Book Description
The purpose of this mixed-methods participatory action research study was to explore the impact of learning communities on students enrolled in the lowest level of developmental math at a two-year college. The learning community consisted of twenty-three students who were enrolled in both a student success course (GEN102) and a developmental math course (MAT055). Quantitative data was collected ex post facto determine if there were differences in the success, retention, and persistence rates of students enrolled in the learning community section versus the non-learning community sections of developmental math. The study used both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics showed a positive difference between learning community participants and non-learning community participants along the dimensions of success and persistence, but a negative difference in retention. These differences were not found to be statistically significant. Qualitative data were analyzed from two independent sources: (1) a focus group interview conducted with 13 learning community participants at the end of the semester, and (2) the researcher's reflective journal. The themes that emerged from both qualitative data sources were used to deepen the understanding of the quantitative data and to inform the recommendations presented in this study to strengthen and scale up the institution's learning community program.