as partners. The third area for glossary expansion are those related to academic integrity and intellectual property rights. These were written in a more accessible style than the formal definitions from law reference works. Technologies such as text scanners, photocopiers, printers, and downloadable files from the Internet have made it easier to make mistakes with use of copyrighted instructional materials both for use in the classroom as well as placement on the Internet for use by others. Examples of these terms include attribution of intellectual property, copyright, copyright infringement, Creative Commons licenses, ethical standards, inadvertent use of copyrighted material, instructional materials, intellectual property use copyright, liability exposure, literary property, literary property use copyright, plagiarism, professional liability coverage, open access, open educational resource (OER), and public domain. A fourth significant change for this edition is its scrupulous avoidance of deficit and less acceptable language to describe students. In this edition, asset-based language is used to reflect accurately our students and their capabilities. Throughout history, it is words and phrases have been replaced by newer ones. The older words become less acceptable since they can lead to misinterpretations or have become by today’s standards of usage as inaccurate or perceived by others as discriminatory or racist. This glossary does not make judgements of the authors using those terms. Popular and professional literature is filled with those phrases. However, we move forward with recommended language that is more accurate, affirms student capabilities, and avoids offense to others. Examples of these deficit and less acceptable language includes academically underprepared student, college-level student, developmental student, diverse student, high-risk student, majority or minority student, person/student of color, remedial student, and special population. (Method) The sample for the glossary is based on the previous three editions of the same glossary with new terms added with this document. The glossary terms have been reviewed and approved by multiple members of an external expert panel of qualified reviewers. All of them have served as administrators of their campus developmental education and learning assistance programs. Their practical experiences and keen insights have made this set of glossary terms invaluable in the rapidly changing nature of postsecondary and tertiary education. We owe much to the dedication and expertise of the authors, editors, and external review teams of the first three editions of this glossary. [This directory is a revised and expanded version of ED589760.]