Set the Stage for Success

TITLE:

Set the Stage for Success - EAP 1620 & PPE 1005 Together Can Make It Happen

GRANT RECIPIENTS:

Miriam Abety – Natural & Social Sciences – InterAmerican Campus
mabety@mdc.edu
Cynthia Schuemann – ESL & Foreign Languages - InterAmerican Campus
cschuema@mdc.edu

ABSTRACT:

This Learning Community Project seeks to lay the groundwork and firmly establish EAP learning community sections at the InterAmerican Campus. EAP reading and writing courses have been successfully paired with General Education courses at Wolfson and North Campuses. This InterAmerican project can benefit from their models and enhance the dynamic with additional research into the specific language demands of psychology classes and the creation of learning resources for students and reference material for faculty.

The Level 6 EAP-PPE Learning Community Project will improve student performance in required General Education courses, enhance student retention in those courses, and motivate other EAP students who can look forward to a new and challenging learning opportunity in level 6 if they demonstrate strong performance in level 5. Former EAP students who have gone on to take content classes after completing level 6 have indicated that one of their greatest hurdles is being able to speak up and participate in their regular classes once they leave the safe environment of ESL. Lack of confidence about language abilities results in attrition for these students. The Learning Community Project will provide College faculty with needed background knowledge about true demands these students face and effective materials and instructional strategies to help students succeed.

PROJECT SUMMARY:

I. What the project is
Set the Stage for Success EAP 1620 and PPE 1005 Together Can Make It Happen has resulted in a firmly established EAP-PPE Learning Community at InterAmerican Campus. For both the fall and spring terms, 2005-1 and 2005-2, designated sections of EAP 1620 students also took PPE 1005. The two instructors and authors of this report, Schuemann and Abety, collaborated to ensure a meaningful connection between the courses by blending traditional elements of their course delivery with content-based applications in the EAP class and language/learning strategy support in the psychology class.

II. How the project was accomplished
Learning Communities (LC) linking psychology and advanced EAP classes were already in place at Wolfson and North Campuses; thus, their structures were used as models for the development of a similar offering at InterAmerican. Prior to offering the LC sections, we planned for curricular connections, and we also worked with advisement and registration to foster a smooth sign up process for the students. We monitored registrations through the Odyssey system. For 2005-1, twelve students took EAP 1620 and also enrolled in a section of PPE 1005. Although we had originally planned for the group to be taking EAP 1640 in the fall as well, some non-LC students were also registered into the EAP 1640 section so it could not be tied in. Coming to understand the need for careful monitoring of registration was part of our learning process.
            During both terms, we met on a regular basis to discuss how curricular connections were unfolding between the two classes, and student issues that arose. The courses were linked in several ways. Primarily, the psychology textbook was used as a vehicle for applying the learning of reading skills and vocabulary. Further, assignments and testing from the psychology class were used as authentic mechanisms to illustrate expectations in General Education courses. As personal psychology is just one field among many that the students will be exposed to, they also studied reading selections from other common disciplines and were able to compare and contrast writing styles, vocabulary usage, and content with selections from their psychology textbook. Student issues that arose included student uncertainty about some assignment expectations, and feelings of insecurity about speaking up in class among non-ESL students or being afraid to visit faculty during office hours. These academic culture concerns were addressed and reinforced in both classes in supportive ways. Another challenge identified by the EAP students was the amount of material to be read and learned that included many complex concepts. Professor Abety developed a glossary and housed it on WebCT as a useful student resource, in addition to many other support materials there.
            From these experiences, we have come to the conclusion that expanding the LC to include a writing and library component would benefit the students. This fall, 2006-1, we invited Erik Dominicis, library faculty, to join the LC. We offered CLP 1006 (new name for PPE 1005) + EAP 1620 + EAP 1640 + LIS 2004. The Internet Research course is one credit and substitutes for the EAP students writing lab requirement. We continue on a roll of learning through practice. So far, we think that this combination is doing even more to help the students in truly understanding their assignment expectations and fulfilling them in academically sound ways. For example, they are getting messages about plagiarism on three fronts as they work on writing a 2000-word research paper. They are gaining confidence and developing language, technical, and life skills. They are learning in a reinforced way in supportive environments with a network of classmates who are all sharing the experience.
            Two other elements of this project included a vocabulary analysis of the PPE textbook and a survey of PPE faculty on course expectations. Professor Juan Abascal from Kendall Campus was instrumental in working with the textbook publisher to provide us with a Microsoft word document of the chapters in the textbook. With this, we were able to run some of the pages through a software anaylsis to sort words in a selection as being high frequency, medium frequency, low frequency, or part of the academic word list of 570 words frequently found across common college disciplines. This analysis contributed to decisions about vocabulary instruction. A circumstance beyond our control affected this component of our project, however. The textbook authors were at work on a new edition, and it has just been published (August, 2006). It did not make sense to do a compete vocabulary analysis on the text we had available in spring 2006when we learned that a new edition was due out soon. Thus, the work on this area of the project will need to be revisited. The other research component of our project included a survey of PPE faculty from all campuses. We checked in Odyssey during the 2005-2 to compile a complete listing of both full and part-time instructors teaching the course. We created an on-line survey template and emailed all of the PPE instructors asking them questions about instructional practices, including testing and assignments. The data is to be complied so that a general picture of PPE expectations can be made available for others who would like to include this course as part of a LC.

III. How the project was assessed and evaluated
The project was assessed and evaluated per the outcomes/goals assessment statements we had listed in out project plan. As detailed below in the results section, we met all of the goals we specified, albeit some more completely than others. We still have some work to do on the EAP-PPE faculty handbook, and we intend to have this ready for our presentations on the project this spring, 2006-2. Overall, the results of the project evidence success.

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PROJECT RESULTS:

Project Results
So far, 34 EAP students have participated in psychology LC’s at IAC. Fall 2005-1 included 11 students, Spring 2005-2 included 11 students, and the current term, 2006-1 includes 12 students. For 2006-2, with a cap of 25 in the EAP sections, the classes are already full and one override has been signed. Thus, the goal of institutionalizing the LC has been met. As we have become established, knowledge of the offering has grown, and its increasing popularity is reflected in the 2006-2 registrations. We anticipate that this trend will continue.

As noted above, two additional courses are also now linked in the LC, EAP 1640 and LIS 2004.
The following list of results corresponds with the goal/outcome assessment list included in our original proposal.

1) Of the 22 EAP students who have so far completed LC’s, 20 successfully passed the PPE course with a grade of C or higher. This represents a 91% pass rate. Their grades in PPE included 13 A’s, 4 B’s, 2 C’s. Of the 2 students who did not pass, one earned a D, and the other an F. The one who earned an F stopped attending without notification midway through the term, and the one with a D stopped attending near the end of the term. These overall highly positive grade results evidence student success.

2) So far, we have been able to investigate the persistence of one group only, those who were part of the fall 2005-1 LC. From that group of 11, 10 have continued with the following General Education/major required coursework:
Student 1: CGS 1060, A; ENC 1101, C; SPC 1026, C; currently enrolled in PHI 2604.
Student 2: Currently enrolled in CGS 1060, ENC 1101, HUM 1020.
Student 3: CGS 1060, B; currently enrolled in DEP 2000, ENC 1101, MUL 2380.
Student 4: CGS 1060, A
Student 5: BUL 2241, A; ENC 1101, B; PLA 2003, A; ENC 1102, A; EDF 2930, A.
Student 6: CGS 1060, A
Student 7: ENC 1101, D; PSY 2012 F, SPC 2600, F.
Student 8: CHM 1033, B; DEP 2000, A; BSC 2085, C; currently enrolled in BSC 2086.
Student 9: CGS 1060, A;
Student 10: ENC 1101, A; SPC 1026, A; REE 2040, A; currently enrolled in BRC 2267, CGS 1060, and MAT 1033

Earning a college degree in a language that is not your native one is a great accomplishment. Of the 10 out of 11 original LC students from 2005-1, 9 are completing on-going coursework in a commendable manner. One, student 7, enrolled in courses the following term, 2005-2, and appears to have encountered some difficulty as this student earned a D and two F’s that term and never returned. This student had earned A’s in both PPE 1006 and EAP 1620 in 2005-1, so a life event could have interrupted her educational plan in 2005-2.
We will continue to track these 9 students, as they persist toward earning their degrees. Also, next term we will similarly follow the 2005-2 LC students. Some of the students from the 2005-1 group had to take some College Prep classes, and those are not reflected here. The most important finding at this point, is that 9/11 are continuing course work at the college as of this date.

3) An electronic survey of PPE faculty was conducted, and the evaluation of the survey results is still pending.

4) One article about our project has been submitted to Connections for publication. This is the College’s ESL-FL electronic newsletter. A copy of the article is attached. It shares the EAP side of the LC project story. A follow up article will be submitted to showcase the PPE perspective for the next edition of Connections. We intend to present sessions about the project at MDC Conference Day this March, and at the Sunshine State TESOL Conference scheduled for early May 2006 in West Palm Beach.

5) Curricular handbooks are still a work in progress. We have gathered many materials, as noted in our artifact list below. In order to complete the handbooks, we need to do some additional work with the new edition of the PPE textbook and work with faculty survey results.

Artifact list:
Registration Flyer
Syllabi
Exams
Materials
Article
Presentation Proposal

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PLANS FOR DISSEMINATION:

Plans for Dissemination

As noted in item 4 above, we have prepared two articles for Connections, and we are submitting proposals for two presentations, one at MDC Conference Day and another at Sunshine State TESOL.

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