Developmental Education

Many of these definitions originate from Dr. Barbara Bonham, as presented to the 2012 Maricopa Summer Institute.

• Mainstreaming developmental students into college level courses with co-requisites.
• Integrating basic skills instruction into college level occupations courses that are taught by college technical faculty and developmental educators.

CTL is an approach to teaching which helps teachers relate subject matter content to real world situations and motivates students to make connections between knowledge and its application to their lives.

• Based on cognitive science, constructivism, & experiential learning theory
• The mind seeks meaning in context and looks for relationships
• Students discover meaningful relationships between abstract ideas and practical applications in the real world
• Encourages students’ engagement and responsibility for learning

• Foster student engagement
• May improve persistence
• Increase interaction between students, faculty and students, and faculty with other faculty
• Link courses in which skills and competencies complement each other
• Scheduling can be a problem
• Difficult for working students to participate

Integrating Web 2.0: wikis, blogs, Animoto, Flickr, YouTube, Xtranormal, etc.

Structured Learning Assistance helps students:

• Apply what they learn in class
• Learn from a variety of instructional approaches and resources
• Do homework in a structured environment with assistance available
• Ask questions and discuss confusing information
• Acquire course related study skills and learning strategies to be more successful learners in the course

• Student involvement and responsibility for learning (Learner-Centered Instruction)
• Group activities
• Interaction in class between teacher and students and between students
• A set of teaching methods to encourage students to take more ownership of the course

• Shifts teaching methods – more in class time for conversations between teacher and students
• Encourages more student engagement in class
• More time on concept development and higher order skills
• Students watch lectures at home at their own pace, communicating with peers and teachers via online discussions
• Concept engagement takes place in the classroom with the help of the instructor

Supplemental Instruction (SI) targets high-risk courses with large withdrawal and failure rates. SI sessions are led by peers and are not mandatory.

• SI, based on 25 years of research, is one of the most widely validated techniques available
• Results show improvement in student performance, achievement, and retention
• SI integrates how to learn with what to learn