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Dinae Vukovich, Gene Beckett, and I met two week sago in Columbus to review a draft for the D.E. poster that Gene wants to produce. I was asked to explain to all of you what changes we thought were needed. What follows in this posting is the original draft and then my comments on the changes, which will be reflected in posting #2. ------------------------. What is "developmental education"? Developmental Education is a sub-field of higher education having a theoretical base in developmental psychology. It promotes the cognitive and affective growth of all adult learners, at all levels of the learning continuum. Developmental Education is especially sensitive to the individual differences and special needs of each adult learner. Developmental Education programs and services are structured and commonly include courses, tutoring, learning laboratories, diagnostic assessment and placement, and academic advising and personal counseling. What are the goals of developmental education? 1. to preserve and make possible educational opportunity for each adult learner (learner) 2. to develop in each adult learner the skills and attitudes necessary for the attainment of academic, career, and life goals (learner) 3. to ensure proper placement and thus academic success by assessing each adult learner's level of preparedness for college course work (learner) 4. to assist all faculty with the learning needs of their students (faculty) 5. to maintain academic standards by enabling learners to acquire competencies needed for success in mainstream college courses (faculty) 6. to enhance the retention of students (institution) 7. to provide work force development programs and services to the community at large (community) 8. to promote the continued development of cognitive and affective learning theory (the field) ------------- Commentary ------------- DEFINITION: "Sub-field of higher education" is too vague. We also agreed that developmental education is primarily a field of practice, where research in fields such as developmental psychology and learning theory is applied. We also dropped the term "adult learners" because it could be easily misinterpreted to exclude traditional college-age freshmen. I had a lot of trouble with the specificity of the statement "Developmental Education programs...commonly include courses, tutoring, learning laboratories...." I have worked for over a decade to get our campus to stop looking at us as the "tutoring office" and to start looking at us as the learning specialists. The services we offer far exceed the boundaries described in that statement, but this is a poster that I want hanging just inside our entrance as the first detail to catch the visitor's eye. We therefore focused more on the issues addressed by D.E. rather than the actual services provided. This will make the poster more versatile and more inclusive of even new strategies yet to be introduced to our field. ------------- GOALS: 1. Changed "adult learner" 2. " 3. Placement alone is incapable of "ensuring" academic success. 4. Possibly offensive to faculty even though they are generally not an overly sensitive breed. We simply knocked it out because it was already encompassed by #5. 5. Left it alone; don't make the mistake of assuming that we are only talking about entry-level courses! This one covers even Supplemental Instruction and the Triesman model. 6. Left it. Is "enhance" a strong enough word, though? 7. Dropped it. If some communities recognize the resource represented by our professionals, so be it and more power to them. Even better, some institutions may be able to afford the staff and resources needed to provide such programs. This will never be an emphasis of our program, and has nothing to do with our mission as determined by our institution. It does not define our field, either. Remember, we want this poster to stick to any program's wall. 8. Left it. Bet you can't wait to read #2 now! Did we miss anything? Personally, I still would like to stick the word "metacognitive" in there somewhere just because it's burning a hole in my dictionary. - Jim Melko