New York College Learning Skills Association

RTDE Issue Contents

Research and Teaching
in Developmental Education

Volume 17, Issue 2, Spring 2001

Developmental Reading Students and The College Experience
By Loraine Phillips, Blinn College

Abstract

Faculty interaction outside of the structured classroom and positive peer experiences in the early college experience of developmental reading students are important to their success. Pascarella and Terenzini's (1980) Institutional Integration Scales, used in college attrition studies, revealed some interesting correlations among developmental reading students. These Institutional Integration Scales consist of five subscales including institutional and goal commitments, academic and intellectual development, peer group interactions, interaction with faculty, and faculty concern for student development. From a review of survey responses from developmental reading students at a residential two-year college, great emphasis should be placed on student/faculty interactions and positive peer group interactions in the college experience.