| This case study examined developmental community college readers' perceptions of self as readers and perceptions of self within a group, before and after participating in cooperative learning. Developmental reading students are an underrepresented population at many community colleges across the United States (Norman & Hyland, 2003; Boylan, Bonham, White, & George, 2000). These students come into college underprepared. They have lower levels of self-efficacy, lack of motivation, confidence, and lack of positive experiences with reading strategy use (Boylan, Bonham, White, & George, 2000).;During the course of one semester, the researcher collected data from four sections of a developmental academic literacy class at a large mid-eastern community college to determine if there were any positive effects from students participating in transformative experiences such as critical reflectivity/metacognition, self-efficacy, persistence in working towards goals and cooperative learning activities. Data were collected using a pretest-posttest survey along with two self-evaluative writing samples.;Results indicated that participants experienced positive changes in perceptions of self as readers and perceptions of self within a group. There were also significant changes in self-efficacy, positive interdependence, promotive interaction, and group processing skills. The results suggest that developmental community college readers benefit from cooperative learning in the classroom. |
